My absolute favorite part of "As American as..." was as he talked of the child who sat on the rug and used the patterns on it as streets or ways for his cars etc. to go. I did that as I was a child and that leads you to think just how much we are assimilated into the culture pretty much as soon as we are born. But is the way that our society runs and sees things really the way we want our children (because obviously it's too late for us) to be seeing or valuing things right away? I think not.