Against the background of a seemingly tranquil 1950s and the more volatile 1960s, Dana Alioto effortlessly captures the rhythm and pace of growing up in suburban Milwaukee. With a middle-class background, a Catholic grade school and public high school grad, and an alum of the University of Wisconsin, Mr. Alioto recounts numerous stories by interweaving his relationships with family, neighbors, friends and girls.
Beginning with an ancestral backdrop and then regaling us with accounts of his extended and immediate family, he reveals a warmth for those times that he lived more than a half-century ago. He introduces us to a myriad of colorful characters who come alive and play out in his chronicles of those treasured days in Milwaukee.
There are those beloved sports teams Alioto cheered for; the concerts and festivals he attended, and the oftentimes hilarious antics he participated in while exploring all that this city had to offer in his youth. The camaraderie exhibited with his friends and all those that touched his life is felt within these pages.
The atmosphere and cultural landscape of Milwaukee is exhibited while he narrates all that he treasured, especially during those summer days and nights. There are the Braves, Packers, Brewers, the Crusher, Summerfest, State Fair, family vacations, the city's movie palaces, teen-oriented pop radio and much more to reminiscence in.
But there is also the neighborhood, the church, education, sports, first dates, first jobs, dear friends, successes and regrets. Mr. Alioto has penned a heartfelt memoir of surprises, sharing with us a slice of his youth that no longer exists but is so fondly remembered.