These are stories my dad told to me through the years. I never knew when he was telling me these words, showing me these places and allowing me to experience these parts of his life, that I would one day write them in a book. But here they are.

It has been a joy to write these stories and to fondly recall my dad's voice, way with words, pauses and sometimes reflections. I feel like I was able to see and enjoy my dad being with me afresh.

My dad was born in 1933 in central Texas. He knew his grandfather who was born in 1863, and he held his great granddaughter (who will reach a hundred years into the future through her great grand daughters). So my dad's touch reached over two hundred years of his family.

He knew Texas and America through the eyes and experiences of his grandfather Albert, his father Rayburn and the Great Depression, and poverty. He brought all this knowledge and experiences to his life as a man, husband, father and grandfather; as a military man, preacher, pastor and lover of life.