Bill Elder's memoir, "The Bucyrus That Was," is a story about growing up in Small Town, America, during the Golden Age of the 1950s. The book begins with the Elder family moving from their home in Alabama to Ohio shortly after the end of World War II in search of the American Dream, i.e., improving their lot financially. After a short stay in Marion, Ohio, the Elders moved to Bucyrus where they took up residence in the notorious Railroad Street area. Needless to say, a young Bill Elder encountered many adventures and made a host of colorful friends during his stay in the tumultuous neighborhood. Elder describes in colorful detail some of his childhood escapades and the ups and downs of his teenage years, including the profound effect that his conservative Christian upbringing had on his life. He explores the importance of sports in the 1950s culture and reviews the hangouts that were popular with the local young people. Finally, he gives a general overview of what Bucyrus was like during this era, including an honest look at the darker side of the decade. Elder's engaging, humorous, tell-it-like-it-is style makes "The Bucyrus That Was" a memoir that will refresh a reader's perspective on the 1950s and prove well worth reading.
As the recent film Glory Road reminded, the early desegregation of college sports often was neither easy nor pleasant. Here Bill Elder recalls how he and a courageous group of white and black student-athletes broke racial barriers at a small college in northeast Alabama in the early 1970s. The setting was Sand Mountain, an area which four decades earlier had given rise to the Scottsboro Boys case, and where racial attitudes for some had not changed much. Elder has recently retired from a successful career as a college sports administrator, but here he shows vividly why he sometimes wondered whether he and his players would live through their experience. Abandoned by their school officials, the players faced constant threats and harassment and occasional violence. But they kept playing and winning games and forging bonds between themselves that lasted long after that first season was over. Through it all, Elder, an Alabama native and lifelong Baptist, watches his community with both a loving and an objective eye. His brief eyewitness account of both the worst and best elements of Southerners during this tumultuous era is compelling testimony.
When the formulaic constraints, censorious nature, and onerous lack of creator’s rights in mainstream comics got to be too much for the brilliant cartoonist Wallace Wood, he struck out on his own with the self-published witzend. It became a haven for Wood and his fellow professional cartoonist friends where they could produce the kind of personal work that they wanted to do, without regard to commercial demands ― and with friends like Frank Frazetta, Al Williamson, Reed Crandall, Ralph Reese, Archie Goodwin, Angelo Torres, Steve Ditko, Harvey Kurtzman, Bill Elder, Art Spiegelman, Don Martin, Vaughn Bodé, Jim Steranko, Jeff Jones, Howard Chaykin, Trina Robbins, Bernie Wrightson, and literally dozens more, it was bound to be a great ride! Now, Fantagraphics presents the complete run of witzend!
From the middle of the Twentieth Century and, often, from the middle of the United States came people Bill Tammeus describes as Middle Americans. This book is about why they mattered and how America is different today because of their values, approaches and adaptability as they faced and even helped to shape the enormous changes that have swept across American life in the last seventy or more years. This is both a highly personal story of the author's roots and experiences as a representative Middle American as well as a much broader story of people who have made an enormous difference in their communities and their nation.
Bill Jamerson was not always focused on following God. He forged his own path for years, determined to play sports and fight for his country in World War II. But everything changed that day when he felt the pressure of a Jeep on his chest! At that moment in time, life stopped and Bill clearly saw that his own path no longer mattered. From then on, Bill experienced a whirlwind adventure beyond his wildest dreams as God molded and shaped him for His service. From participating in the Battle of the Bulge and tending wounded soldiers on the battlefield, to preaching the gospel and pulling teeth in Bolivia, to developing programs for children and youth, to praying for the sick and witnessing miraculous healings, Bill has spent his life working for the Lord. Share in the joys and struggles with Bill and his family in It's Great to Be Alive... Because He Lives, and catch the vision of how exciting life can be when you live it to the fullest and enroll in the Lord's army!
Meet Elder Hammond: 'You know, there's a word to describe someone who won't even bother to meet his new companion at the bus station. It starts with an '0', or, I don't know, maybe a 'C' or something. I think it's C-a--. No, I've lost it.' Elder Hammond was a freckled-face, shy sort of bumpkin from some rural farm town in Kansas. He was awkward and withdrawn. Even in his white shirt and tie he reminded you of the type of kid you'd see in denim coveralls, wearin' a straw hat and chompin' on a thin blade of grass whilst irrigatin' the lower forty... I actually knew nothing about Elder Hammond's personal life. He was just a simple, quiet, humble kid but he was also deterined and dedicated. He had no delusions of grandeur, just a desire to serve. Perhaps more than any missionary I had ever met, Elder Hammond had a purity of spirit and an altruistic motivation in ministering. I pitied him. I think he actually believed he could make a difference.
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