Barefoot Days

This is the house my family lived in during most of the 1950s. It's in Springville, a small town in rural North Alabama.
(After I saw the movie Them, I suspected that there were nests of giant ants living in our garage.)

At left are all the Cruses when I was but a wee tot in Mama's lap.
Below is a photo my dad took of my first grade teacher Margaret Byers with one of her classes. "Miss Margaret" was only a few inches taller than most of her students, and was just about the greatest first grade teacher you could imagine.

Miss Margaret encouraged me in all of my early literary endeavors, like the story I drew featuring Landie Lucker, Super Elf .

I was into superheroes as a youth (see picture at right), but have since moved on to other interests.

What was life holding in store, you may well ask, for these small town innocents?


This is the house my family lived in during most of the 1950s. It's in Springville, a small town in rural North Alabama. (After I saw the movie Them, I suspected that there were nests of giant ants living in our garage.)

				At left are all the Cruses when I was but a wee tot in Mama's lap. Below is a photo my dad took of my first grade teacher Margaret Byers with one of her classes. "Miss Margaret" was only a few inches taller than most of her students, and was just about the greatest first grade teacher you could imagine.


			Miss Margaret encouraged me in all of my early literary endeavors, like the story I drew featuring Landie Lucker, Super Elf .

		I was into superheroes as a youth (see picture at right), but have since moved on to other interests.


	What was life holding in store, you may well ask, for these small town innocents?