Seemingly folded into a wrinkle of time, the unpretentious neighborhood fairly reeks nostalgia for the simpler, '50s-era Florida revisited in Deal with the Dead. Pulling into the drive, Standiford describes how the house was falling down when he first saw it in 1990. Everybody thought I was crazy, but I'd already built houses in Utah and Texas. I knew that hard work could make this a paradise. We had just moved in when Hurricane Andrew hit.
Life imitates art.
Dominated by a computer workstation, the cozy studio is furnished with a chair, couch, mini-refrigerator and coffeemaker. Graduating high school in 1963 as class salutatorian, young Les was the first of his family to attend college. Dreaming of studying law, he blundered, choosing the Air Force Academy over a scholarship to Ohio State University. I was already in Colorado for summer indoctrination when I realized I would have to serve four years as an air force officer after I completed four years at the Academy. It was a miracle that the commandant let me talk my way out of my enlistment.