Songs of Passage (Electronic book text)

Songs of Passage sings the songs of the "heroic" journey each adolescent boy must take on the road to manhood. It is the story of Wayne Spivak and his coming of age in the 1950's. It is written, for the most part, as a memoir that captures the culture and social dynamics that helped shape this boy's journey. This tale is about the time in the USA when over the road trucking was quickly replacing the railroads as the means of getting products to market. Americans were encouraged to "see the USA in your Chevrolet" and the two-car garage was coming into its own. There was a surge in college enrollments, spurred on by the GI Bill. And street gangs, mimicking mob behavior, laid claim to virtually every neighborhood in New York City. This is the setting for this boy's transition. Songs of Passage, however, is more than a memoir. It is also a mystery. It weaves a matrix of events that can lead to only one conclusion. Reflecting on the events as they unfold, an understanding emerges of the difficult choices this young man had to make starting out on life's journey.