Overview

A boy's story of growing up as a member of an extended immigrant family from Cornwall, England, in the bustling, multi-ethnic town of Ironwood, Michigan-the commercial center of the far-western Upper Peninsula-during the Great Depression and World War II. Bobby is a richly detailed memoir that captures the rhythms of small-town life in Ironwood, Michigan, through the eyes of a reflective narrator growing up in the mid-twentieth century. Told with warmth, humor, and a touch of melancholy, the book traces a family's intertwining stories-of love and hardship, pride and loss-set against the rugged backdrop of the Upper Peninsula. Through vivid vignettes of home life, community rituals, and colorful relatives, the narrator reconstructs a vanished world shaped by iron ore mines, church bells, and family expectations. At its heart, Bobby is an affectionate and deeply human portrait of a bygone America-one where memory and place converge to illuminate the endurance of family and the passage from innocence to understanding.

Full Product Details

9781968761615

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Reviews

""Michigan's great writer Jim Harrison wrote, ""Death steals everything but our stories,"" and Bob Trezise Sr., still thriving at ninety-four, figured that out almost forty years ago when he penned an amazing collection of stories about growing up in Ironwood, Michigan, in the 1930s and 1940s. What was once a mimeographed collection compiled for his family and fellow Upper Peninsula residents has been given a new life in his book, Bobby. The book, with a nod to terrific storytelling, inspired by quotidian experiences coupled with visual acuity, adeptly recognizes we are on the precipice of losing the stories of an entire generation. Trezise's book fills that void with an elegance of homegrown storytelling. The book will inspire readers to begin writing their own stories."" -Bill Castanier, literary reviewer for Lansing City Pulse for nearly twenty-five years interviewing more than twelve hundred authors.

Author Information

Robert (Bob) Trezise was born in Ironwood, Michigan, in 1932 and graduated from Luther L Wright High School in 1949. He later graduated with an associate degree from Gogebic Junior College, a bachelor's in English from Northwestern University, and a master's degree in English and a PhD in education from Michigan State University (1968). His dissertation was on the subject of gifted and talented children. Bob taught at various public schools for a few years, mainly in the Lansing School District. Bob spent the rest of his career working in the state of Michigan's Department of Education, retiring in 1989. Bob has had numerous articles published in both professional journals and general magazines.Bob married his wife, Joan, of sixty-two years, in 1964. They have three children, nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. For thirty years, Bob and Joan have owned a family cottage on Torch Lake near Traverse City, while living in Lansing, Michigan.Wherever Bob has lived, he's been a member of a choral group and has appeared in numerous amateur stage productions. Bob has been a prolific writer including numerous unpublished pieces on a variety of subjects such as a historical look at Jesus's life and Joan's life growing up in Sunfield, Michigan. Bob is also an amateur painter and his early paintings of iron ore mines in the UP are displayed in the Ironwood Historical Museum.

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