Macon Jefferys

Memoirs of a Mule Rider: a Poor Southern Farm Boy's Journey Through the Twentieth Century Macon Jefferys

Misty memories of a boy born to a poor sharecroper in the worst economic depression the world has ever known come to life with dramatic clarity in this troublihng memoir. Trapped into surviving on the pittance realized by his family for growing the deadly health killing tobacco plant, Jeff struggles to understand the societal contradictions that control his existence throughout the twentieth century. Imagination and dreamy fantasies fertilize larger hopes for him as he plows his father's lonely fields and wrestles with the arbitrary behavioral imnperatives that control his life. Cruelly deprived of broad cultural stimulation, Jeff struggles to realize dreams fostered by Hollywood myths and pulp fiction. Plentiful food--a gift of the land--adequate housing and most of all, a pervassive love and caring concern by others sharing this coimmunity of poverty and hard work, not only are sustaining but give him sweet lasting memories of those hard times. Anger at deprivations endured by his parents fuel ambitions to escape a life growing the noxious crops of tobacco. Nourished by the love, warmth and generosity of a large extended family living a similar life, Jeff survives to engage the larger world where he encounters the many problems that befall allhuman beings.