The Family
By Michael J. Woods
The story of Florence and Tommy Woods and their eight kids is the story of America's family. This book connects political, social, cultural and historic events to the lives of family members along with the country’s development through the 20th century.
$20.00
"No one ever had more fun growing up than the Woods boys and many of their friends. The Woods family lived it, loved it and used the lessons to enrich their lives."
— Gary Herrity, The Clinton Herald
About the Author
Michael J. Woods
Retired from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and from a career as a public-school athletics coach and social studies teacher, Mike Woods wants to encourage other families to start telling their own stories, believing there are many families out there who have persevered, overcome obstacles and achieved all kinds of greatness.
Read an Excerpt
At night when the weather was warm, we could have a game of Kick-the-Can or Hide-and-Go-Seek. During the winter, we spent a lot of time with our sleds on the Ninth Avenue hill, just one block from our house.
If we rode our sleds through the yard of the Leahy sisters located on the south side of the hill and across the street from our house, we could slide all the way to our garage. There were times when we went through the sisters' yard and found them waiting for us on the porch or sidewalk ready to try and hit us with their brooms. We had to go right past them. We thought the whole scene was pretty funny—but I don't recall the folks knowing what we were doing!
There were days when we carried buckets of water to the hill after a snow hoping the water would freeze overnight. When the hill had good ice coverage, we could start at the top and with some luck slide all the way to Fourth Street. Those little American Flyer sleds were great! During the day, there might be 10 or 15 kids on the hill. We were always looking for new ways to create new trails.