Crossroads

Crossroads is a collection of sixty-eight fictional short stories based on the memories of James R. Mahoney. They relate the personal experiences of a member of the generation linked together by the historic spike in the population growth engendered by the end of the world wide military conflict of the twentieth century, the 'baby-boomers'. The stories range from the author's childhood in the 1950's and 60's to matriculation as an adult in the 70's, through middle age in the twenty first century. The stories appear in order of the magnitude of poignancy that each story has had for its author, and read in its entirety, the book reveals the experience of one man's life in a time and a place that will be of interest to all those who hold dear the adage handed down through the ages from the philosopher Socrates: 'The unexamined life is not worth living.' Mahoney reveals the little known facts of a youth mired in dysfunction; two careers, one as a Railroad engineer in the 1970s, a period of time that the railroads underwent tremendous changes resulting in the first massive downsizing of the American blue-collar job market, and a second career as an accountant in era of giant technological leaps and extraordinary ethical challenges that worked a sea change on the men and women in that profession. The stories include the author's bitter sweet relationship with his high school sweetheart as well as his two marriages. The stories explore the unique privileges and joys enjoyed by this special generation as well as the hardships and sorrows. Finally the book attempts to draw a thread of community between all human beings. There is no telling whether or not future generations will take note of the lives of people born between the years 1946 - 1964 CE., but in case anybody is interested, Crossroads by James R. Mahoney is a bottle cast into the ocean of time for some future beach comber to find.