In this reminiscence on growing up in a small rural community in the 1940s and early 1950s the author tells of the joys of swimming in dammed-up creeks, roaming hills and paying five cents to get into the Saturday night picture show, of simple Christmases where an orange was a treat…a devoted mother’s wonderful desserts…a grandfather’s tales of Oklahoma…a father who demanded work but who also gave great freedom and taught his children how to play baseball. In it the author goes from a great-great-grandfather who freed his slaves and fought for the Union to how the family and the town dealt with integration 100 years later. He tells of family struggles during the Great Depression, his father walking 5 miles to hear a radio for the first time, and of the coming of television 30 years later. More than anything else, without being preachy or mawkish about it, this reminiscence is about how three generations of principled men and women affected the lives of their sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters, is about bonds of love and affection that spread from generation to generation and from sibling to sibling, and lasted for lifetimes.