Some Authors Try all their lives to achieve a voice, Julia Brown Tobias draws you into her childhood with a voice as clear and wise and elegant as any author today.Julia Brown Tobias was born in 1902 in Nebraska. Here she gives us the story of her childhood, growing up on the prairie with her family and neighbors who seem to have just arrived from central casting.There is Mama whose strongest epithet was Thunder and Mud which she muttered when the preacher arrived unannounced; Boo who was born with what was then called thyroid deficiency; the hired man that caused Mama to get out the buggy whip; the traveling gypsies; and Ralph, a young harvest hand who became a major part of Julia's life.