In this remarkable and moving memoir the author relates the startling boyhood he spent traveling across 1950s America with his restless parents before interstate highways were invented, bumping into reality at every turn. It abounds in adventure and nostalgia as though Tom Sawyer and Kevin Arnold of "The Wonder Years" were combined in one boy leaving a trail of shenanigans from coast to coast. His encounters with strange landscapes, curious people, and dubious caretakers dangle lessons in life for his taking, and sometimes leaving. When his parents abandon him on a lonely highway at six years...