Set in the last half century of transformative cultural change, a memory-keeper shares personal voyages of discovery voice-talents-self-love] beyond traditional boundaries of gender and culture. An engaging and wide-ranging coverage of how the times affected the author and the country that offers guidance today. Special features: Excerpts from 40 years of writing/journaling, useful web sites, historical timelines, and a Book Club Discussion Guide.


Part 1 is an extended eulogy to the immigrants and an active childhood in the south Bronx spent playing on the streets without constant adult supervision: Johnny pumps, stickball, the ice-man, horse drawn vegetable and fruit wagons, mal occhio, bocce, macaroni in numbered boxes, Uncle Dan the bookie, and Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra at Yankee Stadium. Part 2 details the impact of the famiglia's relocation to suburbia, the quick addition of two siblings, and coming of age during the relentless cultural upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s: Watts riots, assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, Vietnam, Kent State, Neil Armstrong, Woodstock, and Watergate. Part 3 is a bridge to today and life after work and parents.


From chap 1: Meant to be a chronicler
"I didn't love him until I had my fourth or fifth child."
It was one of those times when the message arrives as a blow. I unconsciously tensed to lessen the impact of my beloved grandmother's frank admission, and felt the air forcibly expelled from me. For a few moments, I could not breathe or hear. Even now, decades later, my hands tremble as I type the words.
My grandmother, in essence, was a mail order bride.