The book consists of 10 short stories recounting the childhood of a central character named Buddy in the fictional small town of Darwin, New Jersey in the 1970s. The first story, The Weiner Man introduces the reader to an 8-year-old Buddy and the final story, Wild Kingdom, features an 18-year-old Buddy.
“The Wiener Man” (1988, first appeared in Columbia: A journal of literature and art): Buddy and his Boy Scout group are excited by the arrival of a hot dog mascot, The Wiener Man, in their hometown. His mother, Ann, agrees to take them all to meet the mascot at the mini-mall while she does some grocery shopping. While waiting in line to meet the Wiener Man, Buddy and his friends witness an altercation between the Weiner Man and some teenagers. The Weiner Man puts the teenagers in their place by punching one of them and the crowd cheers for him. After having his autograph signed, Buddy’s mom comes out of the store and The Wiener Man recognizes her and approaches her. They knew each other in high school. Later, Ann gets a call from Mike, The Wiener Man, asking them to come by and say goodbye before he leaves. Buddy and Ann go to Mike’s trailer where Buddy plays a game called Hi-Q while Ann and Mike reminisce. Ann asks Buddy to go to the store to get something, leaving her and Mike alone for a few minutes. After, her and Buddy go to Buddy’s father’s store to collect him from work and go home for the evening.
“Thirteen” (1988): This story takes place the summer Buddy turns 13. His best friend is Kevin Ross, who has a job at his stepfather’s gas station. Kevin begins stealing money from his stepfather’s business and buying things like sneakers for Buddy and himself. At the town carnival, Buddy and Kevin meet two girls their age, Angela Farrone and Sue. Kevin gets a crush on Angela and pays Buddy to write and deliver notes to her house. He also pays his older brother's friend, Burnsey, to drive them on dates. Angela arranges a double date for her and Kevin with Buddy and Sue. Buddy isn’t interested in Sue but they get foisted on each other. Soon after, Kevin’s stepfather, Paul discovers that his business is missing money and he suspects it is Kevin. Kevin attempts to run away by camping out in the woods near their home, requesting that Buddy join him. Buddy doesn’t stay with him but agrees to deliver a letter to Angela that Kevin has written himself. At Angela’s house, Buddy meets Angela’s father who assumes that Buddy is Kevin. Buddy doesn’t correct him and when he reads the letter that is presumably sexual, he almost beats up Buddy before Buddy starts crying and saying he’s just a kid. He goes home and his parents present him with a bike for his birthday. It isn’t the bike he had wished for but his father is pleased with it because it’s so much more than he himself could have wished for when he was 13. Buddy bikes over to Kevin’s house and tells his parents where Kevin is so that they can bring him home. He feels guilty but his father seems to sum up Buddy’s summer experience by patting his shoulder and saying “thirteen”.
“Race Riot”: Buddy is in high school and has been hanging out with an older student named Mike Caravello, who is repeating his last year of high school. Buddy has started hanging out with some of the guys on the high school football team. After a dance he attends with Tina, Buddy follows the boys to a planned fight with the black guys in the next neighborhood over. The fight is broken up before it begins but Buddy ends up driving around with Mike in his Camaro, despite his curfew coming up. Mike picks up Tina and forces her to ride in the front seat on Buddy’s lap. They stay out past Buddy’s curfew and Buddy is pressured into a plan to humiliate a black kid playing basketball alone on a court at night. Mike convinces Buddy to steal the kid’s ball and he goes through with it, but feels guilty as he is running back to the car. After that he goes home, despite being made fun of for not going back to Tina’s house. His parents are angry with him for being past his curfew and Buddy is equally angry because he feels guilty and wishes to blame his parents for the events of the evening.
