Running Around Town
by Stephen K. Postema
| Nonfiction
| Published 07-28-2025
This collection of essays shares the observations of an energetic boy living in an anything-but-simple time: the mercurial decades of the 1960s and 1970s in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Running Around Town brings funny and quirky insights into gentle focus, with a lens on the small things in life that bring purpose and make us human.
Our perennially curious narrator describes his small but teeming domain extending to the University of Michigan Diag and the people who influenced him: A cashier who sells him a peace sign necklace at Middle Earth. The clerks at Discount Records who provide musical advice. The folk musicians at the Ark. U-M basketball star Cazzie Russell.
And importantly: a policeman neighbor who bails him out of situational predicaments. And a classmate, a bibliophile, who teaches him to sing in tune and passes him a note in history class at Pioneer High School.
Part coming-of-age impressions, part family and societal portraits in miniature, part love story, Running Around Town is ultimately a tapestry of transformative everyday interactions, woven together with the cultural influences and music of the times.
Stephen K. Postema grew up in Ann Arbor. He attended Ann Arbor schools, Harvard University, and the University of Wisconsin Law School. He began as a litigation attorney in 1985 and became the City Attorney for Ann Arbor in 2003. He was a frequent writer and speaker on legal topics. After retirement from the city in 2022, he returned to private practice and has an office on Main Street with a window looking out on the Old Westside. Learn more about Running Around Town in this interview with Stephen and our other 2025 authors from our pulp.aadl.org site that covers Arts Around Ann Arbor.