NOW they make it legal: Reflections of an aging Baby Boomer was named a 2016 "Reviewer's Choice" by Midwest Book Review. "NOW They Make it Legal is a fabulous, firmly tongue-in-cheek tour of bygone decades. Award-winning journalist Howard Harrison has crafted a memoir so vivid it's the next best thing to a time machine. These anecdotes will enlighten, startle, perplex, and inspire readers of all generations." The stories in NOW they make it legal are served up chronologically, providing an anthology of significant events in American culture during that time. Beginning with the innocence of childhood in the 1950s – from riding your tricycle to the corner "five-and-dime" to your mother slathering mercury-laden antiseptic on every nick, scrape and cut – the author paints a vivid picture of a bygone era. The majority of stories occur in the '60s and '70s, when both the country and the author underwent major transformations. The country got color TV, the Beatles, Medicare and new civil rights legislation. It also suffered assassinations, race riots, war protests and other civil unrest. The decade began with the election of a young, liberal president that gave people hope for the future. It ended with the country badly divided, even while men were walking on the moon. By the 1980s, the "New Right" signaled a shift from the liberal ideals of the '60s and '70s. Boomers began getting married and having kids of their own. The author declares this the "end of the Boom." NOW they make it legal conveys a lot of history and nostalgia in very few pages. The seamless juxtaposition of historical facts and personal anecdotes make this an easy, entertaining and informative read.