This is a true story of raw survival. Of hunger and dust and dirty faces. But sometimes a little humor helps us get through tough times. Even the most honest upright man will raid his neighbor's chicken roost if his family is hungry, and it takes guts to shoot a few rounds over the heads of thieves in the watermelon patch---especially if the thieves shot back. There are make-do receipes blended among the pages of narrative hardships. Some of them have been embellished and added to---and handed down to today, but they had their initial beginning in desperation.