Town and Country Childhood begins in the early 1960s in a small town in Southwest Iowa. Growing up in the ’60s was not an easy task. My dad owned several gas stations before taking over my uncle’s bar, Town and Country Tavern, after his death. The death of my grandpa, my uncle, the Vietnam War, the assassinations of President Kennedy and Reverend Martin Luther King, and the riots made me question longevity.
If life was going to be short, live it to the fullest regardless of the cost. Breaking the rules was considered a right, and nothing was going to stop me. Growing up in the tavern allowed me to become friends with my dad’s friends who survived the forties and World War II. I thought drinking and other bad habits were a way to have fun, but I learned too late that they were coping mechanisms that eventually destroyed you. Eventually, it all caught up.