The Book
Welcome to the August lives of Amatore Mille and his family. The year is 2001...and 1957...and 1973 -
actually, every year, since 1932 - when the Milles began an August summer
tradition of selling Italian sausage sandwiches at The Wisconsin State
Fair. You are about to enter a world where Italian immigrant grandparents
leave their indelible mark on three subsequent generations and where children grow up with sawdust underfoot
and State Fair attractions all around.
Nostalgia is ever-present as the young author meets Red Hot Mamma, the Cisco Kid, and Stutze The Pinhead Girl - and comes of age in the process. Come along in later years as the author quits his technology career and joins the North American carnival circuit where he learns, at the Calgary Stampede, what "sawdust in your veins" really means.
In episodes that move between present and past, the author takes you on an insider's tour of family escapades that, in turn, are laugh-out-loud funny...and touching...where grandma, with no experience, is forced to drive an expensive sports car, grandpa provides light-hearted amusement (but little work), and the author, through misadventures and near-tragedy, finally learns what the family business is really all about.
Read Eleven Days in August and understand why Jim Stingl of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has described it as delightful and why Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle has hailed it as a Wisconsin treasure to be cherished by all.