Blooming In the Garden of Expectations is a memoir that spirits us back to East Whittier, California during the end of the Great Depression and all of WWII. There we join a child named Mary who resists the strictures of her Quaker upbringing and speaks her mind. When her eighth grade teacher challenges her students to write their very first memory, she relishes the task and turns it in, but secretly keeps right on going. The result is this sepia snapshot of life, in that time and place, where simplicity, generosity, silent heroism, and serious fun are the norm. It is a glorious time to be a...