Paperboy, Petroski- B

                    The author was a well-known engineering professor at Duke, and also a former resident of Cambria Heights in southeastern Queens. His family moved there two years before mine did, both Catholic and from the same section of Brooklyn. After the 7th grade at PS 147 (because Sacred Heart was too crowded), he switched to SHS in the 8th grade. That summer of 1955 saw Henry begin his career as a paperboy for the Long Island Press. He learned how to fold the paper, and backhand it onto the waiting stoop. After Sacred Heart, Holy Cross High School was next, and although the three-bus commute lengthened his day, he continued his afternoon Press route. The pay was excellent, approximately $15 per week for about eight hours of work. The life lessons were incomparable. After his bike, along with most of his teeth, was banged up in a crash, Henry did what every American boy dreamed of. He bought a Schwinn Black Phantom. Eventually though, even that bike wore out and in his junior year at the Cross, he quit his paper route. With post-Sputnik America focused on science, Henry turned to engineering and furthered his education at Manhattan College. He then attended graduate school at the University of Illinois. His parents left Queens in 1974.

                 I lived in Cambria for fourteen years, from the 3rd grade until college graduation. It was a special place at a special time and to read an elegy to my hometown has been an absolute joy. A very sincere thanks to my lifelong friend, Dr. George Todd, for telling me about this book.