This memoir is centered on a young boy in his first school experience in a Parochial School. You will laugh as you read this book. The "times" were a challenge. There is no despair here. Suitable for any age.
Prohibition, the crash of 1929, the Depression, repeal of the 18th Amendment (Prohibition), and a very early Alcoholics Anonymous group provide backdrop for the story. From well-to-do circumstances, the boy's family are reduced to eating from 'bent'n rusty 'cans of vegetables obtained for 2-cents each at a local A&P canning factory. Making himself useful in nearby homes improves the boy's diet. Mowing lawns, shoveling sidewalks and selling magazines like Colliers, The Women's Home Companion and American Magazine, door to door, help with pocket money. Decoration Day (now Memorial Day) is particularly poignant, as an impressionable boy is turned free for one whole day to observe the GAR (Grand Army of the Republic), the Spanish American War vets, and the newly returned 'doughboys' of World War I, pass by in the local parade to the town Cemetery. Learning Latin for the Mass, and reciting Walt Whitman's "O Captain, My Captain" for his Sisters of St. Joseph teachers are student experiences. Double Dare You with other boys enliven challenges. Despite the 'times,' the Sisters are the guiding lights when family pressures threaten stability.There is a lot of joy in this book, and a hilarious episode on a morning twilight 'trap line.'
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