Their childhoods were so laden with Americana that Norman Rockwell could have painted them. Their heritage was so auspicious and the future so promising that it’s startling now to realize all that befell the kids from four families whose backyards and fortunes came together at a crossroads of their country’s history.

Here is a remarkably personal account of coming of age during the cultural earthquake that toppled America’s leaders and opened deep cracks nationwide, even on Kingman Boulevard.

This ode to life’s first friendships springs from the ranks of the biggest generation in history and glimpses America’s greatest public health crisis from the perspective of one alternately blessed and cursed neighborhood in the heart of the country.