"Make It a Girl, Gracie": A Memoir of My First Twenty-One Years as Sally Hamlin Gilbert

by Sally Flynn

The title, "Make it a Girl, Gracie," is a quote from the author's grandfather to her mother when she was about to give birth to his first grandchild. Sally Flynn was born in the mid-thirties and grew up during the Second World War. This memoir gives a vivid description of daily life when mothers and children were embedded in their neighborhoods because of gas rationing. It describes the experience of going to five different schools before tenth grade in four different states. Sally's three year old sister died of leukemia in the forties, when that diagnosis was a death sentence. She talks about the sorrow and long lasting effects on the family that followed. The experience of attending an all girls' prep school and college in the fifties is described with candor and humor. Sally toured Europe in 1956 with four classmates. They witnessed the still simmering anger towards the Germans and the awe and appreciation for the Americans. It was a friendly, outgoing Europe then, with little fear of strangers. This is a funny, happy, sad and always interesting memoir. It is the story of a woman growing up in the first half of the twentieth century.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1517626374
• ISBN13: 9781517626372
• Release Date: December 2015
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 360 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.9" x 5.3"