Summary

The memoir opens with the Prologue in which the author, Bobi Conn, describes life in a “holler” in the Appalachian Mountains. The holler is a symbol of life in that region. In Bobi's case, life barely seemed to exist past the sycamore tree at the corner of their property. Her paternal grandmother, Granny, owned 100 acres in the Daniel Boone National Forest, and she gave one acre to Bobi's family. Bobi's ancestors came to America when “the English emptied the Irish prisons of debtors and violent criminals” (3), meaning her family is descended from “terrorists.” She believed the story that Indians only used Kentucky for hunting, and that the name means “dark and bloody ground” (3), but went on to reveal other theories about the meaning of the name. She introduced the idea of “home,” saying that for some, Home is “Where I've never been...