Eddie "Sarge" Stimpson"s vivid account of growing up in depression-era Texas is a welcome addition to the autobiographical literature on the rural African American experience between the wars. The origins of this remarkable manuscript in a local history project are explained in a foreword by Frances Wells, and folklorist James Byrd uses the introduction to describe his editorial policy toward a text in which spelling and syntax are often idiosyncratic. Byrd is to be commended for retaining the expressive vernacular style and powerful cadences of Stimpson"s own writings because these qualities allow the author"s personality to emerge more fully as he tells his tale.