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Kentucky Boy: The Top First Grader
www.kentuckyboy.net
In these memoirs, Louie Boyd retraces the story of his life, beginning with his 1928 birth in Kentucky-not the Kentucky of horseracing legend, nor that of Appalachian myth, but the lowland Kentucky of the tobacco farmer. Boyd’s was a world that modern American children would scarcely recognize. It was a world in which cars shared the dusty roads with horse-drawn wagons, and kerosene was both the main source of home lighting and the remedy for cut fingers and skinned knees. It was a world in which small boys worked in the fields, planting and harvesting corn, wheat and the “thirteen-month-a-year” crop, tobacco, alongside their fathers and grandfathers.
As a young boy picking worms from tobacco leaves, Boyd had no idea what the future and the worlds of agriculture and education) especially something called the land-grant university), held in store for him.
Boyd’s story moves from his childhood (when, as a toddler, he declared he was “nevah, nevah gonna shave”) to his tour of duty in the Philippines. His return stateside is followed by his education at the University of Kentucky, and marriage to his classmate, Becky. Together they move through time-not passively, but vigorously, and with a sense of adventure. The story follows the growth of Boyd’s work in agricultural extension and their travels across the country (even to England), going from university to university with their four young children. It continues through his retirement from the University of Georgia, including Louie and Becky’s unique “second anniversary” (after more than 56 years of marriage) and their many travels. Their story is still writing itself.
Ultimately, Boyd’s childhood proves to have been the source of great things. The hard work in the fields develops the discipline and dedication that carry him through adulthood. The farming life turns out to be his primary education in what will be his life’s work. And the love and strength of his parents build the character of a man who will love and rear a family of his own. That honest, unfailing love is the source of another interest of Boyd’s: family history. For decades, Boyd has traced the genealogy of his family and in an act of love for forbears he never knew and for descendents he may never know, he has recorded that genealogy here.
“As an individual”, Boyd writes, “you may look in the mirror one day or find yourself doing something and have that; ah-ha’ moment-‘Goodness, I’m just like Mama or just like Daddy!’ Then you discover or soothe yourself by saying, ‘Well, that’s not too bad,’” Not too bad, at all!
To order online go to alibris.com or amazon.com, then go to BOOKS and search for the title: kentucky boy, by author: Louis Boyd.
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