In this delightful and revealing memoir, Grafton Thomas recounts his generations-spanning passage from a boyhood in a small Illinois town, where his friends could safely roll "rigamagig" wagons down the middle of the streets, into an adulthood as a quiet crusader for social and racial justice, battling successfully against a crime syndicate that stretched from his small town into the governor's office, and less successfully against the Daley political machine in Chicago. Join this 20th century journey through America's heartland, from the bad--a "rite of passage" in the rugged Canadian north from which one boy never returned, a sudden expulsion from a parish, facing a death threat, and struggling to save a dying church--to the good--integrating Campbell Soup and other successful struggles towards racial justice, lifelong friendships, and a love that has lasted for nearly 75 years. This is the American Century through the eyes of Grafton McCready Thomas--"Mac" to most.