November 5, 1943. Samuel "Steve" Shepard Rogers "...plunged into the world head first and, although covered with blood, my attitude was very friendly....

"My name came down through seven generations of men with the same name each naming the first son the same name as the father then the mothers nicknaming the sons so as not to confuse them with the fathers when hearing their names called in the open air while working side by side in the waist-high wheat.

"The sons came to believe their names were the nicknames they heard floating across these fields and answered to these names building ideas of who they were around the sound never dreaming their real legal name was lying in wait for them written on some paper in Chicago and that name would be the name they'd prefix with 'Mr.' and that name would be the name they'd die with...