This is a memoir about growing up in Lakewood, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. It is a memoir about Ohio, a memoir about childhood, a memoir about high school, a memoir about friends. Especially, it is a memoir about family. The stories are funny, sad, poignant and reflective of the times, 1939-1952. Chapters cover birth and extended families, Christmases, World War II, the neighborhood, social life, elementary to high school, church and Sunday school, the wider community, earning money, school years, and summary reflections that put the memoir in the context of literature on growing up in a hometown community. Heart-Grabbing and Inspiring -- Will Rouse Your Own Fondest Memories [FIVE STARS] This is a wonderful book, a heart grabber. It is Lee Lybarger's story of his growing-up years, but it's going to remind you of your own growing-up years, your own family, your own hometown - I don't care where or when you grew up! When you finish Growing Up in Lakewood Ohio, you may start jotting down your own memories, preparing to write your own book about your own life. Growing Up in Lakewood Ohio is just that inspiring. --Sandra Breuer An especially touching aspect of Growing Up in Lakewood Ohio is how Lee's parents and teachers were able to help and guide him. The high school counselor who told him he could go to college when he thought his grades weren't good enough opened a door for him that changed his life. This book made me so aware of how our words and deeds, as adults, can help or harm a young person. -- Lindsay Hall The quotation that opens my book, "Growing Up in Lakewood Ohio," explains very well my intentions and feelings about this story of my early life that includes memories of my parents, the town where I grew up, and events that shaped my adult self--memories that live always in my mind and my heart. Here is that introductory quotation: I think, there is the need to enter that still room within us all where the past lives on as a part of the present, where the dead are alive again, where we are most alive ourselves to where our journeys have brought us. The name of the room is Remember, the room where with patience, with charity, with quietness of heart, we remember consciously to remember the lives we have lived.   Carl Frederick Buechner (1926- ) A Room Called Remember: Uncollected Pieces Lee Hartshorne Lybarger, born and raised in Lakewood, OH, has a B.A. from the College of Wooster, two master degrees (Case Western Reserve Univ. and University of Illinois). He did alternative service under the Draft (Selective Service System) in Puerto Rico; race relations work in Cleveland; was an urban community organizer for the Presbyterian Church in Pakistan (1962-1971), an economic development planner for the City of Cleveland and City of Trenton, N.J., and a family financial agent for Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. He has been married to Connie J. Diller since 1962. They have three children in Chicago, Russellville, Ark., and Berkeley, CA., and have four grandchildren. He and Connie have lived in Delaware, OH since 1996. He acquired his interest in photography from his father, and writing from his mother.