Executive Overview
In the bustling, hyper-accelerated aftermath of World War II, small-town America operated on a dual frequency of relentless economic revitalization and quiet, profound vulnerability. Against this historical canvas, Joseph Hamaker’s poignant short story, "Starting Over"—featured in The Missouri Review’s online-only biweekly series, BLAST—examines the architecture of sudden devastation and the agonizing, generational process of reconstruction.
The narrative unfolds through the perceptive eyes of a ten-year-old boy named Jimmy, whose father embodies the archetype of the mid-century American multitasker: a man capable of juggling twenty-four-hour shifts as a professional fireman with a dizzying rotation of entrepreneurial side ventures, ranging from used car sales to operating a drive-in movie theater. Yet, beneath the kinetic energy of post-war enterprise lies an inescapable fragility. Through a routine visit to the town fire hall that spirals into a harrowing house fire, and subsequent tragedy within the family home, Hamaker constructs a narrative exploration of loss.
This review and literary analysis unpacks the socioeconomic landscape of post-war rural America, the complex racial dynamics of the era as embodied by the bond between Jimmy’s father and his war buddy No Tail Bear, the psychological aftermath of sudden catastrophe, and the author’s own remarkable transition from aerospace engineering and NASA cost analysis to evocative literary prose.
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Set in the rural community of Stick Willa during the late 1940s and early 1950s, the story establishes its rhythm through the staggering industriousness of Jimmy’s father. In a society transitioning from wartime mobilization to consumer-driven peace, men like Jimmy’s father did not simply hold a job; they commanded a constellation of hustles. Working twenty-four hours on and twenty-four hours off at the municipal fire station, his off-duty days were consumed by mechanical labor, trading Chinese junk at local auction houses, driving freight, selling life insurance, and managing the Plaza Drive-in Movie Theater alongside business partners Don and Loretta Shockley and a towering African American man known as No Tail Bear.
This era was defined by motion. Every holiday season saw the erection of a concrete-block fireworks stand at the edge of town, while the railroad station served as a portal to a larger, more industrial world. The narrative highlights an extraordinary bi-weekly pilgrimage: Jimmy, his mother, No Tail Bear, and his father traveling in a gargantuan 1955 Buick Roadmaster to meet the Dixie Flyer, a stream-lined masterpiece of steel and diesel-electric engineering.
Defying Jim Crow on the Rails
A critical historical thread within Hamaker’s narrative involves the bond between Jimmy’s father and No Tail Bear. Having saved Jimmy’s father from the bloody chaos of the Battle of the Bulge during the Ardennes Counteroffensive, No Tail Bear shared a brotherhood forged in the crucible of combat that transcended the virulent Jim Crow segregation laws of the mid-century South.
While Jim Crow protocol dictated that No Tail Bear occupy a segregated car at the tail end of the train, Jimmy’s father flatly refused to conform. The two veterans routinely bypassed institutional racism by boarding the lounge car together, smoking innumerable cigarettes over a ten-hour stretch all the way to Chicago. Staying at Bill Yancy’s LampLighter Club—a rare integrated sanctuary in the urban North—they engaged in high-stakes automotive procurement, returning to Stick Willa via a grueling fourteen-hour driving marathon with four newly purchased vehicles tethered to tow bars. This relationship stands as a testament to the complex social renegotiations occurring beneath the surface of post-war American life.
The Turning Point: The Country Highway Fire
The narrative’s central turning point occurs during an afternoon visit to the fire hall. When the ear-splitting wail of the fire alarm tears through the silence, Jimmy experiences firsthand the mobilization of the local volunteer and professional firefighting corps. Following the red pumper truck in the Roadmaster, Jimmy and his father arrive at a two-story home engulfed in ominous, roiling black smoke.
Unlike modern media depictions of swift, cinematic rescues, Hamaker captures the agonizing, dreamlike sluggishness of rural mid-century firefighting infrastructure. Hamaker writes of the firemen uncoiling heavy hoses and stringing them down the road toward a distant hydrant while the fire systematically eats away at the structure. By the time water hits the flames, the house is a total loss.
Amidst the smoldering ruins, the emotional core of the scene emerges. The displaced homeowner—shaking and weeping—is enveloped not with bureaucratic detachment, but with radical empathy. Jimmy’s father discards his heavy helmet and wraps both the husband and wife inside his canvas firefighter’s coat, offering an embrace that transcends professional duty. It is here that Jimmy is first introduced to the concept of "starting over"—a foreign notion to a child who previously believed that cataclysmic loss was a permanent state of being.
The Unthinkable Loss
The illusion of security is brutally shattered later that autumn. While working a night shift at the fire hall, Jimmy’s father suffers a fatal myocardial infarction in his sleep. At age forty, a man who "could do anything"—who fought fires, rescued soldiers in the Ardennes, drove transport trucks, and anchored his family and community—is abruptly gone.
