Close your eyes, and you can almost feel the rocking of the chair as you listen. Kathryn Tucker Windham's gentle Southern accent winds its way through these childhood and adult recollections, while her traditional wisdom and sharp sense of humor spin the spell she casts like a blanket over her listeners. Exploring the idea that being with and understanding your family is perhaps the most important lesson of all, Ms. Windham takes us out to her front porch in the morning, to the little Methodist church, across the Alabama River, all the way to Washington, D.C., and then back home to rock and admire the purple martins. The little town of Thomasville, Alabama, blooms on the ridge between the rivers, and it is brought into focus by a truly Southern storyteller.