Publisher's Synopsis
Coping with life and learning, in uncertain times, has always needed humor and perseverance. In 1946 young Johnnie Perkins of Arock, Oregon, bravely took his education wherever he could find it, and to him every gift seemed wonderful. Of course even the perfect gifts were often overshadowed by racial intolerance. To a bright boy who read the newspaper avidly, the rapid changes that followed World War Two were bewildering. Suddenly the horses of his father's day were out, and cars were in.Like most boys Johnnie idolized the movie cowboys, but at the same time he was alarmed at the things he was discovering around him. Wars still seemed to be happening everywhere. Progress seemed out of control, and even his beloved Uncle Rufus preached progress. "Unc" drove a vintage automobile and shunned horses. Still, Unc provided a lot of Johnnie's education, making up for the limitations of the one-room school in Arock.Now, we have only Johnnie's word for Arock as he remembered it. Most of the old-timers have passed on. Of the school Johnnie attended, nothing now remains in Arock except a roadside memorial displaying the ancient brass school bell with an inscription by the Fretwell brothers, civic-minded pioneers who saved the old bell from salvage.
