Bitter Fruits

Long before he achieved the rank of Master Sergeant in the United States Air Force, Bill Carter was the oldest son of a shell-shocked World War I veteran. Bill, along with his caring mother and three siblings, lived with his father in Henderson, Colorado in 1935. There, the Carter family faced stigma as the lowest members of society, even during the Great Depression years. Like many other families in America at that time, the Carters uprooted and sought their own niche, settling on a wheat farm in Athena, Oregon. In this memoir, Bill recounts the defining moments of his adolescent years, including the shame of his early education and the discouragement of a mentor’s betrayal. Although exposing the cruelty of humanity, Bitter Fruits illuminates the willpower of a headstrong boy against overwhelming odds.