cover image Being a Boy

Being a Boy

Paxton Davis. John F. Blair Publisher, $16.95 (253pp) ISBN 978-0-89587-065-0

Modestly titled, this charming memoir of an almost idyllic boyhood in Winston-Salem, N.C., in the 1920s and '30s is captivating. Columnist for the Roanoke Times and World-News Davis writes of a ``sweet, safe, innocent America'' when, relatively untouched by the Depression, the sons of upper-middle-class families played baseball and football unhampered by the strictures of Little League or Pop Warner League and lived for their Saturday-afternoon visits to the movies to watch their cowboy heroes. There were other diversions as well, including Davis's attempts to set up a detective agency to capture John Dillinger, joining a Boy Scout troop better known for its spirit of fun than for winning merit badges and attending summer camp. And then there were the less attractive features of life, like memorizing a catechism and going to dances at the local female academy. Anyone over 60 will love the memoir. (September)