Books usually record the lives of the rich or the famous but here is a personal journal of a man who was born the son of a poor farmer. Ellis Wade's father was barely able to keep his family fed in the early 1900's this book covers, losing farm after farm to the bank and crooked high interest rates. His father, well educated and a Biblical scholar, was swindled out of his inheritance by an evil father-in-law who once ran with the Jesse James Gang and became Sheriff of the county. Ellis Wade was perhaps the first person to receive a full football scholarship to a rich East Texas high school! His parents barely able to live, Ellis left home at an early age to enter Franklin Roosevelt's Civilian Conservation Corps sending most of his earnings back home to his family. A short time in college was ended by World War II and enlistment in the Army Air Corps and the book details the hardships in the campaigns against Japan in the South Pacific. Of interest to those who love East Texas history is his details of businesses and life in Upshur County and Gilmer in the early 1900's. You go with Ellis in the old wagon to the Grist Mill and Cotton Gin, the Blacksmith Shop and the other businesses that were necessary during that era. Ellis' Christian witness is never far from thought as his life's journey is chronicled.