Sting-Ray Afternoons

"Funny, elegiac . . . a remarkably sunny coming-of-age story about growing up in a Midwest world." —NPR

One of the Best Books of the Year—Amazon, Golf Digest, Minnesota Public Radio

This is a story of the 1970s. Of a road trip in a wood-paneled station wagon, with the kids in the way-back, singing along to the Steve Miller Band. Of brothers waking up early on Saturday mornings for five consecutive hours of cartoons. Of growing up in a magical era populated by Bic pens, Mr. Clean and Scrubbing Bubbles, lightsabers and those oh-so-coveted Schwinn Sting-Ray bikes. And of a father—one of 3M's greatest and last eight-track salesmen—traveling across the country on the brand-new Boeing 747, providing for his family but wanting nothing more than to get home.

In Sting-Ray Afternoons, Steve Rushin paints an utterly nostalgic, psychedelically vibrant portrait of a decade overflowing with technological evolution, cultural revolution, as well as brotherly, sisterly, and parental love.
"Rushin's told-with-a-smile stories of childhood are worth the trip." —Casey Common, Minneapolis Star-Tribune

"Magnificent . . . You will not read a better book this summer—and maybe well into the fall and winter, too." —Mike Vaccaro, New York Post

"Sting-Ray Afternoons captures both the freedom of youth and the universal longing for experience in a bigger, more adult world. If you grew up in the 1970s, prepare to have your memory triggered." ―Craig Finn, songwriter and guitarist, The Hold Steady