Saddle shoes, ducktails, rock and roll, smoke-filled movie theaters, fins, and chrome. With soul-searching candor, author Sandra S. French remembers coming of age in the 1950s. In this memoir, she recalls growing up in a middle-class suburb of Buffalo, lovingly obeying her proud, bigoted parents and surviving personal crises with her sense of humor intact.

Sandy fell in love with love in the 1950s, hoping to find Mr. Wonderful-until her unrequited worship of a handsome athlete drove her to the brink of suicide. At school, she earned a reputation for being a pretty tease, a sexual prude, and a brain. Her goal was to become the first female in her family to attend college. But in her senior year, Peter French, an unappealing, troublesome, and brilliant juvenile delinquent challenged her outlook. She hated what he was, and he abhorred everything she stood for. Naturally, love soon erupted, threatening everything Sandy held dear.

A light-hearted, warm, true account of Sandra's early relationship with an unsentimental yet sensitive teenage genius, " Ain't That a Shame" communicates the impact of lies and family secrets on young love.

Saddle shoes, ducktails, rock and roll, smoke-filled movie theaters, fins, and chrome. With soul-searching candor, author Sandra S. French remembers coming of age in the 1950s. In this memoir, she recalls growing up in a middle-class suburb of Buffalo, lovingly obeying her proud, bigoted parents and surviving personal crises with her sense of humor intact.

Sandy fell in love with love in the 1950s, hoping to find Mr. Wonderful-until her unrequited worship of a handsome athlete drove her to the brink of suicide. At school, she earned a reputation for being a pretty tease, a sexual prude, and a brain. Her goal was to become the first female in her family to attend college. But in her senior year, Peter French, an unappealing, troublesome, and brilliant juvenile delinquent challenged her outlook. She hated what he was, and he abhorred everything she stood for. Naturally, love soon erupted, threatening everything Sandy held dear.

A light-hearted, warm, true account of Sandra's early relationship with an unsentimental yet sensitive teenage genius, " Ain't That a Shame" communicates the impact of lies and family secrets on young love.