Kenneth Dwight Milgrim was raised on a farm in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains. His family was not unlike the Cates family in this story. They raised cattle and hogs and planted a big garden every spring. They always kept a milk cow and butchered a beef and a couple of hogs each fall.They cooked on a wood cook stove, pumped water from a hand dug well, and did most of their farming with a team of horses. Dwight based the dialog in this story on the way his family and neighbors talked as he was growing up in the 1950s. He is an amateur musician who has written several songs and poems, some of which are included here.
