Born into a California pioneer family in January 1930, at the beginning of a decade mired in the Great Depression and ending in WWII, Bill Street traces his earliest perceptions of the factors that defined his personality, and launched him towards an unconventional early life. From childhood through his teens, his quest for adventure was never curtailed by parental concern, allowing him to travel to work on farms and ranches in British Columbia, Wyoming, and Washington, and wrangling horses and trapping in Alaska. Settling into cattle ranching in Canada, spiced with a produce business in Mexico, the author recounts his efforts to avoid a normal "9 to 5" existence until confronted by the realities of financial and educational demands on a large family that finally brought about a return to civilization.