Author Ray Schumack has produced an account of his family's struggle to survive the hard times in New York's Borough of the Bronx during the years of the Great Depression. He has written true tales about real people, told with humor and insight into their strengths and shortcomings. He notes that his extended family was like the cast of hundreds in a Hollywood extravaganza, only some are remembered better, especially his father's Aunt Lizzy and Aunt Lulu Stein, because they gave him the best Christmas presents. His family's relatives lived not only in the Bronx, but in communities surrounding the Bronx, in New Jersey and as far away as St. Louis. If he tried to write something about every one of his relatives, he would never have finished this book. The book covers life in America between the years 1927 to1940, with a few comparisons to things that occurred years later.