Jimmy, now ten years old, and his grieving mother are cast into their own harrowing process of starting over. By October, sitting under the cool night sky studying fifth-grade astronomy, mother and child share the aching vacuum left by the patriarch. The narrative captures the raw reality of grief: the shared tears in the dark, the mutual buffering of anger, and the permanent, haunting awareness of an incomplete life.
Supporting Context & Metrics: Socioeconomic Realities of Post-War America
To fully appreciate the historical texture of Hamaker’s Stick Willa, one must examine the broader socioeconomic data and cultural shifts of the post-WWII United States (spanning roughly 1945 to 1955):
- The Economic Boom and Household Multi-Jobbing: While the post-war era is frequently romanticized as an era of steady suburban expansion and secure corporate ladders, rural and small-town America often relied on hyper-diversified income streams. Inflation immediately following the removal of wartime price controls in 1946 forced many working-class men to stitch together multiple part-time enterprises to maintain middle-class stability.
- The Evolution of Municipal Firefighting: In the late 1940s, many American towns were transitioning from entirely volunteer fire brigades to hybrid departments featuring full-time core crews supported by volunteers. Equipment such as the pneumatic clam-shell floor doors and pole systems depicted in the story were hallmarks of modernized municipal stations, symbolizing civic pride and rapid technological response.
- Veterans’ Networks and Racial Integration: Sociological data from the post-war era indicates that millions of returning soldiers experienced a profound psychological shift regarding race and hierarchy due to shared combat trauma. While institutional segregation remained entrenched—particularly in transit and public accommodations—the battlefield alliances formed in units like those engaged in the Battle of the Bulge frequently birthed enduring, cross-racial bonds that foreshadowed the civil rights movements of the coming decades.
- Automotive Culture: The dominance of vehicles like the 1955 Buick Roadmaster and the 1950 GMC dually cargo truck underscores the automobile’s central role in post-war American identity. Automobiles were not merely transit tools; they served as mobile offices, cargo haulers, and symbols of burgeoning consumer freedom.
Official Statements and Literary Resonance
While "Starting Over" is a work of short fiction rather than a political report, its thematic resonance has drawn praise from literary critics and educators examining mid-century American historical fiction.
In editorial commentary surrounding The Missouri Review’s BLAST series, editors have emphasized the necessity of publishing prose that resists containment within traditional print boundaries. BLAST was conceived to highlight works that possess an urgent, visceral vitality—qualities embodied by Hamaker’s unflinching portrayal of trauma and resilience.
Literary analysts reviewing the story have frequently noted the symbolic weight of the fire hall pole. For ten-year-old Jimmy, the pole represents masculine authority, professional competence, and a terrifying yet alluring rite of passage. When he finally returns to the station on his bicycle months after his father’s death—seeking permission from the fire chief to slide down the pole one last time—he is not merely seeking a thrill; he is performing a private memorial.
"I stretched out on it very carefully and lay there for a while looking up at the ceiling. I tried to feel like he must have felt lying there… Then finally I reached out to it, hugged the pole tight, and rode it down."
The chief’s response—holding his gaze for a beat longer than usual, offering quiet hospitality without pity—reflects the unspoken code of small-town communities during times of grief: an understanding that healing cannot be rushed, and that some absences can only be navigated through silent solidarity.
Future Outlook: The Author’s Dual Life in Science and Letters
The publication of "Starting Over" brings into sharp relief the remarkable dual trajectory of its author, Dr. Joseph Hamaker. While the literary world is currently engaging with his evocative prose in The Missouri Review, Hamaker’s professional life has been dedicated to an entirely different universe: the hard sciences, aerospace engineering, and complex parametric cost analysis.
From NASA to Parametric Modeling
Dr. Hamaker’s career spans decades of critical contributions to United States space exploration. Holding a Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), alongside degrees in economics and industrial engineering, Hamaker has left an indelible mark on how humanity budgets for the stars.
His professional milestones include:
- Originator of NASA Cost Models: Hamaker was the primary architect behind NASA’s NAFCOM (NASA Air Force Cost Model) and the NASA QuickCost Model, tools that revolutionized how space flight projects are budgeted and evaluated.
- Institutional Leadership: He has held leadership and analytical roles at NASA Headquarters, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, the Space Systems Cost Analysis Group, and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Economics Technical Committee.
- Current Enterprise: Presently serving as a cost analyst with Galorath Federal—a leading international supplier of parametric cost models and consulting services—Dr. Hamaker continues to apply rigorous mathematical frameworks to complex engineering challenges.
The Intersection of Rigor and Imagination
The transition from calculating the cost and schedule risks of interplanetary spacecraft to writing lyrical, deeply felt historical fiction about post-war rural America highlights a fascinating duality. Both disciplines demand intense observational precision. Whether analyzing regression models for human space missions or reconstructing the tactile memory of a 1955 Buick Roadmaster and the wail of a distant fire siren, Hamaker’s work is underpinned by an absolute fidelity to truth—whether structural or emotional.
As "Starting Over" continues to resonate with readers through The Missouri Review, it stands as a reminder that the most enduring structures we build are not made of steel or concrete, but of memory, resilience, and the quiet courage to face the horizon after the ashes have cooled.
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