I wasn't planning to write a book. I would just write a short story for my sister, Hazel. We were at the annual Bowman Christmas Dinner where I often told Christmas stories. Hazel asked me to write my favorite Christmas story for her. I wrote for her my favorite, "Radio Flyer." "Radio Flyer" was a big hit with family and friends and I was encouraged to write more stories about growing up on a rural farm in Virginia in the forties. The memories of this way of life would be lost if they were not recorded. I continued to write stories that I remembered as "The Way It Was in the Forties." I now...