ABOUT THIS BOOK

As a young boy, Dave Crehore moved with his parents from northern Ohio to the shipbuilding town of Manitowoc on the shores of Wisconsin’s Lake Michigan, where the Germanic inhabitants punctuate their conversations with “enso,” the local radio station interrupts Beethoven for commercials, and the outdoors are a wellspring of enlightenment.
Crehore’s stories of his youth in 1950s Wisconsin are peppered with engaging characters and a quiet wit. A grouse-hunting expedition goes awry when an eccentric British businessman bags an escaped bantam rooster with a landing net. Crehore's great-grandfather gets in trouble one Christmas when he sneaks a whoopee-cushion under a guest’s seat. The elderly Frau Blau gets trapped in an outhouse by a shady auctioneer during a farm sale. Through all the adventures—and misadventures—in a small town and in the great outdoors of Wisconsin, family is always at the center. This gently humorous look back at a baby-boomer’s awakening to adulthood will be appreciated by members of any generation.

Honorable Mention, Kingery/Derleth Book Length Nonfiction, Council for Wisconsin Writers

Finalist, Humor, Midwest Book Awards

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Dave Crehore served as public information officer for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources for thirty years. His stories have appeared previously in Wisconsin Natural Resources magazine and Shooting Sportsman magazine. He lives in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

REVIEWS

“I savored every page. Every time I sat down to read this, I wanted a wet dog at my feet, a crackling fire, a good cuppa Joe, and Mom’s pot roast in the oven.”—Mel Miskimen, author of Cop’s Kid: A Milwaukee Memoir

“Crehore’s affectionate—and frequently amusing—recollections of his transplanted boyhood years in Manitowoc will captivate a generous spectrum of audiences, from readers with roots in Manitowoc and rural Wisconsin to those concerned about the demise of childhood as it was once lived in America.”—David Rozelle, professor emeritus, University of Wisconsin–Richland Center

“These vignettes life-lovingly recall the days when the bass just wouldn’t stop biting, when baseball cards were collected because you were a true fan of the game, and when a grandfather might actually deploy a whoopee cushion on freeloading, self-important guests.” —Susanne Skubal, Voyageur

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Beans for Breakfast
The Fanny Farmer Mystery
The Viggle Years
The Christmas When a Lot Happened
The Digging Out of Nip
The Century Run
Sacrificing Sweet Sixteen
The Fine Art of Forgetting
The Secret Smallmouth Lake in the U.P.
The Butternut Buck
The Celebrated Water Witch of Door County
Lucky Thirteen
How Now, Frau Blau?
The Dorking Rooster-Catcher
The Man of Action
No Fair!
The Wanderer
Sweet and Sour Pie
Envoi

Glossary

REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE

If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you with an electronic file for alternative access.

Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.

It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.