It is the summer of l952 and the Cold War in on. When a family crisis sends twelve-year-old Garrett Gentry to spend the summer in Purcell Station, Indiana, he has no idea what he is going to find. Clinging to the last year of his boyhood, Garrett discovers his family legacy in a town that is rich, not in material wealth, but in character and characters. Then one day in the basement of Slinker's General Store he stumbles onto something he wasn't supposed to see. That's when he realizes Purcell Station has some secrets to share.

In this heartwarming, coming-of-age story of 1950's innocence, compassion, redemption, and rebirth, Garret is grounded in the wisdom of his Baptist grandmother who says: "Life is one trial after another to see who has the mettle to stand up and do the right thing."



Dale Glenn was born in Knox County, Indiana, where his family roots go back to the 1880's, and where this novel takes place. The son of educators, he grew up in a number of small Indiana towns much like Purcell Station. A graduate of Indiana University, he began his career as an English teacher at Speedway High School in Indianapolis. Later he became assistant principal and basketball coach at Huntingburg High School in southern Indiana. Since then he has lived in Bloomington where he has served as the principal at both University Middle School and Batchelor Middle School, and as an adjunct professor at Indiana University. He remains in Bloomington with his wife Teresa, a former teacher, and among their five children. He divides his time between there and his family farm near Vincennes. Although his writing credits include a number of nonfiction publications, this is his first novel.