Book excerpt: Sometimes Like Dimes: Life Lessons in the Steel City is about Thom Slofer, and chronicles his experiences growing up and becoming older in the Hill District neighborhood of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, USA in the 1980's and 90's. During this time period the people, life passages, and the changing surroundings are described as they affect him. The Hill was once a thriving inner-city neighborhood. World-famous jazz musicians once played in the ballrooms and jazz clubs nightly; the Hill District was to Pittsburgh what Harlem is to New York City. Hard economic times before and after the 1980’s hit the once economically thriving black community at the foot of downtown Pittsburgh hard. The Hill was now nothing more than a snapshot of economic demise. The successes and setbacks through his high school years and into his young adult life are chronicled. Older women he became involved with showed him another way to be despite peer and neighborhood influences. He graduates high school to attend college but drops out and obtains a reasonable job; but the streets and thier infuences are present. He becomes a part-time bartender then begins to carry a gun before loosing his job and succumbing to low self-esteem. He’s then forced to survive on the streets but refuses to take part in any crime. He rises above and eventually beyond the streets, but the lessons "street life" taught stayed within him. Sometimes Like Dimes: Life Lessons in the Steel City not only demonstrates that if every man were to write a book about his experiences every story would be unique; but is also a lens to view what it was like to live life in Southwestern Pennsylvania, USA.