About the Book
One day in June of 1951, Billy Johnson’s father delayed plowing for almost an hour to teach his son how to trap a rabbit. In the past, he had never seen his father delay plowing for any reason, especially when he was using black hired hands. Over the years that followed, he always assumed the motive for the lesson was nothing more than a father who was an avid sportsman teaching his son to trap a rabbit. Many years later, after his father died, he learned differently.
Behind the Story
When I was growing up in North Alabama, I spent summers with my father in the fields cultivating corn, cotton and alfalfa hay. One summer, when I was twelve years old, a big rain suddenly swooped in and my father and I, along with the black hired hands, left the field and took shelter in an old barn. While we waited for the rain to stop, my father gave me an impromptu lesson in trapping rabbits. Once the rain stopped, the black hired hands returned to the fields, but my father continued the lesson. I couldn’t believe it! My father was showing me how to trap rabbits when there was plowing to be done. I wondered why! It would be more than twenty years later, five years after my father’s death, before I would discovered why.
Reviews
“A darn good yarn! A charming slice-of-life story, homespun without being sticky. Alabama in the fifties not in my ken of experience at all and neither is a farm. That is one reason why I enjoyed the story so much, it was new territory, so to speak. The story is very well written---every word rang true and worked to create a good story. Catches you at the beginning, enjoyable all the way through and has a very satisfying ending that brings it all together with a good father/son memory---you will like the story, it has universal appeal.” – PAA, Amazon reviewer
“Beautiful story! Sometimes there’s more to an activity with a parent than what we understand at the moment. This is a beautiful story that really got me thinking about my own experiences with my parents. – CatrinaP, Amazon reviewer