The first paragraph in this book reads: When my aunt handed me those three incomplete versions of The Life of Reba Amy Carroll Guess, she had no idea what she was starting. Neither did I.     

I visited Aunt Reba that day to get information for the family tree I had started, but she provided me with much more. I loved the stories she had written in those three versions and asked if I could help her finish her life story. She agreed. I recorded, transcribed and edited interviews and combined information from the stories she had written. She was quite pleased with the results, as were my cousins. Soon, I was interviewing other women of my mother’s generation and one thing led to another...

Besides those ladies pictured below, you'll meet Dunnie Thomas, born in 1911 and crippled by polio at age two. Her mother told her she could do anything if she tried hard enough. She believed her and overcame her disablities to became a registered nurse. You'll enjoy Ola Covey's stories about boom town Pampa, Texas, and her description of the Dust Bowl and Depression. When she was fourteen, Reba Guess moved from warm and sunny Alabama to a farm near Kress, Texas in October. She said they had never been so cold and Ma had to go to town to buy long-handle  underwear. Mable Stockton, born in 1906 grew up in Amarillo along with here three sisters. She remembers her mother making dresses with bustles for her older half-sisters. You'll like Nola Sheldon's story about her husband's desire for a milk cow.  In fact, I think you'll like all the Ladies' stories about growing up in the barely settled area of the Texas Panhandle.