The First Tri: As a Young Man

Readers of The First Tri will be drawn in by these stories from everyman, Dan Fishwick, about his life in that first wave of post-war "boomers." He begins by sorting through the imagery of pre-language childhood memories and moves to stories about the bulging classrooms of his 50s parochial school in the suburbs of Cleveland. He offers us a view inside a Catholic minor seminary. This in the early sixties, when the times were changing. In college at John Carroll, Fishwick balanced his studies with many jobs to pay the way. And here the stories are intentionally more about life off-campus than on. Peace Corps in Africa in the late sixties moves us far and away, with a return landing to face the draft and seek conscientious-objector status. Grad school intrigues and an unexpected ending lead to a life interest in making musical instruments. And then a year playing folk music in the pubs of Edinburgh, love, marriage, bicycling across America and a plot of land in the end. You will find many themes in The First Tri, evidence of anyone's growing up, a sense of the times and places, and always good fun in the stories. But the book is also and essentially the first thirty years of a very compelling love story, one we can all relate to.