Between the Tracks

I believe that there is too much trash on the Television and it is hurting our country. There is too much drugs, killing and bed hopping. I wanted to write a book that younger people could read. I also wanted to put in a touch of the Bible.

“Between the Tracks” is a book about things through my life and when I was growing up and things that I have collected from listing to many stories.

The Author was born 1937 in Chillicothe, a medium sized Southern Ohio city. During his childhood, many would consider you rich if you had a decent house and enough to eat. All the extra luxuries of today were unheard of back then.

Mike’s dad worked in a factory to support the family, while Mike helped out by taking a paper route. He always wanted to travel so when he turned sixteen Mike bought his first car with his paper rout money.

By the age of twenty Mike had bought two pieces of land and built a four-room house. He eventually got a job at a local paper mill and started a family of his own. By the age of 40 he owned and operated sixteen rental properties all the while remaining active in the church.

The author retired in 1999 and published his first book Nub and Bow in 2002. His mother, a schoolteacher, always wanted to write a book but never did –this is what drives him to write today. Mike has said “ If I knew I would be writing books today, I would have studied harder in school”.

From Chapter 9 when Mike was in Italy.

      As I was walking down the street a girl stopped me and said, “Buy some pretty pictures of Rome.”

     Since this had happened before I said to myself that I would be ready for the next time that this happens. I said “Ou-e ou ha ha, zing zang tally wally bing bang.”

     She said “What?”

     And I repeated it.

     She said, “Aren’t you English?”

     I said “Bochano,  Bochano.”

     And as she started to walk away in one direction and I in another, I heard her say, “Buy some pretty pictures of Rome.”

     I kept right on going and didn’t turn around.

     I told my aunt Sadie this after I got back home. She said, “If you had turned around that time, she would have had you.

Picture caption (for both front and back cover)

The Ross County Historical Society provided the cover picture. The author’s childhood home was near the train track junction and depot pictured on the front and back. Railroad tracks ran within a block on both sides of the house so you could say that he grew up between the tracks.