Near Misses: Growing Up in Bowling Green With World War II, Fledgling Femme Fatales and Fallible Football Fortunes

What happens when the boy does NOT win the girl? Can he survive and even make the football team, one of the epicenters of high school life? And what about those countless teams which come close, but do not win championships? "Near Misses" has the answers at a unique time in our history - the World War II years - when the author and his friends were just a few years shy of being part of THE GREATEST GENERATION, but as "The Next Generation," were greatly influenced by the War on the Home Front. Bowling Green, circa 1938-1950, where churches, spinster teachers and the Boy Scouts strived to educate and mold character, was an ideal venue for growing up. The hilltop college conveniently provided even more book learning although public schools were segregated - separate but unequal - and black students had to leave town for college training. Yet, regardless of great efforts by the churches, those dedicated teachers and Troop 202, the most profound influence was exerted by an unlikely partnership: the Bowling Green High football team and its coaches on the one hand and the school's fledgling "femme fatales" on the other. It was a lively mix, especially when sharing time with World War II and the town's post-war leap to the mid- century mark.