Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} Vincent's story, as seen through the eyes of a boy, takes you into his youth during the hard times of the late 1920s and 1930s. He tells of his mother and father and their struggle to raise a large family during the Great Depression. Mother's first washing machine, their first telephone and electric lights, of the horse and sleighs, and the steam engines on the railroad.   The River became a most important part of his life as it game him entertainment and good fishing. It is where, in his mind, great adventures happened. First in a house of spirits and in the summer when the river teamed with fish, and where he learned to swim. The weather grew cold as winter came on and the river froze, sometimes to a depth of twelve inches. Skiing became a favourite pastime. The frosted window panes, snow forts and igloos, of a snow tunnel and a roof of pure ice. How the children walked to school in the freezing cold. The time when the fields were ploughed with horses, the blacksmith shop that made shoes for the horses. Milk and bread were delivered to your door by horse and sleigh or wagon. He tells of his first job at 13 years of age, in a bowling alley for $2.50 a week. Finding summer work at 75 cents a day, picking tomatoes and what a thrashing machine was. Because of poverty, began working in a carpet mill at fifteen, what it was like to watch the great looms working