My Life Stories

In 2008, a retired professional engineer joins a writer's group and soon realizes he has a superb memory and a wealth of experience for writing short stories people like to read. His first stories are about growing up in Chicago at the end of the Second World War. Our war veterans came home with great expectations for finding a good job, marrying the girl of their dreams, raising children, and going to college under the GI bill. It was a time of growth and opportunity but the road to fulfilling these expectations was filled with many pot holes. Then came the civil rights movement. There was violence, political turbulence and civil unrest in the nation. Black people wanted equality and Martin Luther gave people of color hope for their future. The author lived some five city blocks from Mayor Richard Daley and writes about the mayor's reaction to change. He was there when the civil rights leaders marched on the Mayor's home with a platoon of policemen protecting the protestors. He was also there in 1968 at the Democratic National convention when the Mayor ordered the police to remove the Yippies from the city. The author also writes about his career with the department of transportation. He describes some of the interesting people he worked with, about the pressure to get new highways approved and scheduled for construction, and the politics involved in the planning and construction of an Interstate highway.

Author: Richard R. Metcalf

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Publication Date: Apr 13, 2014

Number of Pages: 306 pages

Binding: Paperback or Softback

ISBN-10: 1496199898

ISBN-13: 9781496199898