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Fishing & baseball & endless summer vacations . . . the first stirrings of rock 'n' roll on the radio . . . adults quietly and firmly in charge . . . Westphal unspools memory and detail to depict a town that is both the Mayberry of Andy Griffith and the Gibbsville of John O'Hara --- happily, more of the first than the second.We see:A solid, honest community of German immigrants making the most of their lives in a new world; and the half-mad, drought-broken farmers stripped from the land and sent searching for a new resting place. Both meet and thrive in a modest Arkansas town, a free zone where children can run wild and have their adventures without danger or over-supervision. Family history, childish enthusiasm and an adult's brooding wisdom weave one through the other in this memoir; prose and free verse alternate easily, making a smooth read that is both sharp and elegiac.