You Can Take The Girl Out of Chicago …
Tales of My Wayward Youth
by
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Exerpt from "New York the Hard Way"
It's a bright sunny day in Madison and I'm in a booth in The Chocolate Shoppe, still in my cap and gown. Across the table, wearing a dour expression inappropriate to a joyous occasion, sit my mother and father. I'm perspiring, but I don't want to take off the heavy graduation gear. Wearing it keeps me grounded in my identity as a student. Removing it will jolt me into the reality of moving back to the apartment in South Shore Chicago. My eyes dart quickly around the little campus hangout, seeking out familiar faces that could possibly qualify as friends. I have chosen this setting with great care. Although I'm far more comfortable in the Bratskeller, where wine and beer are served, the Chocolate Shoppe captures the essence of all that is wholesome and upbeat and pure about my State University. I wave much too enthusiastically to a pair of old housemates from my dorm days. "Hi, Judy, Hi, Sarah! Come and meet my parents!" Uh, oh. Big mistake. Judy is flashing a large diamond on third finger, left hand.
"Dottie, did you hear the news? Brad is coming home on leave and we're going to have a wedding before he goes overseas. I'm so excited!"
"Mazel-tov" painfully escapes my mother's lips.
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About the Book
Often funny, sometimes poignant short stories recall the author’s experiences as a rebellious young girl from Chicago. Growing up in the upper middle-class neighborhood of South Shore, she perpetually feels like a misfit, yearning to get out. Only with her mother’s much younger sister, her “Aunt Flo,” does she feel a comfortable sense of belonging. These memoirs take her out of the midwest and into the worlds of theatre and literature on the East Coast while the recurring theme of her supportive, witty, opinionated, progressive aunt remains with her and runs throughout.
Anyone with a sense of humor, who has ever longed to be in another place in another time, will appreciate Sinclair’s wit and vivid descriptions of the world as she knew it during the mid-decades of the twentieth century.
“These hilarious, sensitive stories cut right to the bone. A terrific read.”
—Adele Scheele, Ph.D, Career Coach, Author of Skills for Success
About the Author
Dorothy Sinclair, a Los Angeles actress, holds a B.A. in English from the University of Wisconsin and a Masters in Theatre Arts from UCLA. In addition to a stage and television career, she has been Public Relations Coordinator for the William Morris Agency and a book critic for “The West Coast Review of Books.” She and her dachshund make their home in Westwood, California.