Being a Boy

In the days before television and supervised athletics, boys had to create their own amusements. In the Great Depression, when Paxton Davis grew up, this was doubly so.

Davis was born into an enclave of relative prosperity in Winston-Salem. Baseball, Cub Scouts, summer camp, radio serials and newspaper routes were the stuff life was made of. Davis recalls these years with grace and humor. Times and circumstances change, but there is always something to be celebrated in a boyhood fondly remembered, always something to be mourned in its passing.

"A meticulous, loving reconstruction of his early years. A delicate portrait of a vanished age." (Kirkus Reviews)