This book is the second in a series. The stories within these first two books comprise the memoirs of the author’s teen years and early adulthood. Timelines in the books overlap and stories in this book sometimes refer to stories in the first book. It is not possible to create a running explanation of the connections without creating some fairly awkward summaries of the earlier stories. We must assume the reader has also read the first book.
The author grew up in the postwar years of the ‘40s and ‘50s, mostly on a Northeast Ohio farm. His graduating class of 1960 had 76 (or 78) members. He went to college, joined the Army, went back to college, married his college sweetheart and earned a graduate degree and... that’s another book. Through all of that, he never thought of his life as exciting, or even interesting. He lived the life of a farm kid, with daily chores and special projects as invent. . .er-r, developed by the Old Man or his mother. His brother was less than two years younger than he, and competition between them was fierce.
In this book, you'll travel to Washington on a tour bus with Mr. Larlham's Senior Class friends, and you'll discover a way to relax between Senior Finals,
As Mr. Larlham grew older, conversations with his friends began to include the dreaded phrase, “When I was a boy...” followed by a story his friends found interesting, amusing, heart-wrenching or uplifting. People began telling him he should write some of them down, so he did. The internet provided an audience, and it was suggested he put them into a book. He did, and in 2013 the first The Old Man and Me was published; now the second. In this book, high school years are rounded out, and he eventually escapes the emotional and social disaster that was high school. . .only to become immersed in the deep waters of a college whose classrooms are primarily filled with Preppies.
