Boyhood Days in the San Francisco Bay Area of the 1920s
James Polese
$9.95
ISBN: 978-0-943734-12-5
92 pages, perfectbound
Drawings by Elizabeth Morales
The Iron Triangle won't be found on a map, but it was a real place -- with creeks and woods, fields and factories, a moonshine still and Indian middens. It was inhabited by Italian, Portuguese, Japanese and Gypsy immigrants in a time when the automobile, radio, telephones and airplanes were just coming into popular use. Here are engaging, often bittersweet stories of that fleeting time, told by a talented writer who grew to manhood there.
The Iron Triangle was a real place, a whole world of creeks and woods, factories and fields, San Francisco Bay marshes, and a confluence of great railroads. The people were real as well: Italian and Portuguese immigrant families, Slovenians, Austrians, Japanese, Gypsies -- making for the coming of age of a fresh generation of young Americans.
People of that place and time had to cope with rapid technological advances and adjust to a new language, while holding on to old country values that gave continuity to their lives. While adults worked to create the American Dream, their young sons and daughters lived and learned in a wondrous world of adventure and experience, in an all too brief era in the American story.
In Tales from the Iron Triangle, James Polese brings this unique world alive once again.
"1920s San Francisco Bay Area comes to life under the hand of James Polese. First-person stories capture the whimsical world of old Richmond through the eyes of a youngster."
— Midwest Book Review