Laura Pedersen believes that working hard is the key to success. Her life story certainly lends credence to that theory. She was the youngest columnist at The New York Times, and the youngest person to hold a seat on the American Stock Exchange. She has written eight books, and President Clinton named her one of the Ten Outstanding Young Americans in 1994.

She tells her own story growing up in the 1970s in snowy, cold Buffalo, in her hilarious memoir, “Buffalo Gal.” Those of us who have lived in central New York know snow and cold, and her first chapter “God's Frozen People” accurately and humorously describes the lengths that people who live in Buffalo go just to survive the brutal winter months.

Central New Yorkers will recognize the layers of turtlenecks, quilted flannel shirts and down jackets required to leave the house to venture out in the cold. Buffalonians keep 50 pound bags of kitty litter in their trunks to provide stability when sliding on ice, as well as to spread on the ice to gain traction.

It was necessary to have paper towels and Windex in the car. When the slush splashed up on the windshield and the road salt corroded the windshield washer-fluid dispenser, you would see people at stoplights jumping out to clean the windshield with their Windex and paper towels.

Pedersen remembers seeing housewives at the grocery store climbing into the way-back window of their station wagon to get to the front seat of the car because for “some reason known only to thermodynamic engineers, the way-back window was always the last one to freeze shut.”

Laura Pedersen was born in 1965, the only child of Ellen and John Pedersen. She recounts an interesting family history, including a paternal grandmother, a housewife who in her spare time bought and sold stocks at a time when women did not do such things. She was quite successful, accumulating a tidy sum of cash.

Buffalo is a quintessential working-class American city, and Pedersen gives the reader a short history on it, home to several ethnic groups, and a major hub of manufacturing until 30 years ago. Although Buffalo is located in New York, Pedersen makes the case that it is actually a Midwestern city, having more in common with Cleveland, Detroit and Chicago than Manhattan.

It is Pedersen's description of growing up in the 1970s that gives this book its heart. Anyone born in the early to mid-1960s will smile with recognition at her observations, such as a journey to Crystal Beach Amusement Park in Canada being a big trip for a child who couldn't wait to ride the Comet roller coaster. (Blessed Trinity School graduates remember that place.)

“A kid had only one commencement ceremony at the end of high school, not one from kindergarten or any other grade. You didn't graduate from junior high - you finished it, the same way you finished dinner.” Remember spitting watermelon seeds in the backyard, back when watermelons had seeds? Parents' bowling league night? Mom taking pictures with Instamatic cameras with the Sylvania Blue Dot flashbulbs that blinded you? All of the memories come rushing back reading this book.

Pedersen has a keen eye for the cultural reference points of the era. The big metric conversion that teachers threatened students with never occurred. Watching Sonny and Cher and Donny and Marie, riding banana seat bikes, and playing neighborhood games of freeze tag and kickball are all common to those of us born in the 1960s.

Back then, children didn't have playdates or spend quality time with their parents. Kids had to make their own friends “and parents were viewed as an impediment to enjoying life's finer things, such as homemade milkshakes, prank phone calls and playing with matches.”

There were no such things as babysitters or nannies. Older kids watched their younger siblings, and Pedersen lets us in on a “suburban secret: on a pleasant day, the playpen could be moved to the backyard and flipped over, making a nice outdoor cage.”

Pedersen had some differences from many of her friends and neighbors. She was an only child, whereas most of her friends came from big families. Many of her neighbors and friends were Catholic or Protestant, and the Pedersens were Unitarian universalists. Her description of her religion and its practices was interesting, amusing and informative.

Her parents were different in some ways too. Mom and Dad were opposites in many ways from each other, and it's almost inexplicable why they married, and not surprising when they divorce. They both seemed to go their own way, and let Laura do so too from a young age. Feeding their daughter was not a priority, and young Laura eventually resorted to dropping in on neighbors at mealtimes.

Not a good student in elementary school (in a different era she may have been labeled with a learning disability), Pedersen's academic skills came alive in high school. She earned mostly As, and had a good work ethic, as did most of her fellow classmates. Growing up in a working-class area, they knew the only way to go to college was to get a scholarship, and so they worked hard in school.

As a young child, Pedersen always worked. She shoveled snow, had a paper route, and when she heard a mother complain about spending $50 for a lousy magician for her child's birthday party, she learned magic tricks and placed an ad offering her services for just $40. She made a killing.

It was this work ethic and an interest in the stock market that led her to leave college in Michigan after three months to get a job working as a clerk at the American Stock Exchange at the age 18. (She went to college at night in New York.) Two years later, she became the youngest person to hold a seat on the Stock Exchange. (These adventures are told in her book, “Play Money,” which has moved onto my must-read list.)

If you are between the ages of 40 and 48, “Buffalo Gal” is for you. You will recognize your life in these pages, and although Pedersen does go on a little too long, she writes well and with good humor. This book is guaranteed laughs. I give it four and a half stars.

Diane La Rue is a member of the National Book Critics Circle. Her lifelong goal is to read one book per week. She can be reached at

laruediane2000@yahoo.com