Executive Overview
In the sprawling literary landscape of post-World War II America, stories of domestic disruption frequently pivot on the sudden, catastrophic intrusion of industrial-era tragedy into quiet, rural lives. Joseph Hamaker’s short story “Starting Over,” featured in The Missouri Review’s exclusive online biweekly prose series BLAST, operates as a masterclass in the compression of time, memory, and grief. Set against the bustling, blue-collar backdrop of Stick Willa during the late 1940s and early 1950s, the narrative chronicles the psychological evolution of a ten-year-old boy named Jimmy.
Jimmy’s father—an omnipresent, multi-hyphenate fixture of rural enterprise who serves as a firefighter, used car salesman, auctioneer, and insurance peddler—represents the quintessential post-war American male: tirelessly active, physically imposing, and emotionally anchoring. Through Jimmy’s eyes, the reader witnesses two distinct forms of devastation: the sudden destruction of a family home by fire and, more profoundly, the silent, nocturnal collapse of the family unit itself via a fatal myocardial infarction.
This analytical review examines Hamaker’s narrative architecture, exploring how the author uses industrial machinery, racial integration in the Jim Crow-era South, domestic architecture, and the protracted mechanics of grief to construct an authoritative commentary on human endurance. Furthermore, this piece contextualizes Hamaker’s literary pivot—transitioning from a distinguished career as a NASA cost analyst and aerospace engineer to a voice of striking literary resonance—demonstrating how precision engineering and prose craft intersect.
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Detailed Chronology
The narrative arc of “Starting Over” is meticulously calibrated, moving from the panoramic rhythm of a small-town entrepreneur’s daily hustle down to the microscopic, echoing silence of sudden bereavement.
Phase One: The Panoply of Post-War Enterprise
The story opens in the vertical geometry of the Stick Willa fire hall. Jimmy stands at the upper terminus of the brass fire pole, waiting for his father. This introductory vignette establishes the father’s larger-than-life aura. In his twenty-four-hour shifts on and off, the father operates as an economic engine of the community:
- Trading used cars acquired via marathon driving excursions to Chicago.
- Managing the Stick Willa Plaza Drive-In Movie Theater alongside partners Don and Loretta Shockley and No Tail Bear.
- Operating a holiday fireworks stand.
- Collaborating with No Tail Bear—an African American war buddy who saved the father’s life during the Battle of the Bulge.
This latter relationship introduces a critical counter-cultural friction point into the segregated landscape of the mid-century South. Eschewing Jim Crow mandates, the father insists that No Tail Bear ride in the lounge car of the majestic Dixie Flyer passenger train rather than the designated Jim Crow car, forging an integrated partnership that defies contemporary social barriers.
Phase Two: The Catalyst of Devastation
The rhythm of local enterprise is violently interrupted by the shriek of the fire alarm—a sensory shockwave so loud that young Jimmy must keep his mouth open to equalize the pressure. Following his father to a two-story residential fire out on the county highway, Jimmy confronts the limits of human agency.
Despite the deliberate, dream-like pacing of the volunteer firemen uncoiling long lines of hoses from the pumper truck, the house is ultimately consumed. Here, Jimmy observes the raw aftermath of loss: a disoriented family sifting through salvaged furniture and cardboard boxes. When the homeowner breaks down in tears, the father steps forward, discarding his heavy helmet and gathering the traumatized husband and wife beneath his canvas turnout coat. This act of communal embrace plants the narrative seed of the story’s core thesis: that recovery is not an instantaneous event, but a long, laborious process of “starting over.”
Phase Three: The Silent Fracture
The fragility of this protective architecture is laid bare shortly thereafter. In an unannounced nocturnal crisis, the father suffers a fatal heart attack in his sleep during a shift at the fire hall. Transferred to the Stick Willa hospital, he is pronounced dead at age forty.
Jimmy, thrust into premature adolescence at age ten, faces a shattered domestic reality. The subsequent autumn evenings spent with his mother under the crisp starlight of the fifth-grade astronomy curriculum—identifying the Northern Cross, Pegasus, and Pisces—serve as the crucible wherein mutual grief is processed. Mother and son must confront the daunting task of rebuilding an existence marked by permanent incompleteness.
