Carefree summer vacations, nostalgically sweet songs of that
summer's hit parade, the joy and sting of first love, each forms
building blocks of our cherished memories. Times in our hearts
before the stresses of adult responsibilities, times of learning
and times of moving on to the next level of growth, all of these
move us along the road to maturity. Country Summers, a work of
fiction, follows a young girl, her friends and family seen through
the lens of their summer vacations in Monroe, New York. Starting in
an apartment on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, New York in 1954,
Laurel Milton grows from ages twelve to eighteen. She and her
summer crowd of friends experiment with romance, understanding
their parents, religion, social etiquette, and solve a mystery
involving the early history of the region. Highlights from the
story include: * Uncovering the details of a deadly traffic
accident * The ritual of the "Mock Marriage" * The Sadie Hawkins
Dance * Dating rules of the mid-nineteen fifties * Social norms of
in-groups and out-groups * Festivals and Sabbath traditions of the
Hebrew religion * A mysterious farm family with a futuristic
lifestyle KIRKUS BOOK REVIEW BOOK REVIEW A fictionalized memoir of
idyllic teenage summers in Monroe, NY, during the 1950s. Apple
Hill, a country bungalow community on a lake, attracted families
from New York City who wanted to escape apartment living in the
summer. The mothers kept house, gardened, cooked and played mah
jongg and canasta while the fathers commuted to the city. The
teenagers worked at summer jobs as camp counselors, mechanics and
reporters. Social activity centered on the club house, where adults
enjoyed Saturday-night dancing and entertainment, and teens had
parent-approved weekly themed dances. Some of the teens, though,
had other private parties, usually in a local basement that offered
"make-out music" and games such as "post office and spin the
bottle." Laurel, the most prominent character in this book, led the
members of the younger set as they occupied themselves with gossip,
dramas of love and romance, listening in on party-line
conversations and prying into the affairs of others. Visitors to
Apple Hill observed Jewish holidays and religious traditions in the
club house, which became a "rustic synagogue." This ambitious
memoir, upbeat and respectful, takes the form of a series of
sketches of the lives of the summer families as well as prominent
non-Jewish local residents and how they overlapped.
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