Boys, Bumps & Blood: A Minnesota Childhood Memoir 1937-1952 | Historical Autobiography Book for American History Enthusiasts | Perfect for Book Clubs and Midwest History Studies
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SKU:37002750
Product Description
For Clarence, a two-year-old Minnesota boy, the terrible twos were terrible. His mother was killed in an auto accident, boiling water scalded his arm, and a rooster nearly pecked out one of his eyes. Things weren’t much better at six. Tumbling into a stream, a broken bottle pierced his elbow and doctors contemplated amputating the arm. At eight, his luck changed. During a summer at an Ojibwe Indian camp, he took on a new identity as White Eagle, found friends, developed skills, and gained wisdom from a 103 year-old Indian lady named Grandma Baker—experiences that forged a self-reliant character which allowed him to adapt to being shuffled off to live in an orphanage and with a series of relatives. The book chronicles the childhood of Paul C. Slayback, a young boy who grew up in northeastern Minnesota in the 1940s. Slayback tells entertaining stories of growth and learning, triumph and tragedy, victory and defeat. His earthy and vulnerable voice elicits empathy and laughter, and rekindles memories of a simpler time. Losing a mother, living with relatives, gaining a friend, swimming down the Mississippi, diving off high cliffs, ski-jumping off a mountain, squaring off with a bully, working on a farm, falling in love before he even imagined love, a dance with religion, discovering the soothing comfort of nature, fishing, and hunting with a dog. Slayback's stories are timeless tales of boyhood from another era.
Customer Reviews
"Hi" Paul...I am the 5th of 6 'kids' from The Holte family (page 171 in your book: Boys,Bumps & Blood.) I read your great book which brought back a lot ofmemories of you at our home on Decker Road. I remember you and two of my brothers Danny and Bobby spending a lot of time together as well as the time my sweet mother Esther spent teaching you some of her talents in the kitchen. I have to admit that when I read chapter 47...The Fire...I cried. I remember that day like it was yesterday. I remember the firemen putting salve on my brother's backs where the hot tar had burned them. I also remember my Mom giving the firemen cookies...cookies that she had baked earlier that day.Reading the chapter (34) about my dad, Melvin, shooting the renegrade bull gave me a little time with him again...the time was only in my heart and memory but precious time none the less. My father passed away 50 years ago next month (April 1963) but some of his legend lives on in your book...Thank you.Your book was impossible to put down...You are a talented writer and story teller. I sent copies of your book to my two grown children Teri and Tim...so they can read what life was like back then. My three remaining brothers have read your book too...we have spent time on the phone reminiscing and enjoying your stories.I enjoyed reading all of your book...not just the parts that included my family. I am looking forward to your next book...I'm sure it will be just as awesome as Boys, Bumps & Blood.
