A bitter-sweet memoir in the style of Jean Shepherd, PLAYING WITH FIRE hearkens us back to the 1950s, when neighborhoods were not yet the 'hoods, ' when fathers worked all the livelong day and mothers baked cookies over the hot stove in the kitchen, and when kids were set free every day to explore the dark world of bullies; of the dozens of unleashed German shepherds, bulldogs, and other Hounds of the Baskervilles roaming the streets; and of the 'off-limits' hot-spots like the cave, the cliffs, the dams, and the trestle (all with no more than a cheerful, "Just don't forget to be back home by bedtime, Honey "). Somehow, in spite of all this, a handful of us baby-boomers managed to survive. This is the story of one of them...