Memoir recalls an Arlington Hts. childhood

An Arlington Heights man living in the split level his parents built in 1962 in the Greenbrier neighborhood has written a book about growing up in the suburbs.

It's all here: climbing over a fence topped with barbed wire to fish in the reservoir behind Verde Park; playing pickup games of baseball, football and soccer; buying Wacky Packs with trading cards, stamps and gum at the White Hen.

Tom Price played Jarts - a backyard darts game later banned as dangerous - with his grandfather; went to the Bozo Show; sneaked downstairs to get Coca-Cola for his two brothers when their folks were entertaining; and decorated his bike for the neighborhood Fourth of July parade.

The book, "The Last Hand: A Suburban Memoir of Cards and the Cold War Era," was written for Price's son, Spencer, who also grew up in the neighborhood north of Palatine Road and south and west of Rand Road, but his father says things had changed a lot by then.

He wants readers to feel like they are members of the family, and the book is illustrated with snapshots.

The title refers to the pinochle the extended family loved.

"We played cards all the time; and that's the end of the story when we no longer have enough people to get a game up," he said in an interview.

Tom Price will sell his book for $20 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. today at St. John's 35th Annual Flea Market and Craft Fair, 1475 W Algonquin Road, Palatine. It is also available at lasthandthebook.com.