This book is composed of letters written by a young man to his parents during his first year away at college in 1941. He was a rather special young man because he was the first son born to the Class of 1923 at West Point, the United States Military Academy, and therefore had bestowed upon him the title of "Class Godson", who was then expected to grow up and also attend West Point. But he was also special in that he was already an award winning writer and photographer, saxophone and trumpet player and conservatory-trained classical pianist with perfect pitch and the ability to play anything by ear. So when he arrived at Rice University to study engineering, in preparation for applying to West Point, he immediately was able to join the marching band, write for the school paper and magazine, and get a job as the organist in a nearby church. Being a prolific writer meant long and frequent letters to his parents and his participation in so many aspects of campus life provide people nowadays with a look into what it was like to be on a college campus in 1941, when a good hamburger cost a dime and an expensive date would cost you $2.50, drive-in movies and roller coasters were major entertainments, jive music was hot, hitchhiking was safe and common when you didn’t take the train, hazing was brutal until stopped by an investigation provoked by a certain anonymous writer for the school paper, and football games were as wildly important as they are now.