SLIPPING THROUGH THE CRACKS A Memoir by Ron Roberts What is happening here? Why did these bizarre events take place? At the heart of this story is a mystery, an absorbing question regarding what is going on within its setting. It's a question I have not answered myself, so I leave it to the reader as a puzzle to occupy the mind. Is it simply another story of the consequences of war, or is there some more perfidious plan in the background? Or is the journey from Family to Funny Farm, giving voice to a relentless downward spiral orchestrated by a person within the story disguised and not named? These are matters I leave to the reader as I'm at the close of its telling unsure myself. As I begin the story, I had in mind to tell it as simply Autobiography, as it progressed I found it was becoming, on at least one level, a picture reflecting those often ignored years following World War Two, a personal testament rescued from a time rarely referred to & rarely documented. It is the story of a young Australian's struggles to survive the streets of Sydney & the severities of Bush life after leaving school at thirteen almost entirely illiterate. The time is the nineteen fifties as the country begins to put feelers out to a larger world beyond its island boundaries. This was a world where values were so very different to those of contemporary Australia, as I wrestled with a post-war outlook of a country looking backwards to regain a sense of national identity. A world before television, supermarkets & practically anything made of plastic. To have got lost in this world was for me a full on war staged within a life that had spun out of control, fighting to prevent a personal, inevitable spiral descent. The mix of horror & humour within these pages will involve you I'm sure; it has the taste of its time. It's a frightening "Coming of Age" book, a short read, full to the brim with life, humour & hardship. An extraordinary personal journey that ranges from farce to anguish beyond belief, yet all is true, it all happened.