Click here to buy this book! Amazon Lulu Category:  Literary Fiction Publisher: Lulu ISBN-10:  978055723379 Type: Fiction Pages: 168 Copyright: 2010 ISBN-13: 9780557243310 WorldWar II was over and the good times were here! Life couldn't get much better for Herbie Miller; radio, a nun with a mustache and rol-poly bugs. Follow Herbie as he grows and stumbles his way through life, friendships, mistakes, and redemption. Share the 'good ole days' with Herbie, and a peek into the transformative years of Rock-n-Roll, Top-40 radio and beyond. Get to know Herbies friends and family. Forget the pressures of today and enjoy this story of a time when life was not necessarily better, just different, in a good way.  SAN FRANCISCO / SACRAMENTO / PORTLAND                           BOOK REVIEW                                  Those Radio Days By A.S. Merwin Lulu.com, $15.99, 168 pages   Amazon Star Rating:  4 out of 5   Radio seems to be rarely explored as a background. It just doesn't seem as lively a setting as, say, a television studio. This is a shame, as Those Radio Days shows. The book follows the early life of Herbie, from kindergarten to college, with all of his misadventures in between. It's an interesting and fun little trip.   Although it has a good rhythm, this is definitely not a book for kids. The issue is not swearing or graphic violence (there is some of the former and little of the latter), but rather the frank nature of the sex; although muted in later chapters, the sex is rather explicit, and may turn away some readers due to the young age of the participants. Although it does set up Junior Ellsworth as a force in Herbie's life, even when he is absent, it could have been done a little differently and still have been effective.   However, past that, the book is an excellent story of a young man with some interesting issues. It's always interesting to see what makes an artist do what they do, and this is definitely that. Herbie's twin fascinations with radio and baseball, favoring the former because of a childhood illness, make for interesting reading. With the major events given a baseball announcer's voice backing them, and the history of his issues with his father, it makes for interesting reading. As Herbie grows older and finds his footing, it is like following a boy you want to succeed; you celebrate when he does, and cringe when he screws up. For those interested in why radio was and is a force in our lives, this is an enjoyable trip for a quiet afternoon.     Excerpt “No one ever keep a secret so well as a child.” - Victor Hugo CHAPTER 1 Monday was a sweltering August day. I was laying in the yard watching a roly-poly bug struggling its way across the trampled crabgrass as it headed toward the cool underside of the lawn shaded by the flower bed alongside our house. I was in a near trance, mesmerized by the movement of the insect, when out of the corner of my eye I caught sight of Mrs. Ellsworth hanging her laundry on one of the many community clotheslines. Junior Ellsworth’s mom was a short woman in her forties and a bit overweight. She was wearing a faded yellow sleeveless housedress and I could see her tattered underwear as the hot wind caused the dress to billow when she tiptoed up to hang clothing on the line. WHAM! Something jolted my little body and I was fearful that it might be God punishing me for unintentionally looking up Mrs. Ellsworth’s dress––but it wasn’t divine intervention, it was only Junior Ellsworth who smacked me on one of my legs, which I had bent upward as I lay facedown on the grass. Did I mention that I was all of four and one half years old then? My dad had recently returned from World War II, and like so many other veterans, had decided to relocate in California’s Great Central Valley. We lived in a government-sponsored housing project and there were kids everywhere. War babies we were called. Moms stayed home raising families, while dads went off to work to support those families. The housing project had a fancy Spanish name. It was called Valle Grande. There wasn’t really anything grand about it. All of the houses were either fourplexes or duplexes. We lived in a duplex. Living next door to us in one of the fourplex units was Junior Ellsworth. Junior was Donald Oscar Ellsworth Jr., but all of the kids just called him Junior. His 2 * Those Radio Days dad was the assistant fire chief of the local volunteer fire department. We were so fascinated with his dad’s Fire Chief car that was always parked in the driveway that we never really knew what his dad did for a full-time living, when he wasn’t volunteering at the fire department. Junior knew how to intimidate with his mere presence. He stood glowering down at me with his left hand raised in a fist and a finger up to his lips demanding that I be quiet. He motioned for me to follow him to his front yard––out of sight of his mom. Did I also mention that I was both in awe of and afraid of Junior? He was the big kid in the projects who taught us things that we had no business knowing. When I say he was big, I mean BIG! At 13 years old, Junior was already close to six feet tall and weighed just under 200 pounds. He was the neighborhood bully! He made all the younger kids sit quietly and listen to everything that he wanted to tell us. He had us