Growing up during the Great Depression and coping with a father deserting the family is what Gerry faced at the age of seven. His childhood experiences and good luck helped him survive WWII. After a number of humiliations by a neighborhood bully who was much bigger than he, Gerry managed to beat him badly. The reputation seven-year-old Gerry got from that fight meant that he never had another fight the entire several years he lived in that neighborhood. He applied that lesson in the infantry during the war. Josh, an observant Jew, and Gerald became close friends. They discussed precociously every subject imaginable at great length, and by the time he was thirteen, he was an avowed atheist with a very strong philosophy of life. When he was attacked by four anti-semitic hoodlums, he beat them by surprise and the cover of this book gives an unsubtle clue as to how he equalized the fight on the following day. That technique also was used in France where it probably saved his life. Gerry took a course to become a machinist which got him a job at the Charlestown Navy Yard where together with the South Boston Yard, they launched a ship every day. The incredible pace of construction during WWII resulted in many casualties. Gerry nearly died twice. During the summer of '43 at Winthrop Beach he had a love affair with Erna and they became engaged to be married after the war.