Tinker's Tales

John “Tinker” Williamson was born shortly after the beginning of the Great Depression in 1932. After graduating from Dartmouth College, he took a job in the Nation’s Capital. He enjoyed the rising economic tide of the 1950s when affluence was widespread and the American dream included a family with kids, a great job and a safe life, often in the suburbs. Or so it seemed. When the new Century came, and his responsibilities to family, company and community were no longer consuming, he wrote these reflections of what it was like to grow up in Rockwellian America during the lean years and the war years. Contained in these pages is a story in prose, poetry and photographs of how values are passed from one generation to the next and how love changes us over the course of our lifetime. It’s a story that begins in the nearly homogenous Anglo-Germanic culture of upstate New York but moves by degrees to distant states and foreign places with characters from very different backgrounds. This book doesn’t provide an answer to “what is the meaning of life”, but it does make the search enjoyable.
Tinker Williamson has previously published three short stories for children, The Big Woods Mystery, Bearly on Time, and Surprises From Under the Bridge.