convinced that he would kick our butts if we ever told any adult about the secret stuff he taught us. When I reflect back now, I realize that Junior was actually the devil incarnate. Maybe God should have intervened then. When I approached Junior, he grabbed me and pulled me behind a large oak tree. “Did you like what you saw peeking up my mom’s dress, you little freak?” I began shaking like a dog trying to crap a peach pit, because I knew that Junior was about to follow through on his promise to kick my butt. He called me a freak! I knew I was in trouble, but I managed to get the words out. “I wasn’t looking up your mom’s dress. Honest Junior! I was watching roly-poly.” “Junior placed his hands on his hips and towered over me and said, “Bullshit Herbie!” He grabbed the front of my overalls. “I saw you looking up my mom’s dress and I bet you don’t even know what you saw. Do you?” I had my hands covering my face in case he hit me, but I didn’t get slapped or slugged, so maybe I had this all figured out wrong. I put my hands down and said, “I do too know what I saw, Junior.” I was looking for a way to run from this menacing teenager, but he had just latched onto my overalls shoulder strap to prevent me from trying to get away. He pulled me back and almost picked me up, just to let me know that he had me right where he wanted me. “Okay smarty, tell me what A.S. Merwin * 3 you think you saw and I bet a gazillion dollars that you’re wrong, you little creep.” Junior normally didn’t bet a gazillion dollars if he was wrong, but I had to show him that I was right and I was not a little creep. “Shows you what you know Junior. I wasn’t looking up your mom’s dress. The wind blew it up when she was on her tippy toes putting your shirts up. That’s when I saw your mom’s panties and they had holes in them.” Boy was I proud of myself for standing up to Junior. My friend Amelia Johnson walked up to us. “Hi Herbie, hi Junior. Whatcha doing? Whatcha talking about?” Amelia had to be the prettiest girl in the neighborhood––at least in my four-year-old eyes. She was also four and a half, and I really liked her. Amelia always wore her hair in cute pigtails with pretty pastel color ribbons tying them. It’s true! Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. As young as we were, she was a knockout to me. Amelia had two big sisters and a mom who were all as pretty as she was. I just stood there with a big grin on my face. Junior spoiled the moment. He shook me and slapped me alongside my head. “Pay attention now Herbie and don’t you cry or I’ll let you have it harder. You better admit it. You were looking at my mom’s twat, weren’t you? I was wiggling and pulled free from his grasp. “No Junior, I don’t know what you mean. Honest, all I saw was your mom’s panties.” Junior had a deep voice and a laugh that was sinister. He bellowed a malicious chortle and almost choked. “Hey Amelia, stupid Herbie doesn’t know what a twat is.” I wasn’t about to be embarrassed in front of Amelia. “How do I know that? I’m only four and a half. I haven’t learned that yet.” Junior watched his mom go inside their house and then he latched onto my overalls strap again. “Well Herbie, today’s your lucky day. You’re going to learn all about twat today.” With a death grip on my overalls, he pulled me along through the back yards toward the Oriental Garden, a large expanse of agricultural land behind the projects. To help conceal his actions, it was a washday and he was able to walk us unnoticed behind an ocean of sheets waving in the slight valley breeze. Curious Amelia followed ever so obediently.

Sacramento/SF/Portland Book Review
Those Radio Days
By A.S. Merwin Lulu.com, $15.99, 168 pages
Amazon Star Rating: 4 out of 5
Radio seems to be rarely explored as a background. It just doesn't seem as lively a setting as, say, a television studio. This is a shame, as Those Radio Days shows. The book follows the early life of Herbie, from kindergarten to college, with all of his misadventures in between. It's an interesting and fun little trip.
Although it has a good rhythm, this is definitely not a book for kids. The issue is not swearing or graphic violence (there is some of the former and little of the latter), but rather the frank nature of the sex; although muted in later chapters, the sex is rather explicit, and may turn away some readers due to the young age of the participants. Although it does set up Junior Ellsworth as a force in Herbie's life, even when he is absent, it could have been done a little differently and still have been effective.
However, past that, the book is an excellent story of a young man with some interesting issues. It's always interesting to see what makes an artist do what they do, and this is definitely that. Herbie's twin fascinations with radio and baseball, favoring the former because of a childhood illness, make for interesting reading. With the major events given a baseball announcer's voice backing them, and the history of his issues with his father, it makes for interesting reading. As Herbie grows older and finds his footing, it is like following a boy you want to succeed; you celebrate when he does, and cringe when he screws up. For those interested in why radio was and is a force in our lives, this is an enjoyable trip for a quiet afternoon.