B. John Burns III grew up hearing his father’s stories about his freshman year at Boston University, the alma mater of Dr. Martin Luther King and the laboratory of Alexander Graham Bell. The veritable Depression baby, in 1947 his dad found himself thrust into academic competition with the grizzled returning veterans of a world war.  The bulk of those stories involved his two roommates — Ferdie from Medellin, Colombia and, more prominently, Pong from Bangkok, Siam. Three young men all emerging from tough times on three separate continents, representing three diverse cultures. They were tales he’d heard so many times over the years that he could tell them himself with a great deal of accuracy.  Then, on a Sunday afternoon in 2019, there was one brief recollection he hadn’t heard before. Something about taking the train to Harvard with Pong to meet a prince.
That’s when he realized . . .
This is a book about growing up Irish American in Worcester, Massachusetts during the Depression, and then coming of age in the looming shadow of the war. Boston University is a fresh start for Buddy Burns. It’s a fresh start for the waves of veterans coming home from Europe and the Pacific. It’s a fresh start for two young men — one from Asia and one from South America. Sent to Boston by families of influence being swept up in tumultuous events back home, Ferdie and Pong are here to equip themselves for lives of service.  Everybody gets a fresh start in 1947.

John Burns describes himself as an obscure Johnston, Iowa author and songwriter who has written approximately 5,000 songs in nearly every genre of music. He has appeared in 25 states, and continues to perform his tunes for mostly small, intimate audiences on piano, guitar and ukulele. His books include: The New Rules: An Old Man Held Hostage by a Radical Right Iowa Legislature and Governor, Baby Pictures: My Year on the Road with Baby Lester and the Buggybumpers, Dead Horses: A Collection of Longwinded but Entirely True Stories About My Favorite Subject, El Mensajero, and 4A Iowa Practice: Criminal Procedure.

John has worked as a busboy, a stereo salesman, a bank messenger, a criminal defense attorney, a grill cook, a Pinkerton guard, a political organizer, a bank bookkeeper, a published author, a paid actor, and a martial arts instructor. Through it all, he has continued to write music on a nearly daily basis.