In the year 1903, Monroe Thomas was born on a small farm in the Toe River Valley, the third child in a family of seven. As it was for many Appalachian mountain families of that time, survival was precarious and depended upon hard work. Physically, Monroe was frail, scarred by a fall into an open fire when a baby, crippled with osteomyelitis since childhood, and confined as an invalid for most of his adult life. However, the fragility of his body stood in stark contrast to the breadth and depth of his intellect and spirit. As the pages of this book will show, Monroe possessed the soul and insight of a poet, and the honesty of his words provides a historical look back to a time and place that no longer exists.