. . . And Thursday's Child . . .
by
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Chapter 1
Life is what happens while you re
making other plans.
John Lennon
Growing up in Phoenix in the fifties and early sixties was exhilarating. Everything about the city was clean and new. Stark white, turquoise blue, and vivid orange were the dominating colors. At Christmas Santa Claus would arrive wearing bright red shorts and riding a burro, or he would drop from a helicopter to parachute into a supermarket parking lot, while kids splashed in backyard swimming pools in the warm December sun.
Encanto Park beckoned in the Summer, offering a lagoon, Playland, and a golf course each a cooling respite from the searing heat. The site of a former dairy farm became Park Central, offering one-stop-shopping in an entirely new atmosphere the shopping mall.
After school we would rush home and turn the TV to channel five to watch Wallace and Ladmo, a kid s show that held a fascination for teens and adults alike.
At night we would drive to the Cinema Park or Indian Drive-Ins for the latest movies, taking sacks of fifteen-cent McDonald s hamburgers, along with bags of ten-cent fries to feed our adolescent acne.
Those who moved to the warm, clean desert brought with them an air of optimism and a pioneer spirit. Crime was virtually unheard of and no one worried if we stayed out late. We were having too much fun to get caught up in juvenile delinquency or vandalism. Bob s Big Boy, KRIZ, and cruisin Central were the mainstays of our lives.
The city was a kid too, where clean air and an aura of youthful innocence permeated everything. Palm trees, convertibles, and swimming pools added to the carnival-like atmosphere of life in the newly tamed desert. We never had to go anywhere for a vacation. Phoenix was where other people came to escape the Winter, crowded cities, and the daily grind. Life in Phoenix was a never-ending holiday of sun and fun combined with a strong economy.
As teenagers, the car became our world safe and inviolate. An environment where parental interference was not allowed. My life revolved around a 58 Pontiac Bonneville hardtop, bought with the proceeds from an after school job flipping burgers at Bob s Big Boy on Central and Thomas. The original owner had been killed in a South Phoenix shoot-out, and when I took delivery, there was still a nice round bullet hole in the driver s seat. It didn t matter, I had my own plans for the car.
By the time I was done it had been de-chromed, lowered three inches, a new black and white tuck-and-roll interior installed, and had been painted midnight black, replacing the original goat-vomit green.
It was a magnificent beast, but impractical as hell. During the Summer the black exterior would turn the interior into a two-hundred-degree oven. The car was so low there were intersections I could barely creep across.
But it was mine and I loved it.
And heaven was a Friday night on Central, with Sandy snuggled under my arm, KRIZ blaring a Roy Orbison song, and the glass packs rumbling as we cruised with the rest of the pack.
It was an ideal time. Presidential assassinations belonged in history books and the nation was not involved in a war for profit. Millions of war babies were preparing to come of age, each of us cocky as hell and full of the brashness of youth.
That youthful attitude was to prove my downfall. On Tuesday, the 4th of April, 1961, I crossed over the line between common sense and stupidity, and once across, discovered turning back was not allowed.
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About the Book
At fourteen he discovered life. At fifteen he discovered love. At seventeen he lost his world. At eighteen his life changed forever. "...and Thursday's Child..." is a story unlike anything you have ever read. As the first book in an exciting new trilogy, this novel follows the struggles of a young man who should never have been born. Experience the story of a journey from hell to heaven and back again as his life moves beyond the norm in a series of events that leave you praying for the sanity of a quiet cup of coffee and the Sunday paper. Beginning in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1961, the story soon thrusts you into a whirlwind of emotions along the highways of America with a frightened and confused young man who discovers life consists of cops, jails, and people who want only to take advantage of him. And there are the women those who love him, those who want him, and those who frighten him. "...and Thursday's Child..." is one of the most memorable books you will ever read. A story that will stay with you for a lifetime.
About the Author
Bob Moore has been a Roadie all of his life. With a father who thought nothing of driving six to seven-hundred miles in a day, the Road has always offered a world of adventure for Bob. In the 1980's, Bob formed, in conjunction with Christina Crawford (Mommie Dearest), the Survivor's Network Utah, an organization dedicated to dealing with the problems of adult survivors of child abuse. He was the founder and publisher of The Mother Road Journal, the first periodical devoted to the world of Route 66, and is the author of Craps With Confidence, Zenith Trans-Oceanic The Radio Powered to Tune the World, and the best selling Route 66 The Illustrated Guidebook to the Mother Road. During the corporate hysteria of the early 1990's, following a successful twenty-five year career, he was down-sized from a major telecommunications company "The best thing that ever happened to me was being tossed out of Dilbert-ville." Bob has worked in radio, both as a DJ and talk show host. But it is his love of the desert southwest, Death Valley, and the two-lane roads of America that keep him the most active. He has organized and conducted tours for European clients that exposed travelers from around the world to the wonders of America. He is well known in Europe, both for his Route 66 work as well as his series of articles about Area 51, the secret base hidden in the Nevada Desert. He is currently the editor of Route 66 Magazine, and Operations Manager for KRTE-FM, "The Voice of Route 66." Bob has been writing for over thirty years, "...and Thursday's Child..." is his first novel, the initial offering in a trilogy.