Life on a Roller Coaster

From a child in turmoil to a man at peace this emotional memoir presents the often helter-skelter life of author Ralph G. Mendoza. From the sorrowful to the hurtful and the unfair to the pleasurable humorous and enjoyable <i>Life on a Roller Coaster</i> narrates Mendoza's sixty-five-year journey.<p>The account begins with his earliest memories growing up in an East Los Angeles ghetto attending more than fifty schools between first grade and high school. For a time his best friends were bookies and hoodlums. In <i>Life on a Roller Coaster</i> Mendoza describes the many chapters in his life which include a stint in the United States Air Force a long career with the Los Angeles Fire Department and his experiences as a professional gambler in Las Vegas. He tells about the good and the bad-of his flight on Air Force One and meeting President Lyndon B. Johnson and Secretary of State Dean Rusk and of his seventeen-year marriage and subsequent divorce.<p>A riveting narrative <i>Life on a Roller Coaster</i> recounts Mendoza's meager beginnings in squalor to his now tranquil existence in Nevada. It's a testament of one man's determination to turn his dreams into reality.