Fool's Hill: A Kid's Life In An Oregon Coastal Town by QUICK, JOHN

Oregon State University Press, Corvallis: 1995. Softcover. Brand new book. John Quick is Garrison Keillor with an attitude and Fool's Hill is his quirky childhood autobiography. The setting is Port Orford, Oregon, in the mid-1930s to -40s. Here a curious, blabbermouth boy learns more at the bottom of a ditch than in kindergarten and finds real home in a booth at Red's Bar holding hands with Dorothy, whom he is never supposed to talk to. Meet Skippy the dog and Bruno the Terrible Bear, Moran the Mystery Man and Grandfather Frank the pyromaniac. Learn about human bones, Parker's solid Gold Meteor, double homers, "Turd" McCormick's wagon, chicken massacres, the Prum-Yay automobile, falling out of trees, and trying to hang on to friends that are about to kick the bucket. With a little help from his friends, young Johnny learns about life and death and sex and Indians. And, with his help, we remember what it is to be a kid. Illustrated with photographs. "What a delightful book! Style, shape, voice--it's charming and original. I just can't think of anything like itÉ a book about the dominion of childhood, about memory and dream, about wisdom and ignorance, and most especiallyÉ about the meaning and value of community."--Molly Gloss, author of The Jump-Off Creek