Book Description

When young Chris Dutton and his mother Dorie strolled into a pawnshop in Idaho Falls to kill a few lonely hours, they had no way to know that the used trumpet Chris bought and the second-hand L.C. Smith typewriter Dorie proudly carried away would eventually change their lives forever. Chris' father, Ross Dutton, was determined to reach the top rung of Ace Corporation's ladder by constantly agreeing to relocate whenever and wherever the big wheels at home office dictated. By the time his father was transferred from the Far West to the Deep South, Chris and Dorie had learned the bitter lesson that the only way to avoid the pain of saying good-bye to places and people was not to say hello. While Ross basked in success by complacently accepting the Southern way of life, Chris and Dorie turned to the trumpet and the typewriter to help them bridge the gap of loneliness they fell into each time Ross took another step up the corporate ladder by complacently accepting the cultural and political chaos which was taking place in the South in the early 1960's. Dorie privately retained her personal beliefs while advising Chris to, "When in Rome, eat Spaghetti." The emotional wall which Dorie and Chris constructed around themselves began to crumble when Chris and his trumpet were drafted by the school principal to form a six-boy band and Dorie again got out her L.C. Smith typewriter and resumed working on a manuscript she had begun writing in Idaho. "It's just a simple little love story," she called it. When the "simple little love story" was published, its words spread across Dixie like kudzu vines. Violence erupted. Blood was shed. Lives were forever changed.