Michael D. Langan was born in Buffalo, New York, in1937. He grew up in one of its suburbs,Lackawanna, New York.He is a graduate of Canisius College and S.U.N.Y. at Buffalo. Dr.Langan served in public and private educationfor a quarterof a century,19591984. In 1984, he moved to Washington, D.C., where he held several posts with the federal government.He retired from theDepartment of the Treasury in 1999.Dr. Langan has written short stories for the BBC WorldService, articles for The Boston Globe and numerous bookreviews, stories and op ed pieces for The Buffalo News. Thank you for letting me see your sketches from childhood. It is always a beguiling subject and you have touched it nicely and simply. - Paul Horgan, Wesleyan University. A book well-written about a life well-lived. David M. Shribman, Executive Editor, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Langans stories are brimming with wonderful characters and scenes of a small blue-collar city in the 1940s. They offer not only a marvelous sense of place Lackawanna, New York, in the heyday of Big Steel but more importantly, an evocative sense of time. This was the America when mothers feared a polio epidemic, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt thrilled citizens with a drive through town in an open car, and when the only way a young Catholic boy could get out of the house at night was to visit the public library. It wasnt very long ago, but it is long gone. Luckily, Langan has captured it through a childs eyes, and were the richer for it. - Margaret Sullivan, Editor, Buffalo News.