The book describes happy childhood events, boys' adventures and the variety of exploits, a rural town is able to offer. Family life was stable, joyful and warm, conducive to a carefree climate for children and the foundation for responsible adulthood, despite difficult times in war and an oppressive political regime. Happy childhood years were interrupted by the Second World War, displacement and Russian occupation, bringing hardship and national trauma.
This autobiography of a young immigrant to America provides a fascinating historical context to events, as it describes small-town life in the years between the two World Wars, when the country enjoyed a respite from foreign domination, and savored the fruits of two decades of peace and prosperity, in the years when historic Hungary was still intact. The Treaty of Trianon, a most treacherous diplomatic pact, tore from the country the majority of her population and divided two thirds of her land between six surrounding nations. Two lost wars, Soviet occupation and the imposed communist dictatorship, robbed people of dignity and much of their property. Sovietization of the country and its culture wiped the smile from faces and forced the population to march to the drummer of the Communist International.
War-time memories include stealing into the vacated Jewish ghetto, after the Nazis' swift departure, as the hordes of the Red Army drew closer; also, the watching of dogfights overhead, the shooting down of a Liberator, followed by the marching through town of the captured American airmen. After the Russian take-over, German soldiers were held in his house, which was a temporary Soviet headquarters, and interrogated in an adjacent room amid screaming and flying obscenities by secret policemen, then executed in the back garden.
Young Miklos and his brothers had a broken-down tank to play in, after it was left in the back yard. Village boys lost life and limb, playing with scattered landmines on surrounding fields.
In October 1956, Hungarians rebelled against the dictatorial rule of Soviet and domestic communist despots. After shedding much blood, the revolution succeeded. Then the Red Army returned with a vengeance to again trample on the will of the people. The Iron Curtain was torn open for a while, to allow the flight of 200,000, mostly young Hungarians to the West. Miklos was among those who chose freedom that offered a chance for a new life. He ended up in Milwaukee, where his first goals were to learn the language and earn his degrees.
