Town Drunks - Paperback

A woman recalls her childhood of trauma and joy in small-town Minnesota post-WWII. Her father battles scars seen and unseen from surviving the Bataan Death March and 3 1/2 years in a Japanese prison camp. Her loving mother, a Chicago city girl who loves lipstick and pretty clothes, is spurned by the farm women while her father drinks and carouses with the farm men and a local woman or two. Volatile flashbacks of war send dishes, pies, and chairs flying, and windows breaking while her mother, sister, and herself flee until it is safe to return. Gossips, struggling families, and friendships bring this town alive and real. This tiny town has more than its share of town drunks causing havoc on their own families. The drunks are so predictable you can set your clocks by them. All the while, the sisters climb trees, go swimming, hike, roller skate, stare at clouds, and dance in the rain. The two sisters dart between the trauma episodes in a contrasting and unique mosaic of childhood.