Bryson spent his childhood growing up in Des Moines, Iowa. He was born on December 8, 1951, which was also the tenth anniversary to the USA’s entry into World War II. He was a part of the baby-boom generation that was born right after World War II ended. He describes his early years of life and his parents, William and Mary Bryson. His father was a well-known sports writer for the Des Moines Register, the leading newspaper in Des Moines. His mother was also a writer; however, she wrote for magazines like Better Homes and Gardens, Good Housekeeping, and House Beautiful. 

          He recounts many things that were invented during his childhood that fascinated him, which include frozen dinners, atomic toilets, and television. His middle-class, all-American lifestyle is shown constantly throughout the book, and the influence of his depression-era raised parents rubs off on him. He also remembers his adventures as "the thunderbolt kid," an alter ego he made up for himself when he felt powerless. He was able to vaporize people with his heat vision and thought that he came from another planet. 

          He tells amusing stories of his misadventures as Billy Bryson also, including his first days in school when he figured out that when the entire class was running drills to protect themselves from a bomb, he would simply read comic books instead. However, when the principal and a police officer came in one day to supervise, he got in loads of trouble. Trouble was something fairly common for "the thunderbolt kid", seeing as throughout his childhood his teachers were not too amused by his abilities. 

          In fact, Bryson recounts how he really wasn’t too interested in getting up before noon, thus not even going to school very often. Despite his unique behavior, Bryson tells his story through the eyes of a child, filled with hilarious observations about basically everything: from Lumpy Kowalski’s curious nickname to all the joy that was to be had in the marvelous department stores. Even though he focuses mostly on his childhood, he tells of many of the events that were happening at the time, including the development of the atomic bomb, and the beginnings of the civil rights movement. 

          Bryson is constantly ironically praising the time in which he grew up, citing all of the fun that children could have in those days while still noting that it probably resulted in buttock cancer for many of Bishop’s atomic toilet aficionados. He tells of his first days in Jr. High and High School, and during both he began smoking, drinking, and stealing, although he didn’t get caught for any of it. He met Stephen Katz in Jr. High, when they were both in the school’s A/V club. Katz would accompany Bryson on many of his travel experiences. At the end of the book, Bryson tells the reader that "life moves on," and that he wishes that the world could be more similar to life in the 50s and 60s. The last lines of the book are, "What a wonderful world that would be. What a wonderful world it was. We won’t see its like again, I’m afraid."