Buffalo Gal: A Memoir

Laura makes no claims at being a historian (herstorian?) but she includes of couple of great sketches about growing up in a declining steel town buckling under more than its fair share of sleet and taxes. Whether you were raised in the sunbelt or the frostbelt and lived through the 70s or are on your first rainbow poncho and afro, this book will keep you chuckling. It was especially fun to remember how girls were tracked for secretarial work and homemaking and what it was like to come of age while all that was crumbling around them, especially when seen through the lens of a girl watching "The Mary Tyler Moore" while living in a neighborhood of career housewives. Laura beautifully captures a time and a place where people didn't have much money (it was the worst recession since the Great Depression and also the Energy Crisis) and there was constant fear (The Vietnam War, The Cold War) and yet people were not only resourceful (flooding backyards to make skating rinks) but never failed to help each other out (shoveling sidewalks and driveways for seniors -- no note). It reminded me of a lesson we all seem to be relearning in these current difficult times -- people are more important than things. And laughter is not only the best medicine, but it's free.

With BUFFALO GAL, bestselling author Laura Pedersen has written a side-splitting memoir, chockfull of her trademark humor and familial history. The setting for Pedersen's early years is Buffalo, a once-robust industrial city (the eighth largest in the United States at the turn of the 20th century) that falls on hard times. Once known as the City of Light, Pedersen dubs it the "City of Blight" in the aftermath of the economic problems of the 1970s. Pedersen recalls how her grandparents, natives of Denmark and Ireland, ended up in the snowy city that in the ultimate of ironies "is the place where air conditioning was invented" and boasts an unrivaled sense of neighborhood and neighborliness. She shares stories of shoveling driveways "just because" --- just because the people of her fair hometown cared for each other and KNEW each other in a way that isn't often seen today. Pedersen paints a broad history of the region while sharing small details that once again reflect her keen eye and razor-sharp humor. For instance, in talking about the host of various soothsayers, religions and cults that settled at various times in Buffalo and the surrounding towns, she writes about the Shakers that they "first had a village outside Albany where they practiced communal living and celibacy while crafting unornamented, functional finely made furniture. It's difficult to grow a commune while practicing celibacy, so they eventually died out, but not before inventing the clothespin." She missed nothing and makes fun of all, including herself. Throughout her recollections we meet a host of likable, quirky characters: a grandfather who dreamt of opening a Scandinavian restaurant, a lovesick "nutter" aunt who attempted suicide, and a mother hypersensitive to even the mildest illnesses and medical issues, who had no dirth of gems when it came to health: "Mom said the only good thing about having a small bathroom is that when you are sick and unsure of where the most activity is going to take place, you can sit on the toilet while leaning over to vomit in the tub." During the 1930s, her grandmother began investing in the stock market --- IBM, Pepsi-Cola, General Motors, AT & T and others. She kept meticulous ledger entries, and they showed that she was a model day trader by "housewife standards." "Armed with only the newspaper, she bought and sold like a professional." Perhaps it was some of that intuitive knowledge that led Pedersen herself to ultimately leave Buffalo --- because "they didn't have a Buffalo Stock Exchange" --- to become the youngest person to have a seat on the American Stock Exchange. "The best traders," she found, "were championship bridge, backgammon, chess and poker players." And so years of beating her family at poker and sneaking off to Canada to play the ponies served her well. At 21, she was a millionaire. Whenever I think about writing my own life story, I recall the laughs more than anything else, and Pedersen seems to have done the same.

Laura Pederson has captured the essence of Buffalo and the people it holds with humor and accuracy, reflecting what the people of Buffalo have always known, that although we get ridiculed for all our snow, we are a town that knows how to pull ourselves up from our boot straps and keep on going. Laura's stories of her childhood, eccentric parents and the people that she has meet along the way make for a fun read, and at times a little sympathy for the little girl that had to find her own way. It makes us realize how a person can either grow and succeed or be beaten down by their past. Laura has certainly exceeded and taken the road that has given her much success. Her wit and magic of writing makes this the perfect book to pick up on a cold winter night and hunker down for the evening. I highly recommend this read.

I loved reading "Buffalo Gal!" Laura paints such vivid pictures of growing up in Buffalo during the '60's,'70's and early '80's. Her personal details are such fun, yet she always adds that historical perspective for us. She is such an interesting person who has led an amazing life (be sure to read her other memoir about her years on Wall Street, "Play Money"), and has a gift for imparting her wisdom, while making the reader laugh out loud. I found her story to be touching, hilarious, and ultimately inspirational. I highly recommend this book to all.

Raised near Glasgow, Scotland, and a New Yorker for these past 25 years, I admit to never having been to Buffalo. But this is a great personal history of an industrial city (which has a lot in common with Glasgow from a work and weather standpoint) that was highly entertaining and also surprisingly informative. I loved hearing all the local expressions, meeting the resident eccentrics, and understanding how trade and innovation can lead to not only the rise but the fall of a region. Pedersen does a wonderful job at showing how weatherproof locals will not only not be undone, but consistently rise to the challenge of their sleet strewn situation and take pride in what they do have, which includes a lot of neighborliness, ingenuity, and good humor. And of course the Buffalo Bills football team which made it to the Super Bowl four times in a row but lost each time. You can't beat a crowd during the great Blizzard of '77 that's running out of food but takes time to sing "Send in the Plows" to the head of transportation. Pedersen's laugh-out-loud true life stories have made me want to go have some Buffalo chicken wings, only not the extra hot ones where she advises that you'd better put the toilet paper in the fridge.