Recalling an early upbringing in rural Illinois, the author relates the natural and academic influences on his philosophy beginning as a boy, including hunting, trapping, farming, and living in a small Midwestern community. The people, places, and events characteristic of small town life are recalled with a flair toward humor and an appreciation of times less hectic. Saturday night fish-fry gatherings, oiling the local streets, hunting, gathering natural resources, a myriad of other events comprising the fabric of small-town life intertwine in a story of individual development.