Many people have interesting childhoods, eccentric relatives, go off to college, and set out as adults to make their way in the world. Few people are as keenly observant or can write as compellingly about these experiences as does Helen Blackshear in this inviting memoir. Here we are invited into extended Southern families and are given glimpses of a world that no longer exists -- of genteel women's schools, of college towns when they were small communities, of first car trips and first suitors and a young girl's coming of age. The author recalls us back to her world in the early to mid-twentieth century, and reveals in the process her own generous spirit and wise heart.

"A slightly different version of this book was privately published by the author in 1973 and was reprinted in 1976"--Title page verso.

A brief biography of the Montgomery years of poet Sidney Lanier, considered by some the leading writer of the post-Civil War South. Lanier was a Georgian, but he spent two years after the war in Montgomery, Alabama, trying to restore his health after contracting tuberculosis while a POW. He also was principal of a school in nearby Prattville.

Southwest Alabama counties include Washington; Mobile; Clarke: Baldwin; Wilcox; Monroe; Escambia; Conecuh; and, Butler. Five sections convering early settlements; early transportation; education; folklore; and, initial utilities.

Poet Laureate of Alabama.

Includes entries for maps and atlases.