Jess Blakley, the man who wrote this book-longhand-gives us a first-person account of growing up during the Great Depression. He shows how love and laughter motivated his family of 12 to "get by" in their tiny four-room house, with very little money. He earned cash, though, by harvesting his own crop of broomcorn, raising pigs and selling 'possum and skunk hides to wandering fur dealers. Blakley's ambition drove him from the Texas farmland to the golden promise of California; then to the Nevada Test Site, where he was project engineer for the last U.S. above-ground atomic test. He wrote this book while caring for his wife, Geneva, who was afflicted with Alzheimer's disease. When he read various parts of the book to her, she would remember that period of their lives, if only for a moment. This is the heartwarming story of their lives and love.