LET'S SCARE MOM

In a work that the author describes as “blurry nonfiction,” Wood explores growing up in the 1950s.

In his prologue, Wood explores how things have changed since his boyhood: “The time-tarnished mirrors of my memory reflect America in the 1950s as a very different world that we live in today.” This book is an expanded version of his earlier release, The Five Greatest Spankings of All Time (2012). The author recounts going on misadventures with his younger brothers, Randy and Rich, and his dog Snorkie. These often led to “lickins” from their disciplinarian father, Robert Wood, aka “Bullethead.” Since these punishments make up the bulk of the book, Wood supplied background on the practice: “Events requiring a ‘lickin’ became so numerous and diverse that Bullethead decided to publish and post a formal set of rules that attempted to identify the nature, quantity and quality of past and potential infractions that would always result in the exercising of the ‘L’ word.” In this era before computers and video games, the brothers had to amuse themselves on their rural ranch. Their active imaginations often led to unintended consequences, such as the time they re-enacted the Western they had just seen at the local movie house and Randy lit the hayloft on fire with a flaming arrow. Wood, a longtime cowboy, has honed his storytelling skills around campfires, and that is evident here. His colorful voice enlivens every page. Take, for example, this description of his arrival at the state science fair: “Sporting my best ‘Sunday go to meeting duds,’ including my favorite string tie, just like the one Roy Rogers wore for special occasions, I climbed out of the shuttle van.” His ability to perfectly limn events from decades ago is uncanny.

An engrossing portrait of growing up in a much simpler time.