South Coast Senior College

Intended for all ethnicities, Growing Up Franco-American (with no patent-leather shoes) is the intriguing story of courageous grandparent and parent immigrants who, at once, heartily embraced their new country, the United States, yet remained inherently true to their cherished Old World cultural traditions – all as transmitted to and perceived by - one of their first-generation American children, Lorraine Dutile Masure. Acting as a cultural tour guide, she here tells stories of what it was really like growing up with a rich Franco heritage across multiple venues of home, family, church, school, and other settings.

Lorraine Dutile Masure  has led senior college courses exploring Broadway Musicals, Music Genres and Eras, and Ethics for over a dozen years. It is within her stories about growing up as a first-generation American though, her formative years, when her philosophies and perspectives about living the past 90 years are transparently revealed. (Where did all those corny jokes come from?) Many seniors will see themselves in her stories. And younger people will be amazed at how quaint (quaint?) life was not so long ago. Informative and, as Lorraine reflects back through the rear-view mirror of her own life, some of it’s pretty comical too!