Sting-Ray Afternoons: A Memoir

Sting-Ray Afternoons: A Memoir

by Steve Rushin
Sting-Ray Afternoons: A Memoir

Sting-Ray Afternoons: A Memoir

by Steve Rushin

eBook

$11.99 

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Overview

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.

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

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780316392228
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Publication date: 07/03/2017
Sold by: Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format: eBook
Sales rank: 593,055
File size: 38 MB
Note: This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Steve Rushin has been writing for Sports Illustratedfor the last 25 years and was the 2006 National Sportswriter of the Year. His work has been collected in The Best American Sports Writing, The Best American Travel Writing, and The Best American Magazine Writing. He lives in Connecticut.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Sting-Ray Afternoons 3

1 Eight-Track Mind 23

2 One of These Things Is Not Like the Others 52

3 When You Comin' Home, Dad? 73

4 Glory, Glory, Hallelujah, Teacher Hit Me with a Ruler 91

5 Wish Book 125

6 As We Fell into the Sun 150

7 Every Day's the Fourth of July 195

8 Through the Magic Doorgate 221

9 Ventura Highway in the Sunshine 247

10 Play That Funky Music, White Boy 264

11 Goodbye Yellow Brick Road 285

Epilogue: Oh, Oh, Telephone Line 312

Acknowledgments 320

Notes 323

What People are Saying About This

author of The Stars in Our Eyes and the New York T Julie Klam

"If you existed in the 1970s and had any awareness of the world around you, Steve Rushin's Sting-Ray Afternoons is going to hit you like the smell of Clairol Herbal Essence Shampoo. Smart as heck, laugh out loud funny and warm, Steve Rushin does for 1970s childhoods what Jean Shepherd did for 1940s Christmas. This book is nothing short of a Nadia Comenici Perfect 10."

songwriter and guitarist, The Hold Steady - Craig Finn

"Steve Rushin's Sting Ray Afternoons is a fun and often hilarious account of growing up in the midwest in the 1970s. Throughout the book I was pleasantly reminded of things from my own past—Rushin revisits the TV shows, the toys, the games of the era while telling his family's own story. Sting Ray Afternoon 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."

author of Tolstoy and the Purple Chair and the forthcoming The Lowells of Massachusetts - Nina Sankovitch

“Charming and heartfelt, hilarious and touching, Rushin's Sting-Ray Afternoons is a pitch-perfect portrait of growing up in middle America during the Brady Bunch era. A gem of a memoir, a tribute to family, and a delectable slice of American history.”

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