What we remember most about our youth are the friends we grew up with. What we treasure most are the friends we still have from that special time and place. And when we are challenged with the conventional wisdom that friendship is too commonplace, too mundane to make a good story, we respond, “Oh, but you don’t know my friends!” Freddy and Mike is the story of two friends growing up in the 1950s. An unlikely pair at first meeting, they become inseparable, surviving trials of fire by tapping unknown reservoirs of strength, and enjoying a secret which few discover. Freddy and Mike begins when the two ten-year-old boys meet in the small Midwestern town they call home. They come from different backgrounds. One belongs to the traditional family of that era where dad works and mom stays home to run the household. The other lives with his mother, his father’s whereabouts unknown. Mother and son suffer the double stigma of being poor and of having a working mother as the single provider. As the story progresses, each boy, in turn, learns that he can achieve what he thought was impossible if he depends on the other and accepts help that is offered without conditions. Laughter, pain and sorrow all play integral parts in forming and sustaining Freddy and Mike. And when the last page is read, the reaction will be a genuine smile. In today’s world of sound-bite news, intimate conversations via cell phone, and 24/7 lives everywhere; friendships and relationships are hard to come by and even harder to maintain. Come live in Freddy and Mike’s world for awhile. Then go see those who were so special to you, and can be again.