In True Stories: Memories, Musings, Odds and Ends, C.J. Ott tells of the first seven years of his childhood in New York City and the next seven years in the Saugerties area, a hundred miles north of the city. He recounts his experiences as a postulant, novice and scholastic in the Marianist religious order; four years of military service in the U.S. Air Force, and a twenty-five year career as a teacher and principal in Trotwood-Madison City Schools, by Dayton, Ohio. Along the way he recalls the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean and Viet Nam Wars, and the tumultuous '60s. The author is a lifelong student and, by his own admission, addicted to reading. The musings cover a broad range of topics from philosophy, economics, politics and religion, to the good life, the golden years, and death and dying. True Stories looks back over more than seventy-five years of living. It was written for family, friends and progeny, but others will find it a pleasure to read.