Growing Up Strange is a  memoir centered on my childhood in the Midwest during the fifties and sixties: a time of naïveté, simplicity, surprise, and change. In comparing my life of today with my life back in the fifties and sixties, it appears as though I was at once both poor and privileged.  I remember my childhood with fondness, and feel that it was rich in many ways that are not even available in today’s fast-paced technologically driven society.

Part nostalgia, part cookbook, part humor, and part social commentary, my childhood experiences helped create the recipes that I have lived by and passed on to my own children.

In reminiscing about this more simple time, I hope to pay homage to my parents, and celebrate how they dedicated their lives to my siblings and me-the Strange kids-in doing whatever it took to give us enriched lives without the benefit of material riches.  I want the audience to remember their own childhoods and the parents, siblings, and friends who played a central role in helping them grow.

The details and the memories in this remembered and loved time have given me a fulfilled, happy and enriched life. Mother and Daddy-I thank you.

S.A. Strange