After being abandoned by his parents at four, Roger Dean Kiser eventually ended up at Children's Home Society Orphanage in Jacksonville, Florida.

Do NOT let the name of this institution fool you! This place--at least, at the time when Roger was there during that time known as The Fabulous Fifties--was anything but a home.

It wasn't even a fit place for rats to live--much less children! In fact, my guess is that rats were treated more kindly than most of the children who lived there.

From what I've read in another book of Roger's called Orphan along with other writings of his, it seems as if there might have been a selection of kids that were treated nicer in order to give this den of iniquity a more acceptable appearance to the community.

However, this seemed to be a place that, for the most part, exploited these children turning them into household slaves and exploiting them sexually.

Roger's experience with the matron of this place was that, most of the time, he was either being physically, verbally, and/or emotionally abused by her or else he was being used as her sex toy.

This was true even before he'd reached the age of puberty.

I suspect that she was probably running a side-business of hiring out Roger and other kids to satisfy the sick desires of so-called upstanding members of the community while raking in money paid for these services.

It's no wonder that Roger and other kids habitually ran off from this institution, even knowing in the back of their minds that, more likely than not, they would eventually be forced to return there--and, as punishment for their taking off, be beaten within an inch of their lives!

They soon found out that the world outside the orphanage was also a hard one--but (with a few exceptions) even at its worst it seemed to be better overall than what they had escaped.

This is a book full of stories about those times as seen through Roger's eyes--stories about living a life where you know something (e.g. stealing) is wrong, but you still end up doing it just to survive.

This is also a book that shows kindhearted people being able to help Roger for a short time but being limited in what they could do without getting in serious trouble with the law.

This is also the story of people who live a double-life that includes pedophilia seeming to be exempt from the long arm of the law--even while consenting adults who were homosexuals were getting beaten by police for hanging out at the local park in hopes of meeting each other.

Roger found people on the outside who were wanting to care for him the best that they could (even if only for a short time) out of the goodness of their hearts--and he also found those who would take care of him but, also, it was understood that "benefits" were included in the price.

Fascinating, eyeopening reading!

Educating people that the Fabulous Fifties had a hidden side that wasn't Leave It To Beaver, Father Knows Best, or anything close. It also is a wake-up call that there's still a lot to be done in order to give children and teens with nowhere to go a place that really feels like home--something to which they're entitled!!!

When people were genuinely kind to Roger--and even the schoolteacher who was a pedophile treated him well, which is more than can be said for Mother Winters (the orphanage matron) and several of the other employees at the orphanage.

The cruel people--people who seemed to be cruel for no good reason and actually enjoyed it. I also didn't like how people could get in trouble with the law for sheltering kids like Roger instead of returning them to the orphanage.

Start writing reviews of it and urge other people to read it.

Glad that (so far as we know, anyway) things aren't as bad for orphans as they were back then--but, also, ready to continue to fight those problems in society that children still want to escape enough that they will even live on the street rather than to go back to what they fled. There are about 4000 such kids living in the San Diego area, alone--and thousands upon thousands more throughout The Land Of The Free And The Home Of The Brave. If you would like to learn more about them, please visit the Invisible Youth Network website at: http://invisibleyouthnetwork.org/

I'm proud to be a volunteer of this wonderful organization that's trying to make a real difference!

I also--through IYN and on my own--want to educate people about something happening even today that is so very wrong: these boot-camps that think that it takes being cruel to children and teens to shape them up.

Is one of my favorite contemporary writers. I've had the pleasure of getting to know him personally over the past several years, and my love and admiration for him continues to grow!

This book is well-written and effectively makes the reader wake up and smell the coffee!

I prefer to think the best of people instead of the worst--but there are times when the reality is different, and, when it is, it needs to be exposed and dealt with!!!

Buy this book! Not only for you but, also, put it on your list of things to buy when a birthday comes up and/or when you're Christmas shopping!

This is a wonderful book to buy a copy of for your church library, and it would also be recommended reading for sociology, criminal justice, and any other courses dealing with human behavior towards each other.

Interested in buying this? Support Writing.Com by making your purchase of Runaway: Life on the Streets--The Lessons Learned   from Amazon.Com!

Created Jul 12, 2008 at 6:07pm • Submit your own review...