Bleachers In the Bedroom: the Swampoodle Irish and Connie Mack

Like Woody Allen’s Radio Days and Jean Shepherd’s Christmas Story, the author takes us on a nostalgic and humorous trip back to his childhood home. His is in a Philadelphia neighborhood, across the street from Shibe Park, where Connie Mack’s A’s are challenging the Yankee dynasty of Ruth and Gehrig. His family, and their neighbors, has fans watching the game from their roofs and bedrooms, a practice that Mack tries everything to curtail. Neighborhood tykes sell hot dogs, lemonade and score cards to customers on the rooftops and charge for watching cars parked on the street.

At the Catholic school that most attend, the nuns emphasize discipline, hard work and responsibility, but the kids prefer lessons learned from movies, radio programs and comic strips which prepare them for a world of glamour, adventure, thrills and mystery.