A Midwestern Memory
a Baby Boomer's Reminiscence of Growing up, as he Attends his Mother's Funeral.
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About the Book
The story revolves around the sudden death of the author's mother. The author is a middle aged business man living alone in Southern California at the time of her death. To arrange and attend her funeral, he returns to Stanton, Illinois, now considered a suburb of Chicago, the town where he grew up in the 1950s.
During the days of the funeral preparation, he spends time with his father, and looks back on the way he was raised, and the man he has become as a result. Events of the funeral cause flashbacks that cover a variety of humorous events, such as, a vacation that involved his truck driver father trying to drive around all of the Great Lakes, only stopping when the family Buick station wagon needed gas.
Infatuated with the Beatles, and determined to become one, there is a flashback of the reaction of his father when the author attempted to purchase his first guitar.
This is a Midwestern family of devout Catholics, and there are several looks back on the author's experiences as an Altar Boy, involving being disciplined by the Nuns for using his ruler as a guitar, and a profound fear of statues. As a child, many people thought the author would end up becoming a Priest, because he had a complete Altar set up in his bedroom and held daily Masses with neighborhood kids (obviously bored with Summer vacation), in attendance. Other days, actual funeral ceremonies, with processions, were held for dead birds found in the neighborhood.
The author returns to the Church of his youth to make the funeral arrangements for his mother, not only triggering these and other memories, but realizing what this church, this town, and the people in them really mean to him now.
About the Author
William Kleiser is a frustrated musician, songwriter, woodworker, and author. He has written numerous unheard songs and unread short stories. At age 51 he decided it was time to write a memoir that would be of interest to no one. He was born and raised in Elgin, Illinois, and now resides in Sacramento, California with his wife, Laura.