Confessions of a Crabgrass Cowboy

About the Book

Confessions Of a Crabgrass Cowboy is a tale about coming of age in a fresh and eccentric environment called suburbia. As a personal memoir, the book details the vicissitudes of replacing playground bullies with "Playboy Playmates," while simultaneously preparing daily for the Armageddon we were promised was right around the corner.

Confessions Of a Crabgrass Cowboy also chronicles the cultural quirks of the era itself-Dick and Jane, CONELRAD, Charles Atlas, Tupperware®, X-Ray spectacles, coon skin caps, and anatomically correct dolls are but a handful-that we now so closely and warmly associate with this distinctive period in American history.

Were Dick and Jane the only children in American without a surname? Did Battle Creek, Michigan really exist? Were the prodigious privates of John Dillinger really placed briefly on display at the world-renowned Smithsonian Institute? Were the lyrics of the Kingsmen's 1963 one-hit-wonder "Louie Louie" as obscenity-laced as many believed? What hapless sitcom blew the lid off the unspoken toilet taboo by exposing millions of viewers to the interior of an American bathroom for the first time?

So saddle up for a leisurely ride back in time and discover what all the fuss was really about.

About the Author

Author and early patio pioneer William Schwarz was born in 1949 and raised in the heart of suburban crabgrass country, Long Island, New York. Leaving the east coast for a time to study for the ministry, he explored the real American West while living and working in remote and far-flung places like Deadwood, Custer, and Wounded Knee, South Dakota. With the siren song of suburbia still ringing in his ears, Mr. Schwarz was eventually drawn back to Long Island, where he managed a number of unique and historic housing cooperatives. He currently lives in Rockville Centre with his wife, two daughters, and finally, a dog.