Guys
Growing Up
by
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“GUYS is a great story!” —Buz Hargrove, former President of Canadian Auto Workers Mature subject matter: Profanity, Sexuality, Violence. Might not suit all readers Growing up in war-time ain’t easy. Specially if you’re a German or a Japanese kid. Even English kids in London have it rough with bombs falling all around and people dying and stuff … Growing up ain’t even easy for a Scotch-Irish-Canadian kid like me, who only has to dodge whacks-to-my-head, and boots-to-my-ass as the Old Man yells, “Grow up!” But really, I’d rather be a Scotch-Irish-Yankee kid. They got a lot more good stuff in the USA. We don’t have no famous Movie Stars like Betty Grable, Humphrey Bogart, or James Cagney, a tough little-guy, he’s one of my favorites. And we don’t have Big Bands like Glenn Miller or Dorsey with singers like Frank Sinatra who makes chicks swoon … If you want to hear anything good on the radio in Oshawa, you got to go to WBEN, Buffalo. Toronto’s CFRB or CBC has nothing but “The Happy Gang”, and they don’t make no one swoon. … Specially, it ain’t easy growing up when you don’t even know what way’s up. If up is where my Old Man wants me to go, it sure ain’t where he is. Whenever I act like him I get whacked …. Especially, when he’s into the booze he gets me steamed up. You know what I mean? So I learned pretty young, if I don’t want to get whacked, or the boot, don’t act like him. Like he says, “Don’t do as I do! Do as I say!”
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About the Book
It is 1944 in Ontario, Canada, and Scotty is fifteen. World War II is coming to an end, although the war has left countless scars on Canadian families and the world at large. Scotty has his own problems at home, including an alcoholic father and the fear of being stuck as a small-town nobody his whole life. He can’t wait to turn sixteen.
Once he’s sixteen, he’ll be able to go his own way. Maybe he’ll drop out of high school. Maybe he’ll get a job at General Motors, since the Canadian headquarters are located in his hometown. He has friends to back him up—guys like Neil-the-Wheel, Georgie-boy, Joey, and Rick-the-dick. Together, these guys find their ways into adulthood.
Scotty grows up. He soon finds himself involved with the local United Auto Workers union. He still looks over his shoulder in remembrance of the past, but as a young man, his life is open before him. Will he grow up to be better than his Old Man? Will he find success in his job and his relationships? It’s a long road to adulthood, and Scotty will soon find that the road is his making.
About the Author
R. H. Morrison is the author of several magazine articles and nonfiction works, including a newspaper column called “The Contrary Christian.” He raised five daughters with his wife of sixty years, Doris. They live in Lindsay, Ontario, Canada. This is his first novel.
www.rhmorrison.ca