Observations and Reflections of a Country Squire

George C. Zidbeck is the author of a six-volume collection of stories focusing on family dysfunction as a result of parental alcoholism-creative fiction based on the true events of his life. In Observations and Reflections of a Country Squire, Zidbeck recounts his life story and considers the lasting effects of his early years on the rest of his life. After spending those early years in the American Canal Zone in Panama occasionally getting into trouble, he found himself moving to California with his mother and siblings in an attempt to start a new life after his father left to join the Merchant Marines. As a teenager, Zidbeck continued to learn some things the hard way when it came to growing up, enlisting in the US Army at the age of seventeen. He served during the Korean War, was hospitalized for hepatitis, and was then honorably discharged in October 1952, thus beginning his life as a free man in Long Beach, California. Thereafter his life required constant adjustment from his earlier ways, presenting challenges of paying the bills, finding love, and trying to decide what he truly wanted for his future. In this memoir, one man offers a candid description and exploration of the events of his life, reflecting on the many changes and bumps in the road over the years.