Before Vietnam

When Ben heard the disturbance in his grade 5 class at Redwood Elementary that September day in 1955, he looked up and immediately noticed that the new kid in class, Alex, had taken a crayon and colored his glasses black. As Alex turned his head around the room trying to see through the crayon, the teacher, Mrs. Schick completely lost it. All Ben could do was wonder why in the world that strange boy would do that. So, began a lifelong friendship.Before Vietnam tells the story of Ben, Alex and a third boy, Ray, growing up during the 1950s and 60's in Los Angeles, a time that is often idealized as a golden age for America. The novel paints a more realistic portrait of this era. It's a story about how the boys evolve into young men facing their individual challenges of maturation, while being mostly oblivious to the social forces and problems around them. Over time, the three are forced to come to grips in their own ways with the on-going struggle for civil rights and the war in Vietnam in the 1960's. In the end, one boy moves to Canada, another to Britain and the third remains in Los Angeles.Children who grew up in the 1950's and 60's experienced a very different type of upbringing than children today. The absence of cell phones, and social media, the less rigid stratification of society, and the dearth of protective parental attitudes, provided a freer but in many ways riskier road to adulthood. That too is a focus for the story.The book does contain explicit sexual scenes.