This bittersweet boyhood memoir from the 1950s moves through disparate, bygone places -- a small, poor crossroads in segregated Arkansas, an Oklahoma mental hospital, an isolated ranch bunkhouse without electricity, and a prairie town with Route 66 as main street. Drawn from episodic childhood memories and family letters, this book tells the story of an unusual boyhood -- of love, loss, redemption and dreams in search of a self -- and the story of a family's survival and success under the steady, sunny and determined presence of a strong mother.