This is the story of my Irish-American family from the period of the Great Depression to the Eisenhower years. The struggles of the family were marked by a string of calamities and opportunities that may seem unlikely, but they marked our experience and shaped us all: -My grandfather's total disinheritance in 1900 plunged my father and his brothers into poverty for most of his youth. -The early death of my mother's father in 1913 sent...