Skibo Memoir, "Bear Cave Hill," Published

Date: 12/12/06
Contact: Marc Lebovitz

The tumultuous year of 1968, which has been reviewed and analyzed by countless historians and commentators, is revisited through the eyes of a 12-year-old boy living in remote Northern Michigan in a new book, "Bear Cave Hill," written by Illinois State University anthropology professor James M. Skibo.

Skibo, who started writing the book as fiction following the death of his father, ended up penning a memoir. In it he recalls how he and his young friends in the mining town of Alpha, Mich., learned important lessons about their fathers, who were World War II veterans, and themselves during a year of assassinations, burning cities and the bloodiest phase of the Vietnam War.

Young Jimmy and his group of friends role-play war almost daily despite the fact that their fathers never talk about their combat experiences. Even when three local men return from Vietnam physically and emotionally wounded, the boys blithely continue their games. When he takes a fateful ride off a ski jump with a friend, Jimmy eventually learns both the horrors of war and the key to reaching manhood.

Skibo, who has been at Illinois State since 1992, has written and edited a number of books, including "Ants for Breakfast: Archaeological Adventures Among the Kalinga." For four months in 1988, Skibo lived with the Kalinga people in the remote mountains of the Philippines.