The Yard Dog by Sheldon Russell Minotaur, 2009, $24.99, 292 pages, ISBN 978-0-312-56670-8 Waaay back in the early 1960’s, when dinosaurs still roamed the earth and regular gasoline was 32.9 cents per gallon at my dad’s Texaco station on Main Street in Grahamsville, New York, a high school teacher named Manville B. Wakefield sparked an interest in American History in me that has remained all my life.  It was