This book is a true story, written primarily to provide context and history for a specific family. After learning of research which indicated that children who "knew their roots" were often better adjusted and secure, the author set out to provide a bit of family history for future generations of that family. Rural Iowa. Long, dusty gravel roads surrounded by cornfields and strip coal mines, long deserted. Farms where families nurtured what they needed to survive. No inside plumbing. Hand pumps to draw up reddish, bitter water from the ground. Dark drafty outhouses. Impoverished to the point of bare survival. No welfare, no safety nets, no insurance, no government intrusion for either good or ill. Neighbors helping neighbors. A simple time.