A Gift of Dreams

by Robert A. Benjamin

"A Gift of Dreams" is a classic American coming-of-age tale cast well outside the ordinary mold, a memoir with roots deep in the intensity of youthful experience. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0979232848
• ISBN13: 9780979232848
• Release Date: May 2007
• Publisher: Helm Publishing (IL)
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.02 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

a gift of dreams

This book is a must read for those who grew up in the fifty or sixties it brings many memories rushing back!It was very well written once you start you won't put it down I loved the book thank you Robert A. Benjamin!!!!

A Gift of Dreams for All Ages

Robert A. Benjamin is well-known as an artist and designer in the model aviation community, both in the Pacific Northwest, where he has lived since 1973, and nationally. He has had over 50 of his original paintings appear on the covers on Model Builder, Model Aviation, and several other magazines, and he has written numerous articles on his original designs and model building techniques. Now he has taken up the pen, or keyboard if you will, with a book called A Gift of Dreams, that promises to be the beginning of an inspiring autobiographical series. A Gift of Dreams begins when Bob was about five years old growing up in post-war New England and takes us up to the time he was about to go off to college. The main theme that runs through this tale of coming of age is his love of aviation and so many of the things related to aviation. His dad was a flight engineer in a B-29 during the war in the Pacific, he began building models with his dad's help and encouragement. He progressed over the years to his first radio controlled model with a single channel control for the rudder by means of an escapement mechanism and a vacuum tube transmitter powered by high voltage dry cell batteries. Along the way we follow the development of a boy into a young man with adversities met and overcome, joys experienced and shared, from first balsa stick and tissue model successfully built and flown, pennies earned and saved for that first model engine, and the disappointment of a prized model crashed into tiny pieces on the ground. His story is not all about models although they provide a strong common thread of motivation. We learn of his struggle with the New England Calvinistic background of his parents in which it was never acknowledged that he was bright, conscientious, and industrious. That was simply expected. On his own with young friends he learned to dig shellfish to earn money, saved enough to buy a boat and motor to further the income he could earn from fishing. He learned to fly a single engined Aeronca before he was old enough to drive through the generosity of a young friend with an instructor's license who was just a few years ahead of Bob, but who recognized his gifts and abilities. Sometimes he had to use, shall we say, creative evasions to avoid actually lying to get around some of the limitation his frugal environment imposed. We follow his encounters with others who thought he was too different to fit in, the jeering from the sidelines of those who thought models were just kid stuff and doomed to fail, a waste of time and money. We have the inevitable confrontation with the school bully, the first girlfriend and first date, the promises made on how and when they could get together when both went off to different colleges. It's an inspiring story told with beauty and sensitivity. If I haven't hooked you yet, the skinny dipping scene is priceless, and rings absolutely true. And Bob tells me the story is literally true as told, and only the names h