Playing on the Roof

"One day my grandfather came to me and said, 'It's time you went to a baseball game. Get your jacket.' The year was 1950; I was nine years old. . . . After purchasing tickets, we walked into the darkened building and up a long, shadowed winding ramp. In the distance, at the end of the ramp, was a rectangle of daylight. . . . When I stepped into the light, w]hat I saw changed my life forever. The field was gigantic, larger than anything I had seen before. And the color-before that moment, I did not know what GREEN meant. . . . It was pure magic. I was stunned. I was speechless. I was in love." Thus begins Playing on the Roof, a collection of funny and tender stories about Jerry Waxman's childhood in Brooklyn and Long Island, his passion for baseball and the Giants, his interest in girls, his brushes with death and with the law, and his love affair with solar eclipses. Also included are his two forays into science fiction. Although most of these pieces were written during a long and difficult illness, all convey the wonder and joy Jerry found in living.