Growing up on a subsistence farm in North Carolina, Jap Allen married his childhood sweetheart, got his degree in veterinary medicine from Auburn University, served in the army, and established his practice in eastern North Carolina. When Jap started into practice in the 1950s, he worked mostly on farm animals -- on small farms and at the local stockyard. Money was scarce, and he was sometimes paid in produce. Mules were the tractors of the day, and Jap treated many mules for colic and oth...

What happens when you thrust a sensitive, spectacled boy into the rough-and-tumble 1960s world of public elementary school? A boy who cannot sit still in class, and who develops a crush on a fourth-grade classmate? A boy who fantasizes about catching the world's largest catfish and riding his bicycle around the world? A boy who imagines he's Marshal Matt Dillon while on Safety Patrol? Meet Sammy Pearsall, the barefoot, four-eyed hero of Sammy. Cringe as 10-year-old Sammy asks for ...