Phase Four: The Circle Closes
The narrative reaches its structural completion when Jimmy revisits the sites of his foundational trauma. Passing the rebuilt home on County Line Road, he recognizes the homeowner—the man who once wept—now actively nailing down plywood roof decking under the summer sun.
Later, riding his bicycle to the downtown fire hall, Jimmy seeks permission from the fire chief to slide down the brass pole just once. Entering the deserted upstairs quarters, he locates his late father’s bed, smoothing the blanket where his father once slept. Executing the slide down the pole, he experiences a transient connection to his past before exiting into the bright afternoon sunlight. The story concludes with the distant, undulating wail of a town fire siren answered by the forlorn barking of the family dog, Rocky, cementing the cyclical nature of memory, loss, and endurance.
Supporting Context & Metrics
To fully appreciate the verisimilitude of Hamaker’s Stick Willa, one must examine the socio-economic and logistical realities of rural America in the decade following World War II.
| Metric / Element | Historical Context in “Starting Over” | Narrative Function |
|---|---|---|
| Shift Rotation | 24-hours-on, 24-hours-off firefighter schedule. | Permits moonlight entrepreneurship (used cars, auctioneering, insurance). |
| Logistical Marathon | 14-hour, 500-mile drive from Chicago to Stick Willa with 4 vehicles via 2 tow bars. | Illustrates the sheer physical grit and resourcefulness of the post-war generation. |
| Racial Dynamics | Battle of the Bulge veteran bond superseding Jim Crow segregation. | Highlights quiet, radical integration within working-class alliances. |
| Heart Disease Statistics | Mid-century male mortality rates (Father dies at age 40 of a myocardial infarction). | Serves as the abrupt, unpreventable catalyst for the protagonist’s coming-of-age. |
The technical precision embedded in Hamaker’s descriptions—ranging from the pneumatic mechanism of the fire pole’s clamshell floor doors to the mechanical specifications of the 1950 GMC dually cargo truck and the 1955 Buick Roadmaster—reflects an author whose day-job requires mathematical exactitude. Yet, this mechanical vocabulary is consistently subordinated to emotional resonance. The heavy canvas turnout coats, the slick brass poles, and the uncoiling hemp-and-rubber hoses function as objective correlatives for the emotional weight carried by those who serve on the front lines of community infrastructure.
Official Statements and Literary Resonance
While “Starting Over” is a work of fiction rather than a corporate report, its thematic gravity has drawn significant attention within contemporary literary circles. Editorial notes from The Missouri Review emphasize the prose’s rare capacity to capture the texture of mid-century American life without succumbing to nostalgia.
"BLAST features prose too vibrant to be confined between the covers of a print journal," notes the editorial board of The Missouri Review, pointing to Hamaker’s ability to render tactile, cinematic scenes that resonate far beyond their regional setting.
Literary critics reviewing the online series have underscored how Hamaker treats trauma not as an episodic anomaly, but as a structural condition of life. The father’s defining philosophy—that survival and the courage to rebuild matter above all material possessions—echoes through the text as an ethical directive for the surviving son. When the father tells Jimmy that the displaced family "didn’t lose everything by a long shot… They all got out of that house alive," he establishes a hierarchy of value that prepares Jimmy for his own catastrophic loss later in the narrative.
Future Outlook & Authorial Trajectory
The publication of “Starting Over” in The Missouri Review highlights a fascinating dual trajectory for its author, Dr. Joseph Hamaker. Best known internationally for his pioneering work in aerospace cost engineering—including the creation of NASA’s NAFCOM cost model, the NASA QuickCost Model, and the ONCE database—Hamaker’s transition into high-caliber literary prose reveals a rare synthesis of analytical rigor and imaginative empathy.
For readers and scholars of contemporary American fiction, Hamaker’s work signals a growing body of literature that bridges technical industries and humanistic storytelling. As digital literary platforms like BLAST continue to champion works that defy traditional print constraints, stories such as “Starting Over” ensure that the quiet, unheralded histories of post-war rural America—marked by their grit, their moral complexities, and their profound capacity for renewal—remain vividly preserved for contemporary audiences.
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