A Boy's Journey Through the Great Depression

About the Book

A Boy’s Journey is the poignant, often humorous, memoir of a child growing up in the Midwest during the 1930s and early 1940s. The boy’s story initially focuses on the joys and sorrows of a motherless working class family striving to cope with the hardships of the Great Depression. However, the chronicle takes a macabre turn when the boy´s alcoholic father loses his job and attempts to commit suicide. The boy and two of his brothers are taken to the county orphanage. The author’s bittersweet account of his life in the orphanage and subsequent experiences as an adopted teenager concludes as the Depression ends and he enters the U. S. Navy during World War II.

About the Author

Historian Jack Paquette retired as vice president and assistant to the chairman of Owens-Illlinois after 33 years of service to that company. Author of three other books on the history of the glass industry, he also has written a widely acclaimed memoir about growing up in the Great Depression.