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A review by book_concierge
Lake of the Ozarks: My Surreal Summers in a Vanishing America by Bill Geist
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!