This is a memoir my father wrote about his life growing up in Eastern Kentucky in the early 1900's. It's a story that traces his beginnings as a child in those mountain hills which are incredibly beautiful and at the same time fraught with harsh realities. His childhood is one of extraordinary exploration into the hills of Kentucky along with his insatiable curiosity with the new industries that settle in those mountains. The author successfully manages to tell this story from a child's perspective with all its freshness. He has a mischievous nature, mixed with innocence, as he experiences both the beauty and hardship of what it's like to grow up in that era. His father is a key figure whose drinking causes a rift between them. On the one hand, he longs for recognition by his father, but on the other hand, he sees something very amiss which he's not able to articulate. This is all poignantly chronicled, and when he turns thirteen, he sets out to travel away from his Kentucky home. With only his wits and ingenuity, he manages to make his way in this new environment. His transportation is riding the rails to places and experiences far beyond his homeland. He strikes out on his own to go to Texas to become a cowboy. With no real plan or knowledge about how to pursue that dream, he has many misadventures on his path to get there. It reads like an adventure story of a young boy trying to become an adult. At the same time, he longs for a connection and the recognition that he is a man, even at such a young age. In the end, it's a tale of redemption and about how the grass is not always greener on the other side.
About the Author: Sarah Davis is the loving daughter of Earl Davis, the author of Rock Candy Mountain. She is a retired Registered Nurse who was born and raised in San Francisco, California. It was her father's dream to have his memoir published so she is now making his dream a reality. Her father always had a story to tell his young family about the place of his birth. Sarah watched him write this amazing story, night after night, while recuperating from a brutal assault he sustained walking home from a school meeting in San Francisco. The memoir he penned is full of amazing adventures based on his life in the early 1900's in Eastern Kentucky, a top coal producer in those days. He wrote about his life there as well as his travels away from home, which included riding the rails, at the early age of 13. He had hoped to find a better life on the other side of that country mountain. He was as curious as he was industrious to survive away from home for over a year without anything but his wits to get by. He discovered even more about the harshness and tragic realities of life, as well beautiful poignant moments with the people he met. All along the way, Earl Davis uses his artful eye to see the beauty in the world around him despite some grim realities. His daughter, Sarah, has traveled to his birthplace and has seen firsthand many of the places he describes so well in his memoir. Take this journey with the author. It's a not to be missed experience!