To many folks the phrase "growing up in the fifties" brings to mind the suburban lifestyles romanticized by Leave It to Beaver and Father Knows Best...my Technicolor recollections paint a much different picture. Admittedly, my mom had a few things in common with June Cleaver, but the words "father knows best" never occurred to me during that entire decade. Those households were built on the cornerstones of patience and understanding. Bullethead, my father, employed a more unconventional style of parenting. Let's Scare Mom looks back through my eyes at the 1950s and lays open some of my more memorable adventures growing up on a ranch with two brothers and my best friend, confidant, and canine companion...Snorkie. Laced throughout the chapters is an unmistakable message addressing family dynamics that will surely conjure up events of your own childhood. Some of these experiences were humorous hailstorms of spontaneous dysfunction, while others served as milestones and harbored pivotal life lessons. Each episode left its mark like a raw cleave in un-sculpted stone. Perhaps most importantly, they helped me to view life through the lens of levity and led to an important realization: happiness is not a randomly allocated state of mind...but more a personal decision.