Robert McNally

Author Robert McNally writes about growing up during the Great Depression and World War II. When he retired as an insurance auditor, he turned to writing. McNally now resides in Floral Park, NY with his wife and has been happily married for 60 years. Born in Bridgeport, Ct., and with money scarce, the family moved to Middle Village, NY, where his father secured work in a crematory and received free housing on the property. With his good memory, the author reminisces about the "good 'ol days,"...See more

Author Robert McNally writes about growing up during the Great Depression and World War II. When he retired as an insurance auditor, he turned to writing. McNally now resides in Floral Park, NY with his wife and has been happily married for 60 years. Born in Bridgeport, Ct., and with money scarce, the family moved to Middle Village, NY, where his father secured work in a crematory and received free housing on the property. With his good memory, the author reminisces about the "good 'ol days," and also the bad. Robert McNally's hilarious recollection of childhood memories in "The Memoir of a Boy on His Dangerous Journey" trilogy is reminiscent of Huck Finn. McNally takes his readers along to experience extraordinary events, which ultimately form lasting bonds and memories. The trilogy includes: I Had Jelly on My Nose and A Hole in My Breeches (vol. 1), Sister Superior's Thumb, the Pope's Ring and the End of Childhood (vol. 2), The Boy Who Loved Girls (vol. 3). Volume one highlights McNally's childhood during the Great Depression era. This wide-eyed, young boy's inner circle while living next to a crematory included members of his family and his best friend Rosemary. In his surroundings were Gypsies, beggars and hobos. When the family moved back to his birthplace they lived across the street from a jail. Some of the inmates became his good friends. In Ridgewood he hopped rides on freight cars and explored the local environs. There were Nazi spies throughout Ridgewood and in his search for them, he found one living in his apartment building. One morning he discovered a dead infant in the rubble of a burned out fire he had set some 14 hours earlier. The second volume of the trilogy continues on with the author's adventures as he enters adolescence. One day he picked himself up and walked out of school and did not return. Three months later he was registered in a different one. Occasionally he'd find himself in trouble with railroad detectives and the neighborhood police. On the other hand he tried to convince a couple of runaways to return home, and saved one runaway from being murdered by his friend. McNally also reveled in his 15 minutes of fame when he captured the first black widow spider in the northeastern US. "Times were much simpler then and the things we conjured up to entertain ourselves still make me smile," says McNally. "My hope is that readers find themselves laughing out loud and recall their own childhood shenanigans." See less