ABSTRACT
Basically, though, this story is set not just in Buffalo but in the U.S.A., center of the free capitalist world, during the years 1957-58 when the chemise was here to stay, Sputnik was first in space, there was a crisis in American education, and rebels up in the Sierra spread terror all over Cuba against Batista, jaunty dictator, not such a nice guy himself Most people around at the time must have known more about this than I did, even in the small town I grew up in, up there in the hills. But it was around, in the air, even for kids like me, eight or nine, in those days when the taste was for wide long stories which picked themselves up and over great arcs of Destiny rising towards the triumphant yet quietly satisfied goal of justice for all, happiness for the good, and an end to historical time while we were ahead. You will know this if you have ever seen either of two movies I recall seeing with my grandfather on our family's semi-annual trips to the city, Buffalo, New York, The Big Country or The Vikings.
