Author Notes

My parents traveled across the Untied States from town totown, mostly with carnival people. We also spent timetraveling in Canada and Mexico. I was born in the state of Nebraska, with a lot of brothers and sisters. I was bornsomewhere in the middle of them. The traveling came to astop when the school law was passed in the early 1940’s.I thank God for that, I least I did get some education.I often wondered why my parents chose the ruralMissouri area, located in the bootheel. I guess the reasonmy father chose this area was the cotton fields, he knew hecould use his children to work in the fields. In the year of 1942 we settled a few miles north of a small community ofPascola, Mo. and my father became a share cropper. I wasonly seven years old at that time, I was put to work in thecotton fields, and life became very hard.We only had the simple things in life and we knewnothing about luxuries. The work became very hard,clearing land for farming, working in the cotton fields,taking care of about three hundred head of hogs in apenned in wooded area, milking cows, lots of poultry, andother livestock animals. We also operated a saw mill and Icould split wood like my brothers. When we came out of the great depression, I managed toget to the eleventh grade, but did not get to complete thatyear. My mother knew I loved to write, she was my biggestfan, she always complimented about my hand writing. Welived on an old railroad dummy line, about a quarter milefrom the main road. We had to walk that distant everydayto the school bus. We could always see visitors comingbefore they reached the house.The old house was not much and we called it our home.The southern Missouri life had it’s hardships, the coldwintry nights, the house had cracks in the walls, the coldwind and snow would blow through the cracks. On thesecold winter nights, we would bunk together, and motherwould throw an old tarp over us to keep us warm. The nextmorning there would be ridges of snow, on top of the oldtarp, and we would scramble out of bed to see the beautifulsnow outside.When I was a small child, my refuse was a patch of clover, and this would keep me charmed for hours. Theclover patch was my dream world and I would hunt for thefour leaf clover for my good luck charm. I would sitmaking chains of love from the clover flowers, singing, andmaking sentences with rhyming words. That is where Ifound my love for poetry and that was my greatest giftfrom God. If I could go back, I would have taken this giftmore seriously, and started writing at an earlier age. Istarted writing poetry about twenty five years ago, my firstpoem, “Momma’s China Doll“, and the second poem,“Easter Message”.I raised five children, four sons, and one daughter. I havesix grandchildren, two step grandchildren, and onegrandson on the way. I have worked all my life, workedseventeen years in the home health field and I have retiredfrom a part time secretary position in the county juveniledepartment. I have a love for camping, fishing, nature,quilting, and a closeness to God.I want to thank my mother, who was the first person toinspired me to write and my son, Namon Keith, who hashelped me edit my poems, and the layout of my book.