An American Childhood

In their memoir, An American Childhood, David Contosta and Philip Hazelton, cousins who grew up in the same hometown, recount both the joys and pains of growing up in the mid-twentieth century. Experiencing the comforts of middle-class family life, they recall bonfires and marching bands, hikes through woods ablaze with autumn foliage, and an amusement park by the lake. They also remember the racism, sexism, homophobia, class discrimination, religious prejudice, and conspiracy theories that marred those childhood years.

The authors set the stage with a description of how complex geologies in and around town shape both the history and social contours of their community. Most obvious is the difference between family deprivations in the Appalachian foothills south of town, and the miles of gently rolling agricultural fields just to the north. There, farm kids raise prize-winning cattle and hogs for the 4-H, and many go off to college and satisfying careers. Experiencing well-tended farms or rickety mountain shacks is a matter of which way dads point the family car for a Sunday afternoon drive.

Back in town, the authors lay out the various neighborhoods and the social classes associated with them, including blue collar workers, coveted middle-class neighborhoods, old families in their antebellum houses on the "Hill," and a small enclave of African American residents who have few opportunities to move up in the world. Apart from any of these places is a state reform school, which gives parents, teachers, and moral preceptors a handy warning about what happens to boys who don't mind parents and teachers.

There are architectural styles and household decoration that give clues to tastes and social expectations. Town characters also appear and help to define what elders consider to be "normal behavior." No longer walking the streets but individuals who provide bragging rights of community importance are famous men from the past, including a US Senator, a cabinet member from a long-ago presidency, and a celebrated Civil War general. The absence of such luminaries at a later time also depends on the shifting importance of location.

The main actors of an extended family of four generations next make their appearances. Especially memorable are familiar family stories and repeated rituals that give a sense of rootedness and identity. Powerful influences also unfold at church and school, which contribute to emotional and intellectual development, but which also give rise to contradictions, hypocrisies, and confusions.

The memoir ends with rites of passage from childhood to the first responsibilities of adult life that are fun as well as fraught with physical danger, numerous absurdities, and an overwhelming ignorance about sexuality and love.

The authors do a personal excavation of an America that existed between the end of World War II and the onset of the counterculture. As such, there is much in the memoir that sheds light on the divisions that continue to afflict this nation at present. However, the authors refrain from calling out the location of their childhood, in an effort to represent the experiences of an "every town" during a revealing slice of American history.

Making the book sparkle are several dozen illustrations by Julia Olszewski, an extraordinarily talented young artist.