Get ready for a captivating collection of true tales that will transport you straight back to the 1960s and right into the colorful times, bold adventures and hilarious hijinks of a small crew of rambunctious boys navigating the rapidly changing landscape of South Florida. You will discover wild imaginations, wrestle with infestations, dodge nasty neighbors and endure but a dusting of parental supervision. Was there mayhem? You bet.

These are my stories, fifty in all. You will be surprised, charmed, sometimes shocked, laugh out loud and perhaps shed a tear, but also discover what you did not know you knew little about. What does Charles Goodyear have to do with the slingshot? What is a Bufo marinus? Whatever happened to angel wings and sissy bars? Why is a Molotov cocktail not a bomb and just how does one sleep in trees?

There were ten of us. We all scattered following high school. I do not believe that a single one was permanently maimed, psychologically scarred or even arrested, though I cannot vouch for this with certainty. There were cuts, bruises and sprains aplenty, blood lost, a few yards of stitches and numerous splints, an occasional broken bone and several concussions. But all the perpetrators made it through the gauntlet alive. Sadly, the same cannot be said for a small legion of lizards, land crabs, mockingbirds, blue jays, snakes, mosquitoes, wasps, bees, giant stinging grasshoppers, walking sticks, poisonous caterpillars, slugs, snails, red ants and Bufo marinus. Read on. Enjoy the tales.