Author Herbert Wolff describes the genesis of this collection of personal works in his introduction:"My brother and I had a mother and a father…but we never had parents. We were products of the 1930s economic depression, and as such were bundled and delivered to the care of grandparents. And for those dear folks, it was easier to shift the obligation of parenthood to people and places that were paid to supervise unattached children." The brothers lived where they were sent: sometime to institutions, sometime to foster parents. Wolff recalls, "I now can often – but not always – delineate the people and places I encountered. I have encompassed them in stories, plays, and memoirs.“The medley begins with recollections – most real, some part imagined – from ‘The Home.’ It was there we interacted and acted-out with other children similarly deposited.“It was in high school I encountered boys who were smart, and girls who were smart and pretty…especially the Iowa girls.“In college in California and later in New York, I palled around with Jimmy Dean. Yeah, THAT Jimmy Dean. (The pair of true stories comprise another NOOK work, “The James Dean You Didn’t Know,” focusing on the actor and his friendship with the author.)“But wait! I’m not finished…“More stories will be told.”