This tale of a street urchin is much more than the adventures and misadventures of a boy growing up unsupervised in small-city America in the late 1940s and 1950s. It is a picture of community life in that western Pennsylvania industrial town -- its struggles and its successes during the economic upheaval that followed World War II. It adds the perspective of the same boy as a seasoned journalist, who has followed the region for 35 years as a reporter, editor and commentary writer on two daily newspapers.. The author's hometown is an American melting pot, a place where hard work was necessary...