One of the most interesting books that I’d started the year with is The Life and Times of Thunderbolt Kid by American writer Bill Bryson. If you haven’t heard or read any of his books then now is the time. And what’s a better start than reading about growing up in America between the 1950’s and early 1960’s? Coming from a middle-class family from Des Moines, the capital city of Iowa, Bryson shares his experiences in his unique way: interesting facts and stories combined with humour. Being born in the baby-boom era, he finds it hard dealing with his post-war generation parents — who seem too thrifty — at the time when Americans were learning about consumerism: buying not out of necessity but because everyone else is doing so.
He shares many stories including the compulsory atomic bomb drills at his school, travelling by car across the states on family vacations, his childhood friends and how they’d spent their times, and the culture at that time in the form of books, music, TV shows and local attractions.
The title of the book comes from a character imagined by Bryson — his alter ego — who’s from a different planet and possess super powers that included vaporising people that he despised. The book is divided into nine chapters that include Bryson’s childhood memories mingled with important events or truths relevant to that time.
For example: smoking was encouraged in the 1950s to relieve tensed nerves but ten years later the theory is debunked as research showed its link to cancer. There are also political facts that are unique to the American continent at the time from atomic bomb testing to McCarthyism where any suspicion of communism was investigated.
This led to the imprisonment of many and the loss of tens of thousands of jobs, not to mention confiscation of books. Famous personalities that were investigated at the time included Arthur Miller, Charlie Chaplin and Einstein- best known as “Hollywood Blacklist”. While reading the book I couldn’t stop smiling as I remembered my own childhood when I — as all kids around the world — treated my parents as if they’d spent their childhood in the Stone Age.
My questions were always directed to Mom as Dad — in my childish perspective — was much ancient than her. Dad always answered any question with a flat “No”: “No, we didn’t have TV. No, we didn’t have toys at home. We made hockey balls from our own socks which our annoyed old neighbour constantly threw in the well!” (You could imagine my shock hearing this. It left me pensive and speechless for days).
Mom’s answers, on the other hand, always sounded better. It was either a disheartened: “Yes!” or an irritated: “Of course we did!”. Funny enough, the only link I had to her childhood were two cartoons played on our local TV in the afternoons: Felix the Cat and Mr Magoo. It cheered her up immensely: “Look Rasha! We used to watch this in Bahrain!”
In a way, Bryson’s memoires clarified an era that was fascinating yet semi-ambiguous to me. I also realised that all pre-technology childhoods were somehow similar, despite the continents and decades separating them.
After the publication of this book in 2006, the Mayor of Des Moines awarded Bryson the Key to the City and named the 21st of October as the “Thunderbolt Kid” Day. After publishing many best-sellers including A Short History of Nearly Everything that won many science rewards, Bill Bryson announced his retirement from writing in October, 2020. However, his books are jewels that should be included on everybody’s reading list and library.
Rasha al Raisi is a certified skills trainer and the author of: The World According to Bahja. rashabooks@yahoo.com
Rasha al Raisi
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