“Snowman”: Buddy and his friend Neil Duffy go out to shovel the local basketball court in order to practice. Neil has big dreams about one day becoming a basketball star and Buddy thinks Neil could actually do it. An older teen on a bike rides by and calls them assholes and Buddy responds with his own profanity, which leads to a fight at the basketball court. A former acquaintance of Buddy’s, Andy Zirko, witnesses Buddy getting punched by the older teen and comes over to him. Andy is two years older and now goes to reform school since getting arrested for petty crimes around the neighborhood. While Neil goes to get napkins for Buddy’s bloody nose, Andy convinces Buddy to come in a car with him and his friends to find the older teen and teach him a lesson. Buddy agrees to go, despite not being overly enthusiastic about it. He tries to leave at one point but feels pressure to see it through. They find the older teen outside a house with a snowman but he quickly flees. The boys decide that it must be the older teen’s house and they decide to stake it out and wait for him. Andy gets bored and takes Buddy over to the snowman where they see that it is a shrine to a dog that has presumably died. They destroy the snowman, with Andy taking the picture of the dog and crumpling it. Andy then goes inside the house, with a reluctant Buddy following, where they encounter a mother who then believes that her son beat up Buddy. She is kind to them and cleans up Buddy’s face, but when her developmentally disabled son shows up, Buddy and Andy realize they have gotten the wrong house and quickly leave. Buddy feels guilty for his part in destroying the boy’s snowman and goes back to playing basketball with Neil.
“Forgiveness” (1990): Buddy has been on the Harding High football team for the whole season when a pivotal game comes up. He has befriended a popular boy on the football team, Rocky DeLucca who is a star player. Rocky isn’t like the other popular football team members and doesn’t hang out with them or have a girlfriend and go to parties. Instead, he is friends with Buddy and often questions the status quo of things around them. A girl that Buddy grew up with, Wendy, never stands for the Pledge of Allegiance during the morning announcements and most people don’t mind except Coach Whelan who happens to see her sitting one day. As a former Vietnam veteran, Coach Whelan is deeply offended and punishes her with detention, yet she still refuses to stand. Rocky asks Buddy to introduce them, which he does and the two hit it off right away. They have both experienced hardships from a young age, with Rocky’s older brother being wounded in Vietnam and Wendy’s brother and father both dying of illnesses. Another star player on the football team, Randy, gets kicked off when he gets arrested for beating his girlfriend and vandalizing her father’s car. When the pivotal game comes up, the Coach and the rest of the football team forgive Randy so that he can play and help them win. Rocky is the only player who votes against having him there and soon after quits the team. Buddy feels guilty for not voting with Rocky because he’s his friend so he goes to see Rocky at Wendy’s house and is warmly invited to hang out with them.
“A Bill Floyd Xmas”: It’s 1977 and Buddy is a junior at Harding High. He has just quit the football team and formed a band called Rockhead with his friends Ed Kelso and Dirk. One day Buddy comes home to find that the family’s usual fake Christmas tree that his father and him always put up together has been replaced by a much larger one that his dad has assembled alone. It was given to the family by a middle-aged neighbor, Billy Floyd, who’s mother has recently died. Bill lived with his mother and is too sad to put up the tree in his house where he is now alone. He starts to spend more time at Buddy’s home because his parents feel sad for him while he is dealing with the loss of his mother. Meanwhile, Buddy gets drunk and high with Ed before going to midnight mass on Christmas Eve, instead of going with his father as he usually does. He becomes overwhelmed in the church and leaves early, walking the streets until he can go home without his mother knowing what he has done. When he gets home, his mother can presumably smell the alcohol on his breath and is disappointed with him. He wakes up hungover and quickly wraps the presents he has bought for his parents. He sees Bill Floyd sleeping on their couch and suddenly realizes how sad it would be for Bill to go home to an empty house, accepting his presence in his own home.
“You Start to Live”: Buddy is taking a Driver’s Ed class taught by Coach Bielski at Harding High. The only other student in his class is Laura Daly, a girl in his grade who has been dating a guy named Keith. Laura and Buddy start to hang out through their Driver’s Ed class and one day she opens up to him that Keith wants to marry her but she’s unsure. At a party one night, she tells Buddy that her and Keith have just broken up and invites him over to her house. Buddy ends up losing his virginity to her. He likes her, but has a hard time expressing it in words and feels anxious to see her again. After a few days he finally gets to see her at school in their Driver’s Ed class where she announces that she’s gotten back together with Keith and they are now engaged to be married the following summer. She then privately reveals to Buddy that she is 3 months pregnant, implying she had no other choice but to go back to Keith and marry him.
