A memoir of Patricia Wolff's life on the road, from 1940-1947, as a saxophonist in the all-girl big band known as Freddie Shaffer and his Victory Sweethearts.
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You can hear the music playing in Patricia Wolff's "I Ran Away With An All-Girl Band". In this funny, sweet, elegant memoir, the excitement of being on stage for the first time, the melodies of summer nights, the swirling dancers, the clink of glasses by the side of the bandstand, the warmth of young love are painted in warm, vibrant colors. One needn't be a sentimental lover of the Big Band era to enjoy Ms. Wolff's adventure, for she writes of universals: leaving the small town behind, taking the big leap, welcoming surprises that life puts before us. Whether her band is hopping from military base to military base, or waiting for the waters to recede after the flood in Wichita so they can set up at the Blue Moon Nightclub, there is always a sense of optimism, hope, and affection - a positiveness - about these reminiscences. Ms. Wolff writes at one point, "We were living such a different life than we had in Indiana." True enough, but the things that would maintain in Indiana as well as Kansas as well as Nebraska are the stregths of this book: fun, love, life itself. -- Bob Sullivan, author of "Flight of the Reindeer", "Atlantis Rising", and "Sinatra Remebered"
About the Author
Patricia Wolff grew up in Frankfort, Indiana during the Depression and spent summers on the family farm in the country. At the age of fourteen she went on the road with Freddie Shaffer's All-Girl Band as a saxophonist and saw a world that most teenagers only dreamed of. Seven years later, at 3 a.m. in a diner in Ohio, she met Gene Wolff, a tenor man from Detroit in the Bob Chester Big Band. They eventually married and settled in northern Michigan, where they raised two sons and a daughter.
Pat has led a full and creative life that includes skiing, car racing, printmaking, painting, metalsmithing, and owning her own art gallery. Recently she has exhibited her watercolors in select Micigan galleries and has written several childrens' stories, published numerous essays on life and music, and been an active member of the Grand Traverse Writers Group.
She live with her two cats near Traverse City, Michigan.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
I Ran Away with an All-Girl Band,
By Dorothy Riley (Traverse City, Michigan) - See all my reviews
This review is from: I Ran Away With An All-Girl Band, My life on the road with the Victory Sweethearts (Hardcover)
This is a delightful easy-reading memoir of a young girl growing up in a very interesting time. Patricia Wolff's personal experiences are a joy to read and her descriptions of places and customs of that early forties period especially bring back fond memories for those who were also growing up at the same time.
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