BORN ON A MOUNTAINTOP

“Born On A Mountaintop” is a reminisce, a personal history sweetened by time, recalled with longing, factual, but not accurate. Those events I have chosen to write about essentially happened, though not necessarily in the idealized manner I have recorded them. It is the issues, the perplexing ques­tions and contradictions I encountered growing up which I have attempted to relate most accurately.

Myths, Good and Evil, customs, traditions, facts and fables, along with not so Little White Lies were a minefield I had to traverse through my child­hood. Not all of these fictions were harmful but many were, and I still puzzle over their purpose.

My companions on this journey, as portrayed in these stories, are for the most part, amalgams of my childhood companions. I have chosen to re­spect their privacy and not inflict my uncertainties and issues onto their journey of growth.

Lowell, Massachusetts remains constant in my memory, a field of clover with considerable puddles of mud and patches of hemlock around the edges. On those occasions when I can remain still I can recall her rattling city bus­es, her green, well tended parks, red brick mills, and corner taverns along­side corner churches. The rest is silence.

Mostly.

David Ferrier is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He served two consecutive tours of duty in Vietnam from 1967 to 1969. After seven years with the Vietnam Veterans Outreach Program he was a private investigator in Los Angeles for over thirty years.

5.0 out of 5 Stars Born On A Mountaintop is a memoir of the author’s life from when he was 8 years old in 1957 to 14 years old in 1963 while growing up in Lowell, Massachusetts. It chronicles the personal story of Dave’s (the authors) life – Little League baseball, attending strict dogmatic Catholic schools, school dances, hero worship of Davy Crockett, and his close friendships with his best friends Maragaret Mary & Teddy as they learn the important lessons of youth as they get older and are molded by the times they lived in. The characters are lifelike and jump out of the page at you making you want to know what happens next. 5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read A journey through a time of innocence and Saturday morning T.V. hero’s that showed the good guy always prevails. Then to a period of ominous threats of annihilation from a foreign adversary, the assassination of a beloved President and the mystery surrounding it, racial unrest and the loss of innocence. This book brought back many suppressed memories of my youth, some good, some not so much. 5.0 out of 5 stars This is a wonderfully well-written mostly autobiographical journey through the formative years of a Massachusetts boy growing up in the 1950s and 60s. Cleverly bookended by two significant events in his and his friends’ lives, one a celebration of a old American hero the other a national tragedy involving another American hero, the narrative takes us, mostly happily, through many boyhood rites of passage. There are, however, enough setbacks and vicissitudes to keep the reader interested and the writer describes how many valuable lessons were learned along the way. 5.0 out of 5 stars How innocent we are while growing up. I grew up in the 50’s, Ohio, not Mass., but so many similarities that I found myself with a constant smile on my face while reading the book…Could not put it down! A great read!…Donald D. 5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent prose What a way with words. Enlightening & insightful -crystallizes thoughts, feelings & impressions typical of the times & now.

Format: Paperback, Ebook