Kentucky's Last Barefoot Generation: Growing up off the Grid for Real

Have you ever taken a spoonful of kerosene mixed with sugar for a cough, gone barefoot to a one-room school, or watched rival suitors bid themselves broke at a pie supper?The Last Barefoot Generation is a warm, easy-reading collection of true stories about Paul growing up in rural central Kentucky in the 1940s and 1950s—before electricity and modern conveniences reached every home. It was a time when children shed their shoes with the first warm days, baby chicks arrived by mail, and the Sears & Roebuck catalog was as eagerly awaited as Christmas morning.These stories, with deep family roots in Appalachia, capture a vanishing America—where supper came from the garden, heat from a wood stove, and light from a coal-oil lamp. Remedies were tried at home before “sending for the doctor,” wash day began with building a fire under a tub, and discipline at school often carried over at home.Both a tribute and a record of a disappearing way of life, this memoir opens a window into the everyday realities of small farm families and the vital role children played in helping them endure and thrive.If you remember those days, this book will take you home.If you don’t, it will introduce you to the world your grandparents once knew.Perfect for readers who enjoy true accounts of mid-20th-century rural life, The Last Barefoot Generation will resonate with fans of “Little House on the Prairie”—with a distinctly Southern voice.. Read more