Born and raised in County Laois in the Irish midlands, Tom Phelan spent his formative years working with his wise and demanding father as they wrested a wet, muddy, and back-breaking livelihood from their small farm. It was a time before rural electrification, telephones, and indoor plumbing; when travel was by bicycle and animal cart and turkey eggs were hatched in the kitchen cupboard. And it was a time when the Church exerted enormous control over Ireland. Heartfelt and masterfully written, this memoir of growing up in Ireland in the 1940s speaks to the strength of the human spirit in the face of life''s adversities.