Growing Up in Lakewood Ohio

This is a memoir about growing up in Lakewood, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. It is a memoir about Ohio, a memoir about childhood, a memoir about high school, a memoir about friends. Especially, it is a memoir about family. The stories are funny, sad, poignant and reflective of the times, 1939-1952. Chapters cover birth and extended families, Christmases, World War II, the neighborhood, social life, elementary to high school, church and Sunday school, the wider community, earning money, school years, and summary reflections that put the memoir in the context of literature on growing up in a hometown community.

Lee Hartshorne Lybarger, born and raised in Lakewood, OH, has a B.A. from the College of Wooster, two master degrees (Case Western Reserve Univ. and University of Illinois). He did alternative service under the Draft (Selective Service System) in Puerto Rico; race relations work in Cleveland; was an urban community organizer for the Presbyterian Church in Pakistan (1962-1971), an economic development planner for the City of Cleveland and City of Trenton, N.J., and a family financial agent for Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. He has been married to Connie J. Diller since 1962. They have three children in Chicago, Russellville, Ark., and Berkeley, CA., and have four grandchildren. He and Connie have lived in Delaware, OH since 1996. He acquired his interest in photography from his father, and writing from his mother.