A New York Times Bestseller
Before there was "tourism" and souvenir ashtrays became "kitsch," the Lake of the Ozarks was a Shangri-La for middle-class Midwestern families on vacation, complete with man-made beaches, Hillbilly Mini Golf, and feathered rubber tomahawks. It was there that author Bill Geist spent summers in the Sixties during his school and college years working at Arrowhead Lodge - a small resort owned by his bombastic uncle - in all areas of the operation, from cesspool attendant to bellhop. Geist takes readers back to a bygone era and reflects on his coming of age in the American Heartland.