Through stories and anecdotes, Jay Barber takes the reader into the world he once knew, a world the present generation can hardly believe existed only a few decades ago. Barber left that world at the age of 18 seeking to find a better one, but the memories of his youth and that place stuck to him like the waterline on the trees in the Islands swamps. He shares his childhood in Memories of the Islands while recording a history of the Barber family in Martin County, North Carolina, and their struggles to survive the Great Depression, the flood of 1940, and a number of family tragedies. Looking back, he realizes that his two worlds were connected like the swamps and the islands where he grew up. Factual and honest about the times and events, Memories of the Islands will pull at your heart strings and make you laugh, and it will jog the memory of the older generation about a time that was. Memories of the Islands is a book for all ages and for all times.