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| The cover of Growing Up |
Growing Up starts in the present (well, less presently now), with Baker’s mother and her fading memory. It then goes back in time to his mother raising him from the age of five as a single parent, his father having died. Baker’s mother was a big influence on his life. Being a school teacher herself, she taught him to read and write. He was praised in school for his writing, which earned him a spot at City College, a fancy high school in Baltimore, and later a scholarship to Johns Hopkins University. This period of time happened during the Great Depression. Baker, his sister, and their mother moved their place of residents multiple times. Through their various moves, they lived with a myriad of relatives, from whom, Baker learned sundry life lessons. As Baker goes on to university, World War II is erupting in Europe. Eager to join the fight, he joined the Navy to become a pilot, which he’d always dreamed of doing. After the war ends, never having seen the battle, Baker returns to Johns Hopkins. He meets girl named Mimi while out with a friend one night. After he works his way up the totem pole at the Baltimore Sun newspaper, they get married. The book ends in the present, where it started, with Baker going to see his mother, who is in the hospital.
