The Herd from 93rd

Bill Scalin, after his surprise fiftieth birthday party, comes to a realization as to needing answers. He wonders as to why his friends were so free-spirited and carefree and had remained friends after some fifty plus years. He remembers his grandparents, parents and family members hard scrabble experiences; as far back and including the murders of his grandparents by local organized crime figures. He then compares them to his and his friends own free and easy life experiences. Bill then goes on to explore his own early childhood memories in a comparative study, including an assault charge with a squirt gun, followed by his shooting at a driver with a Japanese sniper rifle with a lit firecracker in its barrel! The teen years are cleverly incorporated by Scalin's frozen bedroom window of the future, which later matured to a window in a storefront that was later converted to a bar. The author then begins the arduous task of introducing some of his fifty plus friends of the Herd from 93rd in Cleveland, Ohio in the sixties; and their wild and adventurous actions fueled by an overabundance of beer and alcohol. His accountings of the early years contain true stories and characters that are both memorable and entertaining. Some of which border on the unbelievable like, Wild Bill Gambel who fell in an open cement mixer to the hilarious story about the Cleveland cop telling him and Jerry Smolek to have a nice day after going eight-five in a forty-five with a bottle of scotch on the front seat. Bill continues by reliving a sad story of Teddy the cop shooting a fellow officer and takes a curve to share two miracle stories of his problems with cliffs, jagged rocks and near death by drowning. It is to those memorable friends and events that Bill dedicates this book.Bill Scalin, after his surprise fiftieth birthday party, comes to a realization as to needing answers. He wonders as to why his friends were so free-spirited and carefree and had remained friends after some fifty plus years. He remembers his grandparents, parents and family members hard scrabble experiences; as far back and including the murders of his grandparents by local organized crime figures. He then compares them to his and his friends own free and easy life experiences. Bill then goes on to explore his own early childhood memories in a comparative study, including an assault charge with a squirt gun, followed by his shooting at a driver with a Japanese sniper rifle with a lit firecracker in its barrel! The teen years are cleverly incorporated by Scalin's frozen bedroom window of the future, which later matured to a window in a storefront that was later converted to a bar. The author then begins the arduous task of introducing some of his fifty plus friends of the Herd from 93rd in Cleveland, Ohio in the sixties; and their wild and adventurous actions fueled by an overabundance of beer and alcohol. His accountings of the early years contain true stories and characters that are both memorable and entertaining. Some of which border on the unbelievable like, Wild Bill Gambel who fell in an open cement mixer to the hilarious story about the Cleveland cop telling him and Jerry Smolek to have a nice day after going eight-five in a forty-five with a bottle of scotch on the front seat. Bill continues by reliving a sad story of Teddy the cop shooting a fellow officer and takes a curve to share two miracle stories of his problems with cliffs, jagged rocks and near death by drowning. It is to those memorable friends and events that Bill dedicates this book.