Smoke Rings

This book is divided into three distinct parts and an epilogue. Each is related to and dependent upon the others for continuity and meaning. Part one is set primarily in a 1950s era Diner in Syracuse, New York. The plot of that part revolves around the relationships of Ruby Hart, a beautiful dark haired waitress to various people who move in and out of her life. Part two is set in Mitchell School near the small town of McMinnville, Tennessee during the 1960s. It is concerned with the day to day activities of school personnel, including the principal, several coaches and teachers, and some of the students. In part three, two primary characters from Mitchell School, a third grade teacher and a basketball coach leave middle Tennessee and travel to Nachitoches, Louisiana where the coach, Ray Canfield, has been given a one year college teaching appointment. This is a novel that teachers and other school personnel will enjoy reading. In many instances they will visualize themselves in the roles of the primary characters. They will hear echoes of footsteps in the hallways they have walked down, and see the faces of the children they have taught. They will share the laughter of good times and the tears of times not so good. And finally, they will remember how it feels to love and be loved by someone in return, and maybe, when nobody is listening, they will smile while reading a certain passage, and say softly, "Yes. That''s the way it was."