The Chili Cone Chronicles

Book excerpt: In The Chili Cone Chronicles, Michael Winslow shares his remarkable story of growing up and coming-of-age in a small midwestern town during the tempestuous, whirlwind time of the 1960s. Funny and poignant by turns, Winslow offers a memorable journey through the mayhem as he relies on the comfort of his family, oddball friends, and small-town charm to make everything right in his own little corner of the world. Against a backdrop of calamitous world and national events, Winslow recalls the cocoon of his youth on a sane island at the twilight of corner grocery stores, passenger trains, drive-in movies, and greasy spoons. While it may be true that you can never truly go home again, Winslows stories awaken the child within, providing glimpses into a fading way of life filled with such delights as eating an ice cream cone filled with hot chili, surfing Suicide Hill in flattened cardboard boxes, and feeling the exhilaration and pulse-quickening excitement that accompanied boxcar running in the dark of night. Thoughtful, warm, and full of hometown vignettes, The Chili Cone Chronicles will compel the willing to recall their own budding youthand the events, places and people that were a part of it.