Jack\'s story covers the first twenty-seven years of his life (1935-62).
Jack\'s story also provides a glimpse of a more innocent time in America..
Their actions spoke more loudly than their encouraging words.
He credits three men with helping him overcome his poor start in life: his brother, a brother-in-law, and a US congressman.
Jack\'s memoir is a story of recovery.
The military kicked him out with an undesirable discharge.
Consequently, Jack spent time behind bars, first in a civilian jail then in a military stockade.
At eighteen, he joined the military and then committed a civilian crime while he was absent without leave (AWOL) from the service.
Jack\'s restlessness led him to quit school at sixteen and spend a year traveling the road with long-distance truck drivers.
The next year Jack hitched rides to Philadelphia to visit his older brother, who also returned him to the orphanage.
After three weeks, she returned him by bus.
At the age of twelve, his first road trip was for 350 miles to Florida, to visit his oldest sister.
Jack had a rebellious nature and ran away from the institution several times, always hitchhiking.
Thus, he began life in an orphanage, placed there by his grandmother before he was four.
Within three years, both of Jack\'s parents died.
His family moved to Florida before he was one year old.
He was born in Maine.
Jack\'s story covers the first twenty-seven years of his life (1935-62)
