Boom Town Boy

by Deyonge, Jack

• ISBN13: 9781935347064
• ISBN10: 1935347063
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-07-01
• Publisher: Epicenter Pr

Summary

This is the witty, ironic, and deliciously outspoken coming-of-age memoir of Jack de Yonge set in Fairbanks, Alaska -- a once thriving little mining town slowly dying in the remote center of the vast territory in 1934. As Jackrs"s dad liked say, no matter what direction you went out of town, you soon arrived in Nowhere.Then, World War II breaks out, and the Japanese attack Alaska. The sleepy little river town springs back to life with the arrival of thousands of U.S. soldiers, Russian lend-lease pilots, and construction workers who keep the red-light district busy and the bars rocking around the clock.The son of a hardwareman at the N.C. Company and a black Irish daughter of the gold rush, de Yonge is a fist-fighting, music-loving altar boy who discovers his own truths about sex, religion, racism, and how the world works. His earthy story describes how war arrives in a small Alaska town next to Nowhere-and nothing is ever the same again.

Author Biography

Jack de Yonge is retired newspaper reporter-editor, political-environmental activist, and avid fly-fisherman who lives with his wife, Sonjia, in Concrete, Washington.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 8
Map	p. 10
Explosive Day One	p. 13
Little Eva	p. 21
Baby Jack	p. 32
Earthquake	p. 38
My Disappointing New Brother	p. 40
Will Rogers, Wiley Post, and Me	p. 43
Breakup	p. 47
A Drowning	p. 54
Going Outside	p. 59
Dad's Surgery	p. 72
Killer Whales	p. 76
Kindergarten	p. 82
My First Grayling	p. 95
Grouse Hunting	p. 98
War	p. 105
An End to Innocence	p. 115
Photo gallery	p. 119
Mrs. Ford	p. 141
Brawls and Fistfights	p. 153
Peddling Newspapers	p. 161
Altar Boys	p. 176
Natives	p. 183
Pro Station	p. 194
Harding Lake	p. 203
Mr. Bean	p. 210
Boy Scouts	p. 217
My First Moose	p. 224
Music and Miss Weller	p. 227
Hatless Joe and his Ferrets	p. 232
Charlie Main's Wonderments Store	p. 235
Doing a Man's Job	p. 238
Boyhood's End	p. 241
Epilogue	p. 246
Index	p. 251
About the Author	p. 254
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