Growing up in the snowblower society of Buffalo, New York, Laura
Pedersen's first words were most likely "turn the wheel into a skid."
Like many families subsisting in the frigid North during the energy
crisis, the Pedersens feared rising prices at the gas pump, argued about
the thermostat, fought over the dog to stay warm at night, and often
slept in their clothes. While her parents were preoccupied with
surviving separation and stagflation, daughter Laura became the
neighborhood wild child, skipping school, playing poker, betting on the
horses, and trading stocks. Learning how to beat the odds, by high
school graduation Pedersen was well prepared to seek her fortune on Wall
Street, becoming the youngest person to have a seat on the American
Stock Exchange and a millionaire by age 21. Combining laugh-out-loud
humor with a slice of social history-her hometown was a flash point for
race riots, antiwar protests, and abortion rallies, not to mention
bingo, bowling, and Friday night fish fries-Pedersen paints a vivid
portrait of an era.