The Life and Times of the Last Kid Picked"Awjeezma!" was the universal dissent, whined--repeatedly if necessary--at an unreasonable mother who wanted the vacuuming done now-not-next-year or a pile of encrusted dishes washed or the sputtering heater refueled. "Awjeezma! Do I gotta?" "If I have to tell you one more time--" "Awjeezma! Awright! Jeez!" Through the telling of his own madcap childhood, David Benjamin pays homage to the exuberance of countless untamed boys who grew up in Middle America in the 1950s. Whether he's stalking frogs through the bogs of Tomah, Wisconsin, playing four-kid baseball with his bothersome little brother and two favorite cousins, or sneaking into the theater to watch Saturday afternoon Westerns, Benjamin is the kind of little kid who eagerly would have fallen in with the redoubtable Tom Sawyer. His tales--including one about a truly sorry incident with Snappy, the snapping turtle, and another about a run-in with a particularly fiendish squirrel--are by turns hysterically funny, caustic, aggrieved, and movingly sincere. Traversing the nooks and crannies of kidhood, from ballfields to swimming holes, The Life and Times of the Last Kid Picked captures a moment in twentieth-century American life, as Benjamin magically recalls the myriad scrapes, intrepid adventures, and wanderlust that once made childhood such an exhilarating enterprise. |
Contents
WE GONNA GO FISHING? | 55 |
AWJEEZMAA | 115 |
SWING YOU STINKIN PUSSY | 163 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
Aston ball baseball baseball glove Ben-Hur Bill Blomeier bloodsuckers bluegill Bob's Bobby bounced boys brother catch Catholic Claveria Council Creek Danny Crawford dead Dick Biondi duck Earl Gillespie Ed Gein Eddie Mathews Erwin eyes Fat Vinny Father Mulligan Feeney feet field finger fish flyball football Fuchs Gein Giles Hamilton girls glove gonna grade grownups Gunderson hand head hunting inches Jesus Kevin kicked kid's Kiegel knew Koscal Lake Monona Lake Tomah legs Little League looked Mary's Miller School Moose Moose's movie never night Okay Overacker Papa Phillies pitch play players playground Publics Rocky Rudy shit Sister Claveria snapper Snappy squirrel Sternweiss Stitch Street summer Superior Avenue tadpoles teammates thing titmouse Tomah High School Tony DeMarco took touchdown tree turtle waiting watch Waunona Wayne Westwick week white bass window yards Yeah
References to this book
A Word from Our Viewers: Reflections from Early Television Audiences Ray Barfield No preview available - 2007 |