TY  - BOOK
AU  - Hickam,Homer H.
AU  - Hickam,Homer H.
TI  - Carrying Albert home: the somewhat true story of a man, his wife, and her alligator 
SN  - 9780062325891 (hardcover)
PY  - 2015///]
CY  - New York, NY
PB  - William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
KW  - Man-woman relationships
KW  - Fiction
KW  - Husband and wife
KW  - Alligators as pets
KW  - Automobile travel
KW  - Coal miners
KW  - Florida
KW  - West Virginia
KW  - Domestic fiction
KW  - lcgft
KW  - Love stories
KW  - gsafd
KW  - Road fiction
KW  - Humorous fiction
KW  - Biographical fiction
KW  - Historical fiction
N1  - "This book is a work of fiction"--verso; "The long-awaited prequel to the bestselling memoir Rocket Boys"-- dust jacket
N2  - Elsie Lavender and Homer Hickam (the father of the author) were high school classmates in the West Virginia coalfields, graduating just as the Great Depression began. When Homer asked for her hand, Elsie instead headed to Orlando where she sparked with a dancing actor named Buddy Ebsen (yes, that Buddy Ebsen). But when Buddy headed for New York, Elsie's dreams of a life with him were crushed and eventually she found herself back in the coalfields, married to Homer. Unfulfilled as a miner's wife, Elsie was reminded of her carefree days with Buddy every day because of his unusual wedding gift: an alligator named Albert she raised in the only bathroom in the house. When Albert scared Homer by grabbing his pants, he gave Elsie an ultimatum: "Me or that alligator!" After giving it some thought, Elsie concluded there was only one thing to do: Carry Albert home
ER  -