My sweet Dad published a BOOK! I couldn’t be more proud of him! He has enjoyed writing all of his life and we as a family are beyond blessed to have many of his words, either in poem form or in notes. But, my father’s memoir of his childhood is his proudest work. Let me know if you are interested and I’d be happy to help you get a copy.
Title/Purchase Info
Last Summer With A Balcony
ISBN 979-8-218-32478-0
Available at Roundabout Books, Bend OR (541)-306-6564
roundaboutbookshop.com $24.95
Review Summary
Last Summer with a Balcony is a memoir from the cusp of adolescence in Eastern Oregon. This capsule of the 1950’s conveys the historical sense of that era, and the joyfulness of youth, tinged with the sadness of loss mixed with the renewal of growth. Here is a chance to retrieve memories of your own or relive memories of that time.
Book Summary
Watching children growing up in today’s world, the obvious change from generations back is the scheduling and the technology involved. Going from a group sport practice to gymnastics, dance, or martial arts lessons, the child is programmed to accumulate experiences. Watching TV, playing video games, listening to iPods and talking or texting on cell phones provides external stimuli to constantly entertain. They travel in cars (that also have TVs) or buses from place to place, always supervised by a parent, coach, teacher or babysitter. Both parents work and their grandparents no longer live with the family, but often in senior communities, when they are not traveling.
What happened to a youth of spontaneity and freedom? When did the entire adult community stop supervising all children? Where are the children going to learn values and family lore?
Today’s lifestyle is different, not better or worse, and prepares the youth for the future they will live in, not the world of their grandparents. The same differences existed between generations before. The option then is not to change the world, but tell the stories in a different way.
This book takes the reader, be it a child, a parent or a contemplative grandparent, back to the time when the day was yours to schedule, the world went as far as your bike would take you and everyone was a care giver to the town youth. It was a time where listening to Grandma tell stories was your downtime, not watching TV, where what you did was only limited by your imagination and the time to go to bed never came too early. It was a time of building lifelong friendships and memories and living life to the fullest.
Last Summer with a Balcony is a memoir of a 12-year-old boy going through the transition of elementary to junior high school and the transition of his family unit going from 6 to 5 with the death of his grandmother. The journey shares the joy of childhood and the development of values and character that evolved from play and family. The loss of a loved one doesn’t end that evolution, but can mark the passage from innocence to the awareness of becoming a young man.
In narrative fashion, the boy begins the summer of 1957 in a small town of rural Oregon. The period covered begins with the exuberance of summer vacation starting, the adventures and events of that summer, the start of junior high and the passage of youth to beginning adulthood in a timing that coincidently paralleled the death of the boy’s grandmother. Interspersed amid the sequence of events are the recollections of living with a grandparent in the house, observing effective parenting from the child’s viewpoint and benefiting from all the town’s adults keeping an eye out on the youth without limiting their freedom and imagination. This memoir covers the times where grandparents told stories with an ulterior motive, where doctors making house calls treated the souls when the body was beyond repair, where family was the anchor of daily activity and if today could be anything you wanted it to be, then the future could be as well. Events include playing, daydreaming, carnivals, company picnics, vacation trips, the town festival (in this case a rodeo), starting junior high and knowing Grandma was gone, but it was all right.
There was an outside world impacting all the baby boomers as they were growing up, but for a period of time your world was your own. You were discovering Rock and Roll, discovering the Space Age and discovering what people actually meant by what they said! With the purpose of sharing this segment of our past, the author describes the places and feelings so you have the freedom to imagine you could travel in that world. If you in fact did, the descriptions will trigger memories of your journey that can bring back some of those carefree times and hope for the future.
Author
William H. Dierdorff, III Ed.D.
Currently living in Bend, OR, Bill retired 20 years ago after a career in central office school administration. He is happily married (55 plus years), father of 4, grandfather of 8 and great- grandfather of 1, as of 2023.
The goal of this book was to share stories from the past with future generations and to allow those who have already traveled life’s timeline an option to recall their own stories. If you fit in the latter group, check on those who you remembered, if possible, and share good memories with them.
Balcony Reviews
John L
Bill, Thanks so much for sending me your memoir from the cusp of adolescence in Eastern Oregon. I am amazed at the sharpness of your memory and detail and your uncommon capacity to convey the historical sense of that era, and the joyfulness of your youth, tinged with the sadness of loss mixed with the renewal of growth.
Your book is a joy to read.
Linda H
Please let Bill know that his style of writing makes me feel like I’m in a movie. The camera swings from wall to wall, tree to tree, lawn to lawn. There is so much power in his words to zoom you back to childhood. I’ve been remembering childhood friends from LA before we moved. So that makes me 4/5.
Bill C
I just finished your book. You did a fantastic job of capturing those years. While my growing up situation was so different from yours your story brought back a flood of my own memories.
Bill W
I just finished your book “Last Summer with a Balcony.” I certainly enjoyed your memories of the past. It brought back some of my own experiences growing up in the 1940’s. How simple life was then. It was amazing how you remembered all this things.
Vic K
I had a wonderful time yesterday reading “Last Summer..” As you predicted, your book revived many memories. I wish you had been in the room so that I could have commented on a few. Laughs.
Thanks for a terrific day.
Bob W
I still have a strong affection for Pendleton. To say how deeply I was touched and moved by this book is beyond any best effort on my part. There’s so much in this book that touches my heart in ways that nothing else could, in ways nobody else could understand.
I appreciate how kind and respectful Bill was in sharing his family story.
