In 1929, near Plano, Texas, Eddie Stimpson Jr., weighing 15-1/2 pounds, was born to a 19-year-old father and a 15-year-old mother. The boy, his two sisters and mother all grew up together, with the father sharecropping along the old Preston Road, the route used by many freedmen trying to escape Texas after the Civil War.
His childhood was void of luxuries, but full of country pleasures. The editors have retained the simplicity of Stimpson's folk speech and spelling patterns, allowing the good-natured humility and wisdom of his personality to shine through the narrative.
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