Description
The book begins with Arthur, age four. and his older brother, Bobby, age six, playing in an outhouse. Bobby teases Arthur by pretending to fall in but their older sister, Glenna, stops it. The boys then go to a neighbor's house, abscond with a rabbit and bring it home. After an argument, the boys return it, the boys having learned an important lesson.
Due to the ongoing illness of their mother, Bobby and Arthur are temporarily housed with others. Arthur is unjustly accused of minor theft and is sent to bed without supper but is rescued by his loving sister, who retrieves the boys and takes them home.
The background of their Mother, Helene, and their father, Albert, are presented, much of which takes place in Ruegen, a small, picturesque island in Northern Germany. Albert's relationship with his brother, sister and parents, are examined. His sister, who lives in Hamburg, with his brother-in-law, has a friendship with a Ship Captain on a local shipping line, which results in the Captain signing Albert, at 14, onto a square-rigged sailing ship as a cabin boy. Albert sails around the world for 20 years, then `returns to Hamburg and marries Helene.
In 1930, Albert and Helene's second-born child falls ill of Pneumonia and other tragic events occur. In 1937, Bobby is born, followed by Arthur in 1939, just as Poland is invaded by Germany. The father, unable to keep the boys at home, pays their room and board with good-hearted families. As the boys mature, the father, whom by now, the boys call 'Pop,' does his best to raise them but tragic incidents occur in their life, one being a drinking buddy's anger which results in his death at the hands of his wife, The wife's subsequent trial and conviction takes place and results in considerable courtroom drama.
The father does his best to raise his boys, but his long-term drinking habits result in the boys becoming 'latch-key' kids. Out of work due to seasonal rains, the father brings the boys south to Sacramento. Meanwhile, Glenna, her husband and daughter, Beverley, head North to Alaska on the AlCan and settle in Anchorage where, eventually, tragedy visits the family.
After the boys arrive in rural West Sacramento, they get into additional scrapes, and minor issues with the law. Eventually, Bobby, aka Bob, joins the Air Force. At the age of 16, Arthur is befriended by Big Ed, a good-hearted truck driver and drinking buddy of his .father. Big Ed is known to down fifty 'fish bowls' of beer in a single sitting. Arthur, who by now, can 'drive truck,' for Big Ed, talks his father into letting him drive to Texas over the holidays with Big Ed, where in Houston, Texas, Arthur has his first romantic adventure. But he comes home so late, that he impacts his studies, In the following fall, at the a.ge of 17, he applies for and is accepted into the Air Force, where the story ends.