Kevin O'Hara recreates his boyhood with these wonderful stories of growing up in Massachusetts in the 1950s and 60s as one of eight children. His parents, born in Ireland, came to this country for their children's sake. His family struggled against grinding poverty but never gave up and never lost their faith that God had a plan for them. Kevin learned the lessons of making do and making things last, and of the true riches of the world: good health and the love of a united family. All these lessons grounded him as he reached adulthood and was sent off to fight in Vietnam as a reluctant soldier. This book will tug at your heart and make you cry tears of both sorrow and joy. It is a story about the Irish-American experience but it is much more - it's the story of a generation growing up in the shadow of the Second World War and the start of a new age of hope and promise, a time when people believed that anything was possible as long as you dared to dream and had faith in yourself. And a little Irish luck couldn't hurt either.