It Still Holds Up, Today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                  Girls, I have absolutely no doubt that in some small town communities today, this would still be regarded as a vile  book.  I mean, girls pulling off their panties in cars, or trying on falsies in their bedroom??????????  America can't have that, can it???????????????

                                                    Grace Metalious knew, and she told.  And, in some way suffered for it.  But her tale holds up today.  This must be my fourth reading of "Peyton Place," and I cannot get over how well written it is.  A high school grad, but no college, or lit or creative writing courses, and she wrote a book for the ages.  Remarkable.

                                                      And, girls,  let me tell you, every word of it is true, because, having grown up in a small town, I LIVED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I have written about some of my more repugnant school mates, but there are some things I have never written about, such as--

                                                         The horrible suicidal death of my mother's friend, back  in 1978.

                                                           The almost traumatic incident which happened to me on November 12, 1970.

                                                             The unforgivable letter an uncle by marriage wrote to my mother and I, while she lie dying in the hospital, of lung cancer, in early 1979.

                                                                So, don't try and tell me I did not LIVE "Peyton Place."  

                                                                These three events marked the last straw.  I knew then I had to get out of not only Highland Park, but New Jersey--and  fast!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                                   Grace knew the score, while I learned it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!