Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories and Other Disasters

 

By Jean Shepherd

A collection of humorous short stories by Jean Shepherd, mainly based on his years growing up in an industrial town in Indiana, eight stories altogether.

• The Grandstand Passion Play of Delbert and the Bumpus Hounds — A large family of 'hillbillies' moves in next door to the author's family. Between the packs of angry dogs, the drunken parties, the shouting and the piles of junk and trash, the author's dad is almost at his wit's end when the Bumpus folks vanish in the night.
• County Fair! — a trip to the county fair in the 1930s which revealed to me that county fairs haven't changed much in almost 100 years. One of the best stories and the most realistic story in the collection, I think.
• Scut Farkas and the Murderous Mariah — a top battle, top as in the spinning toy. This one was a struggle for me, because I had no idea what the author was talking about, top battles? Also, basically a sports story of scant interest to  me who cares not for sports.
• Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss — loading up the family car for a trip to Clear Lake to spend a couple of weeks in a rustic cabin. An ordeal that many of us have had to endure in our lives. 
• The Star-crossed Romance of Josephine Cosnowski — a Polish family moves into the neighborhood and one of the kids is a teenage girl about the same age as the author and she is undeniably attractive. Author asks her out on a date finds out a lot about the girl and her family and he gets cold feet.
• Daphne Bigelow and the Spine-chilling Saga of the Snail-encrusted Tinfoil Noose — the author has a crush on his biology lab partner, Daphne, and works up the courage to ask her out on a date. He realizes he is out of his league when he arrives at Daphne's home and it is a mansion, with servants and a Cadillac and driver. 
• The Return of the Smiling Wimpy Doll — the author, now an adult and living far from his childhood home, receives a package from his mom containing his childhood toys and he has a blast rediscovering these treasures from his youth. A really sweet story that made me sad because all my childhood mementos were thrown away by my mom when she moved and it never occurred to her to ask if I wanted any of it. 
• Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories — returning to the author's childhood and it is time for his high school's Junior Prom. Time for fancy clothes and figuring out who to date and how to get there and all the fun before and after Prom. A bittersweet story, as I never attended a Prom or a high school dance. 

All these stories are fun and bring back memories on one's own childhood and teenage days. Really, things haven't changed all that much since the 1930s, in many ways! 

Here is a review of the book by Kirkus Reviews.

In God We Trust : All Others Pay Cash

 

By Jean Shepherd

A collection of humorous stories about a kid's life in a Midwestern industrial city in the 1930s, written in the 1960s. The stories are supposed to be fiction but are loosely based on the author's childhood in Hammond, Indiana. 

The main character, Ralph Parker, returns to his hometown of Hohman, Indiana and pays a visit to a local bar where an old friend of his now works as bartender. Together they chat and recall the good old days as kids roaming the streets of a very grimy city where the main industry is steel production. Pollution often figures prominently in his descriptions of his Hohman. 

The first story tells of a young boy's desire for an air rifle and how he finally gets one, only to nearly shoot his own eye out.

Next, Ralph desperately wants a Little Orphan Annie secret decoder pin. Little Orphan Annie was one of Ralph's favorite radio programs and it was sponsored by Ovaltine, a malt beverage mix. To get the decoder pin, you had to send in a proof of purchase from several containers of Ovaltine. But Ralph's mom never buys Ovaltine. 

The next story is the tale of a blind date when Ralph is fourteen years old. It doesn't go quite as he thought and he finds out something rather devastating about himself.

The next story is a fish story. It's a bit strange, more odd than amusing.

Next is maybe one of the most famous stories in the book, the Leg Lamp Story. Although he never names the soft drink, it's Nehi. And at one point it did feature a woman's stocking-clad leg on its label. I don't know if the Leg Lamp really was a prize offered by Nehi in a contest, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was. 

All in all, the stories are interesting and mildly amusing and a look back at time nearly a hundred years ago.