I was a big boy for my age, and my parents decided it would be a good idea to enroll me into school at the age of four. In the 1950s, the school system didn’t require many documents for student enrollment. On my first day of school, I felt alone and uncertain of what lied ahead of me. My new teacher introduced herself and began her lesson. I was lost and not emotionally mature enough to understand the lesson.
 
After a few days of being in the first grade, I remember one morning walking into the classroom, the teacher greeted us and said, "Please take your assigned seat." I asked, "Where is my seat?" She said, "Frankie, you are in row C." I soon discovered row "C" was for the slow learners. A real morale destroyer. I felt different. Early on, I decided school wasn’t for me. All I could think about was working with my hands with my dad.
I just looked at the floor when the teacher asked for a response and didn’t cause any problems. I turned in the minimum required homework. I was very good at finding the weak spots in the system and manipulating it to my advantage. School was not fun for me. All I wanted to work with was on my bicycle, wagons, and eventually cars. Unbeknownst to me, eight years after I graduated from high school, I would be standing in front of a group of high school students, teaching them in a "Hands-On" environment. I loved my students who mirrored my same interests.
 
In this heartwarming memoir, Antonucci celebrates his students and the challenges they overcame to accomplish their goals.