Many people deserve a hearty vote of thanks for making this book possible. First of all, my uncles, Earl Groff and Jim Devine, on whose farms I was privileged to experience the last years of horse-powered agriculture, and the Lacy family, my Uncle Earl’s tenants, who taught me how the machines worked and let me drive the teams.
The Kentucky Humanities Council and The University Press of Kentucky deserve kudos for making this entire project possible, and a special word of thanks goes to Phyllis MacAdam, coordinator of the New Books for New Readers project, who was the best editor and general cheerleader that any author could want. She helped me beyond measure to understand the special needs of this project in terms of writing style and “voice.”
Of course, the people who really made it happen are the people for whom the book was written—the new readers and their tutors in the literacy program at Longfellow Education Center, Owensboro, Kentucky, who read and commented upon every line of the text and offered many suggestions for its improvement. Thanks to students Charles Mattingly, Guy Cox, Curtis Lyons, and Tim Wilhite, and their tutors Glenda Rone, Louise Wethington, Theresa Thompson, and Peggy Hill. Thanks also to Volunteer Services Coordinator Sharon Hill, her administrative assistant, Tina Bernard Tague, and the AmeriCorp-Vista volunteers who arranged our visits and put everyone at ease. We worked hard and had a fine time.
All illustrations courtesy of Audio-Visual Archives,
Special Collections and Archives, University of Kentucky Libraries.