Lamar Kilgore

A Buckeye Boyhood Lamar Kilgore

A Buckeye Boyhood is a collection of anecdotes which span the twentieth century beginning with Mae and Acy's early 1900's migration from the subsistence of tenant farming to the relative good times of working for wages in the city. The author credits their courage as his model for always taking action to find a better life. A series of transparently autobiographical vignettes trace our Buckeye boy's path from his dusty childhood playground to a first job on the assembly line and then to the practice of law. He takes us to Ohio farms and job shops, a 1950 pool hall, the 1956 U. S. Open golf tournament, the 1959 Pennsylvania state bar exam and a 1980 Pennsylvania county court room. A great variety of unforgettable characters come to life including a Mom of steely resolve, an irrepressible Dad, a golf hustler, a heavy weight champion, a law school dean and more than one lost love. A Pacifist the author describes his moment of true epiphany in 1950 on the threshold of a Marine recruiting office, followed decades later by his public opposition to the horrific waste and futility of the wars in Viet Nam and now, Afghanistan and Iraq.