Because I was unable to participate in World War II, as it had ended three decades before, my father decided that the next-best experience in which I could fully attain manhood would be to spend two summers working in a sewage treatment plant south of Chicago. This often profane, sometimes disgusting, but consistently amusing and entertaining narrative is meant to commemorate the history, vernacular, and feel of times long gone by. More than that, this is a book about real characters, my family, and the hometown that I came to know and love.