“Don’t Lift Up Your Hood and Cuss, Call Us!” candidly recounts the loving, humorous, difficult and unexpected turns in the life of an overweight, shy and sheltered child of Chicago’s late 1940s Southside Pilsen neighborhood. After starting life in a city of flats, horse drawn wagons, stickball, penny candy stores, Maxwell Street and black snow, she moves to a small home in rural La Grange, IL, offering a much less congested and cleaner place than the Southside of Chicago. Her new home is filled with love and many pets including dogs, cats, birds, a giant goldfish, a one eyed turtle, a racoon and a banty rooster.
She survives bullying and body shaming throughout parochial school and during job hunting. With "Call Us!" help from her dad, she is hired as an executive secretary. Then, after determinedly losing 60 pounds, she becomes a USO dance hostess and meets her soulmate, US Navy seaman Patrick Harrington. They date during 1968 Chicago’s tumultuous racial violence and Democrat convention and marry six months later. The Navy moves her life from Illinois to Florida and having a son, Brian; to living a primitive lifestyle on the Island of Adak, Alaska and finally coping with loneliness, earthquakes and a completely different culture in Misawa, Japan. Her experiences graphically illustrate the hardships of “military family life”.
Bonnie’s dad, a truck mechanic, gave her the mantra, "Don’t Lift Up Your Hood and Cuss, Call Us!" to help her push through life’s difficulties while growing stronger & more confident. Help, both external and internal, was always just a "Call Us!" away if needed. Bonnie’s book offers you her story of hope and achievement and the free use of her mantra when your life needs a boost to push through.
Copyright 2023 275 Pages
Souftbound: ISBN 978-1-965679-67-8
eBook: ISBN 978-1-965679-68-5
