"Bittersweet Beginnings: A Sketchbook of a Great Depression Boyhood," by James V. Wyman.
Wyman, the retired executive editor and vice president of The Providence Journal, tells the story of his odyssey through the Great Depression in a rural neighborhood on the outskirts of Brockton, Mass. This memoir reflects on the economic harshness of the times, but it mirrors as well his quest for boyhood fun and growth and his lasting love for Marshall's Corner and the people there.
Wyman holds the Yankee Quill Award from the Academy of New England Journalists for his contributions to excellence in New England journalism.
From the chapter, "Springtime at Marshall's Corner":
I could read the season's change in my parents' faces. Though still winter-haunted by Depression demons, the sight of new green sproutings and the smell of sun-warmed soil seemed to stir some deep-set spirit in the them every spring.
From the chapter, "The Icehouse":
We would scramble up the piles of sleeping ice cakes, leaping from one level to another, the coldness always seeping through our sneaker soles with numbing satisfaction.