Next time, TAKE THE TURNPIKE, this billboard outside of Fort Worth, Texas admonished drivers in the 1950s. It was not in the nature of longtime Memphis Commercial Appeal columnist Jim Cortese to heed these words. Lord! Lord! Is this all there is to life? Is this the end of all those youthful dreams? This funny, personal account of a mid-life crisis begins in 1959, when at the age of 40, Jim Cortese swims across this Mississipi River; spends a week as a monk-in-training at a Trappist monastery in Kentucky; enjoys another ...
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Next time, TAKE THE TURNPIKE, this billboard outside of Fort Worth, Texas admonished drivers in the 1950s. It was not in the nature of longtime Memphis Commercial Appeal columnist Jim Cortese to heed these words. Lord! Lord! Is this all there is to life? Is this the end of all those youthful dreams? This funny, personal account of a mid-life crisis begins in 1959, when at the age of 40, Jim Cortese swims across this Mississipi River; spends a week as a monk-in-training at a Trappist monastery in Kentucky; enjoys another week at a nudist camp in New Jersey; whitewashes Tom Sawyer's fence in Hannibal, Missouri; climbs the steps of the Empire State Building in New York City; camps overnight at the site of Thoreau's cabin at Walden Pond; fights bats at Longwood in Natchez, Mississippi; uses a battery-powered turntable and speakers to play Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and half a dozen Elvis records over the Grand Canyon at dawn; borrows an organ grinder's monkey to acquire the happy life of a hurdy gurdy man; and finally, rollerskates across Texas from Shreveport, Louisiana to Hobbs, New Mexico. A quintessential newspaper man with a healthy appetite for adventure, local newspapers provided photo documentaries of these journeys, which generously illustrate the book. Following his death in 2006 at the age of 89, Cortese's sons Ted, Jim, Richard, and Michael decided to honor their father's memory and publish his book, Monks Nudes and Rollerskates: Life Begins at 40. For the many older readers of the Memphis Commercial Appeal and the Caruthersville, Missouri Democrat Argus, this book will bring back memories of a bygone age of open roads and spirited travels. For younger readers perhapsencountering their own mid-life crisis, this book may just inspire spontaneous acts of youthful indiscretion. Rocket Squirrel is a small imprint publisher in Knoxville, Tennessee that celebrates regional culture and flavor, presenting distinctive stories and voices that shape the character of a local community.
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