"Her name was Eve and she spent her long days toiling in the Garden of Eden. Actually her name was Eva, my Hungarian grandmother, and, well, she did spend her days toiling in the Garden of Eden." So begins one of the 20 stories the author relates-a tapestry of memory that moves from the post-war 1940s to the end of the explosive 1960s. Here are accounts that touch on "Frosty the Snowman" and an ill-fated Christmas pageant, First Communion and other harrowing tales of a Catholic boyhood, anti-Commie Joe McCarthy on TV, the sensational death of Marilyn Monroe, the exotic allure of Brigitte Bardot on the movie screen, the KKK in North Carolina, the Kennedy assassination, a wedding at the National Press Club, and even the farewell tour of Diana Ross and the Supremes. Some of these tales are humorous or farcical, some sad and melancholic, some downright satirical, and some-maybe just a bit tragic. Anecdotal, colorful, speckled with contemporary observation, together these recollections depict one man's take on the dynamic world he lived in. Through it all, he knew he was having the time of his life.