A delightful and humorous narrative of award winning artist Gil Garcia’s early life as seen through the eyes of a child growing up in his 1940s south central Los Angeles neighborhood. These Forty-four charming stories will warm your heart and leave you laughing out loud.
The Tom Sawyer of South Central is the best way to describe this little guy who manages to find himself in impossible one of a kind situations that will leave you smiling as he visualizes for you, and so descriptively beautiful, a neighborhood's panorama of life as seen through eyes of a child.
Gil's parents, his warring brothers, two sisters, a Dutch priest, and a English Sheep dog make up the cast of characters in this entertaining collection. It's Gil's parents' love for one another that shields this family through tragedy and the hardes of times. Memories fade, then blend into the next, and a delightful narrative begins to emerge that reminds the audience of the exuberance of youth.
Be prepared to fall in love with this boy, for these forty-four charming short stories will warm your hear and leave you laughing out loud.
Excerpt
On other nights, you might find a neighbor kid in our front yard leaning his head and forearm against the tree, counting with his eyes tightly closed as the children dispersed in all directions.
"Twenty-four, twenty-five," he would count. The giggles and laughter of the hiding children would subside to whispers as the neighbor boy neared the end of his count, and then...absolute silence. He would then quicken the count: "Twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty; here I come!"
Under the dim streetlight, he quickly turned to begin his search while listening for any clues as to where the children of Parmalee Avenue were hiding. It's a scene that has been played out for many generations, in every suburb of every city throughout the United States, children sharing the hours before bedtime. For these children the reality of war was a thing of the past or a newsreel at the Saturday matinee. For these children there was only the present, moments of innocence, moments to make memories that would last a lifetime. As the evenings grew colder, the last holdouts of the streets retreated indoors to join their families for quality time around the radio to be bonded in mystery and laughter.
Professional Reviews
Loving our Past
This book made me vividly relive the 1940's, so it's on my top five books ever read. It described the upside of a family, and even a generation, of having less, so creating more. There are some hilarious situations that are one of a kind.
The wise, good-natured parents you can enjoy vicariously or remember your own.
I'll never forget little sensitive Gil and his warring brothers.
This is a book club's dream for discussing values and how they have evolved .
Timeless treasure
I spent this indulgent morning reading my copy,laughing & smiling the whole way through; I even christened it with joyful tears. Thank you Gil for sharing your beautiful memories of your whimsical childhood with the world! This is such a treasure families everywhere can share always.
From a bookworm!
A lovely and refreshing look at a family's history written through the eyes of a child. Gil Garcia's "first book" is a joyful experience for any reader! LOVED it!
Inside the Methadone Clinic. Addiction to heroin, methadone, and other opiates. Destruction. The primal addiction" of the child, power and control over your own life, the institutions and the characters, the love between a mother and son. This book i
Rosetta was born in 1909 as the youngest of ten children. The family had more laughter than money and neighbors would knock on their door to ask, "Can we come in and laugh, too?"
