Growing up on a farm in the Deep

South during the twenties and thirties

may not have been easy, but the little

boy named Nixon Smiley certainly was

not aware of it. And surrounded by a cast

of loving, funny, crazy, zany, and just

plain ornery characters, he made the most

of whatever opportunities offered them-

selves.

Life was a lot different half a century

ago. Food from the land was generally

abundant, cash scarce, and luxuries un-

known. Wearing overalls as did his peers,

sharing his elementary classroom with 21-

year-old Juddie Matlock, accepting his

grandpa s "typical Crowder binges," do-

ing "boypower" work on the farm, stalk-

ing wild turkeys and fishing in deep holes

in the "boogery swamps"-all were simple

facts of life and part of Smiley s youth in

Crowder.

His grandparents, who raised trim; his

uncle Scar, who died in prison; Clint, the

jovial blacksmith; Zenus the lazy peddler,

his friend Boisey, the sharecropper; jivin

Jiggy Jat Joe; Peggy, the killer; a bogus

southern colonel and and some memorable

Civil War veterans; and many more color-

ful characters make up the world that

Smiley grew up in.