It's an America that doesn't exist anymore - one where men made their living in the darkest recesses of the Earth while their wives worked in the home from sunup to sundown and children helped with the chores from the time they could walk. But growing up as a coal miner's son wasn't all work and no play, as C. Don writes in Memories of a Coal Miner's Son, My Grandpa, My Dad, and Me, his poignant yet light-hearted memoir of growing up in the hills of eastern Tennessee in the 1940s and 1950s. Byrd, a retired insurance executive, decided to record his memories so his children and grandchildren could learn more of their family history - while also gaining awareness of the hard-working men and women who shaped the Byrd family. Some of Byrd's stories have been excerpted in Tennessee Ancestors and in the Des Moines Register. You don't have to be Southerner or a miner's descendant to enjoy Memories of a Coal Miner's Son. You just need to remember a time when people put in a good day's work, feared the Lord, and maybe broke away for a little fishin' on a Sunday afternoon.