In the Mornin'

Surviving Oklahoma in the 20s and 30s and doing it as a kid. In the Mornin' is the memoir of a youth born in 1920 up until he leaves for college on a basketball scholarship. He and his sharecropper family suffered the heartbreaking loss of their elder sister and their mother to tuberculosis. They moved by wagon from the swamps of eastern Oklahoma to its arid middle, endured the Depression, and the Dust Bowl.

Told in first person, our protagonist picks cotton, herds' cattle, and has a closeness with his family, especially an older brother, which he carries throughout his life. His unique world view is an inspiration and his memories have a humor which helped him cope. As he points out, he saw things "kind of cockeyed." Having died in 2009, he left this wonderful story of life on the Oklahoma frontier.