Richard and his two best friends--Ed and Bob--had it all figured out when they left their homes in Kennebunkport, Maine, for the warmer climes of Daytona Beach, Florida.

The high schoolers had realized that their parents knew nothing. They could surely make their own decisions.

In High Water, Spitz recalls that fateful trip in the 1950s, when gasoline was seventeen cents a gallon, good hamburgers were a quarter, and segregation was commonplace. While he enjoyed many adventures, the boys eventually returned home.

Spitz's father, however, had not changed, and without warning, he'd often yell and hit his wife. Spitz's mother reacted as though it were all part of the routine.

Desperate for money and with no allowance after having run away, Spitz and his friends hit upon a creative way to earn cash: They'd kill deer and sell carcasses to men who had pretended to go hunting but were really fooling around on their wives or playing cards and couldn't return home empty handed.

Spitz looks back at a time long gone, sharing life lessons in this coming-of-age story that made him the man he is today.