As a century of progress unfolded, this ninety-five-year-old author witnessed everything from mud roads to a Mars landing. His memoirs recount the amusing, frightening, and fascinating moments of a distinctive life. He remembers the time he and a young friend "relieved a truck of two melons," only to drop one while the owner looked on. Later, he recalls World War II as a merchant marine, during which he "watched the torpedoes come right at us and waited for the explosion." After the war, he revisits life as a newly hired engineer for a government organization. The management personnel asked what he would need to fire up a locomotive after three months of failed attempts. Is he now a registered melon thief? What about those torpedoes? And how did he succeed where many others had failed? Come hear the rest of these delightful stories.