A Memory of Trees

A MEMORY OF TREES is a historical fiction story that follows a Kansas boy, Cimarron McNeill, through his 7th grade term. The lad turns thirteen in January 1950, after growing up in the world altering decade of the 1940s. The Depression of the 1930s, followed by World War Two and its aftermath, provide a perspective for this tale set in a solid American heartland village that sees to its own affairs with quiet competence, an ordinary community of rivers, railroads, trees, farms, stores, parks, and schools full of children wide eyed with the wonders of life. For adolescent Cimarron, it is a home he both desires and detests, a suffocating cultural cocoon full of searing yet wonderful memories. He yearns for his mythical Minneola, the place where love abounds for all, where all kids get Christmas presents, and no one is ever cold or hungry. Sim knows it’s just beyond the hazy horizon, out where the clouds and the prairie winds play tag on endless plains under the cerulean skies of middle America. Born to a down and out tribe of wandering Okies in 1937, Cimarron must use all of his talents, abilities, and exceptional intelligence to overcome formidable obstacles of neglect, abuse and abject poverty. In his struggle to survive and succeed, he creates his own outdoor world to supplant his destitute existence. He innocently becomes Rousseau’s Noble Savage, an unspoiled child of nature, as he is nurtured by the river and the wilderness near his shanty. His abiding passions are, in ever changing order, tree climbing, running starkers through his river woods, Latin language, girls, playing baseball, and singing. Cimarron ultimately finds, from unexpected sources, the love and acceptance he desperately seeks. His superb singing talent brings him to a brief encounter with his idol, a famous vocalist, while on a school choir trip to Miami Beach Florida, but Destiny works her usual whims with him. Return to the glorious days of your youth and follow Cimarron, if you dare, as he careens through the challenges and triumphs of adolescence. Take the journey with him as he battles his way to a better future. Could you be the friend who helps him understand the mysteries of life and love, and why growing up is so painful for boys? For a heartwarming hug, he’ll be yours forever. He’s waiting for you, inside the pages of the first chapter. The story is fictional but is founded on factual history. It is a chronicle of characters, events, and places, covering the twelve months ending June 1950. It has controversial elements in its revealing examination of a young male's life, of the ways in which this self sufficient, lonely child fights for his integrity and his ideals against constant change and powerful forces, of how he deals with the predetermined, punishing roles imposed on boys and men by society. NOT INTENDED NOR RECOMMENDED FOR MINORS.