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scbeachy's review against another edition
2.0
Amusing but slight, with some troubling of-its-time takes on women and race.
allemeier's review against another edition
2.0
I liked the kitschy resort stories in the first 2/3 of this book. However it turned into a memoir of trying to have sex with girls who were “nothing to write home about.”
mizzlroy's review against another edition
3.0
Didn’t love it. Didn’t hate it. Some of the stories bored me, while I found others amusing.
hullomoon's review against another edition
fast-paced
3.0
While this is a well-written book, I don't think this book was quite for me.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cultural appropriation
mbenzz's review against another edition
4.0
I want to live in 1960's Lake of the Ozarks. <3 Great book. Really enjoyed this trip back to a simpler time.
book_concierge's review against another edition
3.0
Subtitle: My Surreal Summers in a Vanishing America
This is a charming memoir of the author’s teen-year summers spent working at his uncle’s resort at Lake of the Ozarks in the mid 1960s. He was a busboy, a bellhop, a dishwasher, a janitor, a kids’ counselor, a groundskeeper, a chauffeur, a delivery man. He did any and all distasteful jobs and enjoyed the company of a bevy of lovely young women who served as housemaids and/or waitresses. The pay was abysmal, but they got free room and board, a fair quantity of beer, and, perhaps most importantly, a certain sense of independence. They also occasionally got pretty nice tips, which virtually all the staff used to help pay for their college educations. They made some life-long friendships, and a few romances led to marriage.
While my current sensibilities were sometimes appalled at the behavior these teens engaged in, I had to admit to fond memories of some of my own summer jobs, and especially of the summer staff I met at a local lake resort when I was singing with a band who was performing at the resort supper club one summer. Ah, the indestructability of youth!
This is a charming memoir of the author’s teen-year summers spent working at his uncle’s resort at Lake of the Ozarks in the mid 1960s. He was a busboy, a bellhop, a dishwasher, a janitor, a kids’ counselor, a groundskeeper, a chauffeur, a delivery man. He did any and all distasteful jobs and enjoyed the company of a bevy of lovely young women who served as housemaids and/or waitresses. The pay was abysmal, but they got free room and board, a fair quantity of beer, and, perhaps most importantly, a certain sense of independence. They also occasionally got pretty nice tips, which virtually all the staff used to help pay for their college educations. They made some life-long friendships, and a few romances led to marriage.
While my current sensibilities were sometimes appalled at the behavior these teens engaged in, I had to admit to fond memories of some of my own summer jobs, and especially of the summer staff I met at a local lake resort when I was singing with a band who was performing at the resort supper club one summer. Ah, the indestructability of youth!
colleengeedrumm's review against another edition
3.0
Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone;
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
-Ella Wheeler Wilcox
I wanted to tell him that if I knew the numbers of all the McDonald's meals I'd shoot myself.
She could have been way less attractive and still have been plenty attractive enough for me. Know what I mean?
You take the first sip. (water purifier through the sand from the commodes)
Because men will do anything-anything!-to get away from their families and drink beer. Ice fishing proves it.
...next to a dark, dank shower where molds of the world were on exhibit.
Sometimes I got the feeling that God protects those who imbibe. But why? (boaters)
This was exhilarating, about as exhilarating as life would ever get now that I think back on it.
Do with your knees what you please, but keep your thighs a surprise.
I don't buy free-floating fear. (security measures advertised)
Blue Book value of an open bag of Cheetos.
The Armadillo - BG
The armadillo is an ugly thing,
Unlike the song bird it does not sing,
It won't do tricks in your yard,
It just lies around...and is hard.
So, I stayed in ROTC, and consequently became the only person I knew who went to Vietnam.
Hoffman Estates on clock noting different time zones in the suburbs at the small Suburban Trib newspaper he worked at.
When you bury me, pour some scotch on the grave-and don't let it pass through you first.
Weep, and you weep alone;
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
-Ella Wheeler Wilcox
I wanted to tell him that if I knew the numbers of all the McDonald's meals I'd shoot myself.
She could have been way less attractive and still have been plenty attractive enough for me. Know what I mean?
You take the first sip. (water purifier through the sand from the commodes)
Because men will do anything-anything!-to get away from their families and drink beer. Ice fishing proves it.
...next to a dark, dank shower where molds of the world were on exhibit.
Sometimes I got the feeling that God protects those who imbibe. But why? (boaters)
This was exhilarating, about as exhilarating as life would ever get now that I think back on it.
Do with your knees what you please, but keep your thighs a surprise.
I don't buy free-floating fear. (security measures advertised)
Blue Book value of an open bag of Cheetos.
The Armadillo - BG
The armadillo is an ugly thing,
Unlike the song bird it does not sing,
It won't do tricks in your yard,
It just lies around...and is hard.
So, I stayed in ROTC, and consequently became the only person I knew who went to Vietnam.
Hoffman Estates on clock noting different time zones in the suburbs at the small Suburban Trib newspaper he worked at.
When you bury me, pour some scotch on the grave-and don't let it pass through you first.