Book excerpt: "The Spaghetti Gang is the delightful memoir of Richard Guerrieri, a coal miner's son who grew up in the rough mountain town of Crested Butte, Colorado. It is the story of Italian immigrant people and their lives during the Great Depression and World War II. Crested Butte was a coal town, dominated by the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. It was a true American melting pot made up of immigrants from Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales, Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Guerrieri's account of his boyhood is wildly entertaining. His stories feature ranching, coal mining, Catholicism, World War II, hunting, skiing, and many other activities involving a young boy. He recounts the customs of the Italians and other ethnic peoples of Crested Butte who made blood sausage, dandelion wine, and got most of their food from deer, elk, and fish and from spectacular and well cared for gardens.The Spaghetti Gang is filled with the nostalgia of a young boy growing up at a time when Crested Butte families had very little. Readers are treated to vignettes about "strap-on ski's," "no bathing suits," "a horse named SOB," "the dreaded Catechism," and many other hilarious stories.Crested Butte was a microcosm of coal towns in America during the dark days of the Great Depression. In 1952 the Crested Butte coal mine shut down and three years later, the railroad tracks were torn up. Crested Butte's population fell to 300, a near ghost town before its revival as a ski town in 1961. Guerrieri's account of his early life and his family's transition from coal mining in Crested Butte to ranching in Gunnison, Colorado, shows that amidst the economic woes of the time there was fun and adventure to be had. His stories read very well and are brilliantly written. They make up a great picture of days gone by.The Spaghetti Gang tells a unique and heart-warming story of an ethnic coal town in American history. Crested Butte was, and is, a great mountain town with a rich history. The Spaghetti Gang brings it to life."