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From the palm trees of Fresno, California to the pine trees of
Machias, Maine, Home to New England follows the cross-country
journey of author Clifton J. Noble, Sr. and his mother, Minnie
Emerson Noble, as they continue their faith-driven quest for a home
of their own. Join them as they board the train in California to
return to family and friends introduced in Noble's books 31 High
and California Here We Come. Meet new friends and benefactors the
two encounter as they face and overcome new challenges in pursuit
of their American dream.
The Nobles lose their home at 31 High Street to mortgage
foreclosure in 1939, and widow Minnie Emerson Noble has to "win the
bread" until June 1942 when her son Jerry finishes high school.
During those three years, animated movies, art, bicycles,
blueberries, church, dancing school, friends (one with ESP), music,
even murder, impact the lives of mother and son until they board a
train bound for Fresno, California on the day after 16-year-old
Jerry's graduation.
Staying a few months with Minnie's sister and her capable,
one-armed Welsh husband until Jerry can become breadwinner, the
Nobles embark on a new world of adventure in a strange city. They
live independently in rented cottages and explore wartime
California by bicycle and friends' automobiles, seeing the sights
from Fresno to Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco, and Yosemite
National Park. As clerk, doorman, draftsman, and student, Jerry
encounters optometrists, preachers, projectionists, sailors,
singers, soldiers, usherettes. People from all backgrounds and all
walks of life help him and his mother depend upon and build their
faith in uncertain times.
Born in 1926, in Westfield, Massachusetts, author Clifton J.
(Jerry) Noble lived in the house at 31 High Street with his
parents, Clifton and Minnie Noble. Jerry's many adventures in this
small New England town offer an appealing overview of the
simplicity of life during the 1920s and 1930s. Trolley cars and
trains, both steam and electric, roll eastward to Boston and to the
Massachusetts coast at Marblehead, where Noble learns the hard way
about seventh waves and small boats. Initially home schooled by a
wise and loving mother, young Noble revels in puppets and the
theater-despite his father's objections-and later prevails over
problems with public school and a junior high school principal.
Jerry's escapades range from the impromptu bath he receives when
his next door neighbor, Eulalie, pushes him into a park pond, to an
encounter with the widow of famous American composer Edward
MacDowell in a New Bedford hotel and an experience with zero
gravity involving his uncle Sam's1930s Buick and a mound-covered
culvert. Delve into the vivid memories of the first thirteen years
of Noble's life in his delightful memoir, "31 High."
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