BRING ONE HOME by Thomas L. Pelissero

About this episode

The episode features a discussion with Thomas L. Pelissero about his memoir 'Bring One Home', reflecting on boyhood, basketball, and the spirit of a small town in the 1960s.

Bring One Home: A Memoir of Boyhood, Basketball, and Hometown Spirit In the 1960s, the biggest dream for many young boys across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan was to play for their high school basketball team. In the small town of Bessemer, this meant one thing: wearing the blue and gold of the Speedboys. The two obstacles standing in every young Bessemer boy's way were bitter winters of endless snow and a padlock on the doors to the only good gym in town. One day, when a young inexperienced coach is hired to lead the team, the Speedboys' usual aspirations of winning championships suddenly become far humbler: they merely want to win a single game. Mired in an epic losing streak, the team's declining fortunes come to mirror those of the town itself. Iron ore mines are shuttered. Jobs are lost. And the Speedboys' losses start piling up. What transpires is nothing less than a test of the town's soul and the character of its people. Bring One Home is an irresistible trip back to the days when kids played basketball on snow-covered driveways, drank chocolate malts at the Tip Top Cafe, and folks got their news in the local barbershop. Told from the viewpoint of a young, anxious boy…

People in this episode

Guest: Thomas L. Pelissero

Topics covered

• memoir
• basketball
• hometown spirit
• underdog story
• 1960s
• community

Keywords

• memoir
• basketball
• Bessemer
• Upper Peninsula
• 1960s
• community spirit
• underdog

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Speedboys, Tip Top Cafe

Books & works: Bring One Home

Places: Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Bessemer

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