Rock Candy Mountain

A Memoir

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 it's 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.