Looking for Clark Gable and other 20th-century pursuits

the long version

From "girl reporter" to professor of history, Virginia Van der Veer Hamilton has witnessed some of the major events of the 20th century. Her stories of growing up during the Depression and coming of age during World War II evoke warm memories of another time - a time of innocence, a time when people dressed up to go riding in a car, a time when the whole town danced in the streets until midnight to celebrate the return of some soldiers... a time when two young girls from Birmingham could safely take a train to Miami to catch a glimpse of a national hero, Clark Gable. From Birmingham to Washington, D.C., and back to Birmingham again, Hamilton's essays allow us to travel with her and relive some of the major events and themes of our times: the nation's reaction to the death of FDR, the reminiscences of Hosea Williams on the "Bloody Sunday" march in Selma, the struggle by women to enter male-dominated professions, and the views of senior citizens and others toward the idea of "retirement."