Daddy S Got Dirt

Learn how California rice is grown in this illustrated children's book.

A classic in contemporary Oklahoma literature, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s Red Dirt unearths the joys and ordeals of growing up poor during the 1940s and 1950s. In this exquisite rendering of her childhood in rural Oklahoma, from the Dust Bowl days to the end of the Eisenhower era, the author bears witness to a family and community that still cling to the dream of America as a republic of landowners.

I, Janet Godwin Meyer, grew up on a dirt road in Georgia in the 1950s. My grandparents lived just across the state line in Alabama. Until I was eight years old, I had no idea that our black neighbors (the Collins family) were constantly reminded that they were second-class citizens. My parents accepted the Collins family as true friends who could be relied on to help and love their neighbors. My daddy was strong-willed and independent in his constant support of all our black friends. Shut Godwin helped many whites and blacks, and his reputation as a force to be reckoned with actually made the Ku Klux Klan back away from any sort of witch hunts. And many times over the years, he redirected the evildoers that he called the KKK cowards dressed up in white ghost costumes. When I was ten years old, my mother drove her children across the country so that we could spend the summer in Magdalena, New Mexico. That was the closest we could get to my daddys sawmill. For fifty cents an acre paid to the federal government, my dad purchased the right to cut timber from the national forest.

The country is changing, and her own world is being turned upside down. Nothing—and no one—will ever be the same. Georgia, 1962. Rose Perkins Bourdon returns home to Parsons, GA, without her husband and pregnant with another man’s baby. After tragedy strikes her husband in the war overseas, a numb Rose is left with pieces of who she used to be and is forced to figure out what she is going to do with the rest of her life. Her sister introduces her to members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee—young people are taking risks and fighting battles Rose has only seen on television. Feeling emotions for the first time in what feels like forever, the excited and frightened Rose finds herself becoming increasingly involved in the resistance efforts. And of course, there is also the young man, Isaac Weinberg, whose passion for activism stirs something in her she didn’t think she would ever feel again. Homeward follows Rose’s path toward self-discovery and growth as she becomes involved in the Civil Rights Movement, finally becoming the woman she has always dreamed of being.

An unforgettable journey through racism and faith across the generations. January 15, 1959—a day that changed one family forever. White supremacists kidnapped and severely beat rural Alabama preacher Israel Page, nearly killing him because he had sued a White sheriff's deputy for injuries suffered in a car crash. After "they" "got Daddy," Israel Page's children began leaving the Jim Crow South, the event leaving an indelible mark on the family and its future. Decades later, the events of that day fueled journalist Sharon Tubbs's epic quest to learn who had "gotten" her mother's daddy and why. They Got Daddy follows Tubbs on her moving journey from Fort Wayne, Indiana, to the back roads and rural churches of Alabama. A powerful revelation of the sustaining and redemptive power of faith and unflinching testimony to the deeply embedded effects of racism across the generations, it demonstrates how the search for the truth can offer a chance at true healing.

Book Delisted

If Her Desire For Revenge Doesn't Backfire. . . Ex-Wall Streeter Barbara Turner wants revenge on the scam artist who swindled her grandmother out of her life savings and then killed her. Posing as a hair stylist, Barbara arrives in Paradise Island, shocked to discover that she's related to the town matriarch--and that she's one of the trustees of the family's antique bowl, which has mysteriously disappeared. Determined to solve these mysteries on her own, Barbara refuses to ask the town's sheriff for help. . . It Could Lead To A Lifetime Of Love. Unfortunately, Sheriff Harper Porterfield--Paradise Island's most eligible bachelor--already suspects Barbara of hiding something. But that isn't the only reason he won't let the plus-sized beauty out of his sight. He finds her thoroughly irresistible, but her subterfuge could destroy any chance of a happily ever after--especially while there's still a killer on the loose. . .

Working alone, to start with, I filled three pages of legal pads with two columns per page with notes on events in my life. The title of the book came from the incessant questioning by my daughters for stories of my life, and of the lives of those near and dear to me. In retirement since 1988, my wife and I have spent the winters in a deluxe country club complex in Florida and our summers on our 11-acre farm in Connecticut. I played golf, spent afternoons in the condominium pool, and, following advice given to me by my dad's brother, a doctor, I have a three-ounce martini every night to keep the blood thin and the heart relaxed.