Memoirs of a Main Street Boy

Ralph Crosby's Memoirs of a Main Street Boy tells the tale of growing up at a tempestuous time in U.S. history - from the Great Depression, through World War II and the Cold War - in a town where America's colonial history was even more tempestuous, amid classic homes and institutions that still exist. The story takes you through the author's interplay with these historic places and events that helped shape U.S. history, as well as shaping his life and those of his generation. You will discover: How Annapolis became the first capital of the United States. Why the Revolutionary War officially ended in the Maryland State House. Why John Paul Jones' body waited seven years in Annapolis to be buried at the U.S. Naval Academy Chapel. How a young Francis Scott Key, attending school in Annapolis, became the poet who would write 'The Star-Spangled Banner.' How much George Washington liked to gamble in card games and on the races in Annapolis. How the author and his friends, like youngsters throughout the U.S., contributed to the Second World War effort. Why the U.S. Naval Academy was located in Annapolis and why it almost left. Why Annapolis stayed calm while cities around it erupted in flames when Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot. Why the tiny Annapolis port once supplied the world with tobacco and oysters. What it was like when radio was king of entertainment media. How religious and social discrimination impacted a small town in the mid-20th century. That, before he became famous as the symbol of press freedom, John Peter Zenger managed one of America's earliest newspapers in Annapolis. Why some view the Annapolis burning of the ship Peggy Stewart more critical to the Revolution than the more famous Boston Tea Party. What it was like to be a school boy when the fearful nuclear age began. And much more... This is not an autobiography. It is a memoir of growing up in one of the country's most disruptive yet most dynamic eras-from the end of the Great Depression, through World War II to the Cold War. That the growing up occurred in and around places where Washington, Jefferson and Franklin and their comrades planned war and made peace gives the story a unique perspective. Ralph W. Crosby has enjoyed great success in a multifaceted career as journalist, author, and marketer. A graduate of the University of Maryland College of Journalism, Ralph began his professional life as a newspaperman in Baltimore, later becoming a Washington Correspondent and magazine writer during the Eisenhower-Kennedy-Johnson era; culminating his journalistic career in 1972 as an editor with the Kiplinger organization. All the while he lived in his hometown, Annapolis, Maryland, where he still resides with his wife, Carlotta. Currently, he is chairman of Crosby Marketing Communications, an award-winning advertising and public relations firm he founded in 1973. The firm, with 50-plus employees, has offices in Annapolis and Washington, D.C. Memoirs of a Main Street Boy is his third published book. 3