Riding Shotgun With the Moon' is a memoir of a genuine Baby Boomer's recollection of growing up in Middle America before zip codes; when telephones were most often connected to party lines and consisted of 4 digits, then 5, then on; when letters were the standard form of communication (long-distance calls were costly!) and it would be days or even weeks before the reply - but we were fine with that. We learned the Dewey Decimal System so we could more easily mine the stores of information in our local libraries.
And yet we had wonderful fun in an America that was hard to imagine now. No electronic games, so we played with other kids. Neighborhood baseball teams changed players daily and we survived without insurance, membership fees or lawsuits. We didn't hear about everything bad anywhere in the world as soon as it happened.
We had just won the war to end all wars! Things were looking up, we were the Good Guys, and the world was starting to rebuild. We were taught to read and write and do math by head and hand. Some children were left behind if unready to move ahead. Contests had 1, 2 or 3 winners and the rest of us lost. Not everyone got a trophy - and that was OK!
It couldn't last it seems, because there was a gunshot in Dallas one day that blew away our young dreams.
Songwriter John Stewart wrote the following lines:
"I remember America
I remember it well
When you could walk downtown in the middle of the night
Without the smell of fear on your shoulder
I remember America
I remember every town
When crack was the sound that caps would make
In the only guns that kids would have around
I remember America
I remember my friends
I remember America
And I want to be safe again"
As Bob Dylan (now a Poet Lauriat!) wrote, "The Times They Are A-Changin'" And the author has offered here one man's Episodes In An Otherwise Ordinary Life"
