<p>Jimmy Reed was raised on a cotton farm in a region that is often referred to as the most Southern place on earth: the Mississippi Delta. During his boyhood years, he was mentored by an African American man known affectionately as Jaybird. Man and boy were inseparable, and during their many years together, Jaybird not only imbued in his young charge many of the Christian values that still guide his life, but also passed on to him his inimitable storytelling ability. Many of the stories in this book illustrate the loving bond between a wise old black man and a young white boy whom he loved like his own son. Reed retired from a two-decade farming career and completed a second career as a college teacher in Oxford, Mississippi.</p>