When I Was A Boy

About the Book

When our children were small, I used to sit on their beds each night and tell them stories of my childhood.  I tried to put a moral in each little tale, to demonstrate how their father was rewarded for his good deeds - real or imagined.

That, at least, was the plan.  Our children were avid listeners, alternately giggling or holding their breath while I described how I was made to crouch under the teacher’s desk, or how I nearly lost my life in a Pennsylvania coal mine.  I told them about President Roosevelt coming to our town and my mother driving an ambulance during WWII.   I wrote about serving as an altar boy, knitting a scarf for our butcher and seeing a washed-up body on the beach.   Mostly, I wrote of the loneliness in a family torn by war and in need of love.  This volume is the result.

When my son was away at college, he asked me to write to him - but not - he said, boring letters which recounted where family members had gone during the preceding week, or listing what we purchased at the grocers, or whatever else most people fill their letters with.  Instead, he wanted me to write down some of the stories I used to tell in the voice of a small child while sitting on his bed at night - the ones he called Dad’s “When I Was a Boy” stories.  

About the Author

Michael D. Langan was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1937. He grew up in one of its suburbs, Lackawanna, New York. He is a graduate of Canisius College and S.U.N.Y. at Buffalo. Dr. Langan served in public and private education for a quarter of a century, 1959 - 1984. In 1984, he moved to Washington, D.C., where he held several posts with the federal government. He retired from the Department of the Treasury in 1999. Dr. Langan has written short stories for the BBC World Service, articles for The Boston Globe and numerous book reviews, stories and op ed pieces for The Buffalo News.