Take the roof of our pleasant homes, says one woman in this history, and we'd see a lot more trouble than we knew about. In the mid 1950s the runaway best selling novel Peyton Place and the sensational movie Blackboard Jungle warned that American values and reality were very different. More than 50 years later LOOK BACK AND CHEER suggests that despite some hidden horrors, small town American values and schools launched young people on successful lives. This book traces the legacy of one community, Sea Cliff, NY, through the lives of some 100 members of the last class to graduate from its small K-12 school. The narrative is built on letters, journals, interviews and the author's own experience in that class. Many of the class members tell their own stories of how they went to war, raised families, built careers, struggled with divorce and sickness, and survived to enjoy the memories. Readers will find new insights into the nature of growing up, the role of education and teachers, and especially how we learn not only in school but from everyone around us. "Growing up is learning."