In a time before washing machines, "wash day" ate up untold hours. Hog-slaughtering time was practically a holiday. And the biggest law-enforcement problem was the endless battle over bootlegging.

These were the years following World War II in Sandy Hook, Miss. Through the Eyes of a Child captures the remarkable way of life for Lennie Rankin Mills as she grows up the youngest of nine children on a cotton farm in this southern Mississippi town from 1946 through the sixties. It was a period characterized by hardship, privation and poverty-but also incredible joy, pride and accomplishment.

With a keen eye for detail and sharp ear for dialogue, Mills recalls a memorable cast of characters with a dash of Southern humor. There's Granny, in her late eighties, "who could cuss a blue streak" with the best of them, and Uncle Bubba, a purveyor of illegal booze and a very bad attitude. But Mills also provides an honest look at the complex and sometimes surprising racial attitudes of the post-war South. Through it all, Mills paints one of the most accurate portraits yet of a bygone era where electricity was still novel, people still settled their scores with guns and the most important activity of the week was the family gathering.