"My great, great, great grandfather, Daniel South, born 19 July 1795, was smothered by sand at age 29. He probably didn't have time to write. So he didn't." And that's one of the reasons why Teto did. With a Revolutionary War soldier and a Civil War drummer in her lineage someone had to pen some of this amazing family's history for posterity. Juanita "Teto" Heffington was born on her grandfather's Iowa farm in 1923. At six weeks old her parents divorced. At two her grandmother died and her grandfather remarried. Mother and Teto were subsequently evicted with a suitcase, a saxophone, and five dollars. They lived in hotel rooms before moving to Los Angeles in 1935. In 1941 Teto married Dick Heffington. Sears fired her shortly thereafter for being married; there was no women's lib. She played string bass and worked for the County Recorder. With Dick now gone Teto and their two sons retain their sense of silly, and Teto still writes, for her own amazement. A poignant, sweeping portrayal of American history through the lens of an unusual family and perhaps the most interesting woman in the world, this memoir is one part history lesson, one part practical life lessons, and one part feel-good nostalgia dripping with humor, pathos, unique insight, and downright wackiness. You will meet unforgettable characters, both human and animal, and yearn again for a time when the world seemed big, and flat, and you really thought just about anything was possible.