Born on January 5, 1907, Zetta Hamby spent much of her life in the northwestern mountains of North Carolina, keenly watching the changes in her community of Grassy Creek and in the world. Families, homes, weddings and funerals, politics, health, world war, race relations, the telephone--those are among the topics touched on in this firsthand look at rural Appalachia in the early decades of the present century. Sometimes poignant, often humorous, and surely authentic, these stories are yet another reminder of recent history that is all too quickly being lost.

Born on January 5, 1907, Zetta Hamby spent much of her life in the northwestern mountains of North Carolina, keenly watching the changes in her community of Grassy Creek and in the world. Families, homes, weddings and funerals, politics, health, world war, race relations, the telephone--those are among the topics touched on in this firsthand look at rural Appalachia in the early decades of the present century. Sometimes poignant, often humorous, and surely authentic, these stories are yet another reminder of recent history that is all too quickly being lost.