Our Oswego: Memories of growing up and growing old in the Port City of Central New York

Our Oswego: Memories of growing up and growing old in the Port City of Central New York

Oswego, New York could be Anytown, USA of the 1960s and '70s. The small upstate city, located in the snowbelt on the shores of Lake Ontario, was once an industrial center, producing world-renowned goods from t-shirts to chocolate; window shades to office paper. Like many northeastern cities, factories began to close, downtown storefronts became vacant, and the once-vibrant community seemed to lose its luster. During its heyday, Oswego also produced baby boomers--lots of them. And many of those kids who grew up in the post-World War II Oswego, recall a great upbringing. This book is a series of reflections by one Oswegonian, born at the peak of the baby boom in 1957. Mike McCrobie retired in 2012 after a 33-year teaching career (thirty at Oswego High School, his alma mater). When he no longer taught journalism, he began practicing it as a community columnist for the 170 year-old Oswego daily newspaper, The Palladium-Times. His twice-monthly columns awakened memories, not only from his generation, but those immediately before and after his. His writings take readers from their wonder years through their glory days. He has compiled over forty of his favorite newspaper columns about growing up and growing old in Oswego. But the topics about which he writes, aren't specific to just his home town. You can likely identify with recollections from your own birthplace, no matter where that might be. He takes us down memory lane to a time when kids built things like forts and race cars. He nostalgically recalls Americana such as corner stores, sandlot baseball, snowball fights and S & H green stamps. He reminisces about endless summers when a day of outdoor play concluded when the street lights came on. As the title suggests, some stories are indeed specific to "The Port City," but to say this is a book solely about Oswego, New York, limits its ability to resurrect memories of the good old days of your youth. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, and if that's the case, Melissa Francisco Martin's pen and ink drawings in this book speak volumes. Her illustrations are reminiscent of the "Dick and Jane" basal reading books that so many of us grew up with. These drawings complement the essays, and themselves bring back memories of bygone days.