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Overview
In the days before television and supervised athletics, boys had to create their own amusements. In the Great Depression, when Paxton Davis grew up, this was doubly so.Davis was born into an enclave of relative prosperity in Winston-Salem. Baseball, Cub Scouts, summer camp, radio serials and newspaper routes were the stuff life was made of. Davis recalls these years with grace and humor. Times and circumstances change, but there is always something to be celebrated in a boyhood fondly remembered, always something to be mourned in its passing.
"A meticulous, loving reconstruction of his early years. A delicate portrait of a vanished age." (Kirkus Reviews)
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
Modestly titled, this charming memoir of an almost idyllic boyhood in Winston-Salem, N.C., in the 1920s and '30s is captivating. Columnist for the Roanoke Times and World-News Davis writes of a ``sweet, safe, innocent America'' when, relatively untouched by the Depression, the sons of upper-middle-class families played baseball and football unhampered by the strictures of Little League or Pop Warner League and lived for their Saturday-afternoon visits to the movies to watch their cowboy heroes. There were other diversions as well, including Davis's attempts to set up a detective agency to capture John Dillinger, joining a Boy Scout troop better known for its spirit of fun than for winning merit badges and attending summer camp. And then there were the less attractive features of life, like memorizing a catechism and going to dances at the local female academy. Anyone over 60 will love the memoir. (September)Book Details
Published
December 31, 1998
Publisher
John F Blair Publisher
Pages
253
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780895871688