This book contains many stories about my life, from when I was born at home near Girard, Texas, to the present time. Almost everyone around Girard, including my family, was very poor when I was born and many years thereafter. It was not easy growing up in the late 1930s, 1940s, and early to the middle 1950s. It is also about my family, schoolmates, friends, army reserve time, and coworkers. After graduating from high school, moving to Lubbock, and getting my first job (not counting pulling and hoeing cotton, which I did from when I was about eleven or twelve years old until graduation), things improved considerably for me.! My life has had numerous ups and downs, but thankfully, mostly ups! Overall, I have had a wonderful life! This book also contains numerous, which I consider to be funny, stories and thoughts. I hope the humor improves the lives of everyone who reads it!

The Still Hog Theory captures the life and times of Ray Miller who grew up in the rural South. He was born at the end of the Great Depression and the start of World War II. His vivid memory of events of early childhood allows him to portray what these events meant to real people. He tells of the many adventures of growing up far removed from modern conveniences. His childhood was spent around a mill complex consisting of a corn mill, cotton gin, lumber mill and country store. He shares the many hilarious events that accompanied these years. He was an avid swimmer but never owned a swim suit until he joined the Army. He was a good student in a two-room country school and shares the adventures of the many characters who attended. He later attended a consolidated county high school where he played in the band that could have been the inspiration for the Music Man. The ones who could think did use the think method. He shares the strategy of running for and being elected Student Body President. He attended college at Georgia Tech and for the first time in his life had the feelings and emotions of one being in a situation completely over ones head. He was an average college student but received the education he needed working a part-time job in the data processing department at Georgia Tech. He was graduated from Georgia Tech in 1961. He entered the computer field as a salesman for a large manufacturer and writes of the rapid growth and changes in that industry. He recounts the history of his family which has been in this country since 1622. His family has been in his home county for almost 200 years and the adventures of his extended family are captured in his many stories. The last twenty five years of his career he served as President/CEO of a data processing company. He attributes the success of the company to the lessons he learned from watching three hogs during slopping time. The Still Hog Theory is a lesson of the satisfaction and success that can be enjoyed by keeping it simple.

Despite what Jo Ann Fuson Staples might tell you, she is no ordinary woman. She has led a remarkable life, full of adventure, love, hardship, and survival. Raised in the mountains of southeastern Kentucky, she comes from a long line of strong mountain folk, those ready to take on adversity and fight for anyone they love, no matter the odds. At only seven, Jo Ann tragically lost her father, and then, when Jo Ann was twenty-four, her mother to brutal violence. Although the pain from those experiences followed Jo Ann for the rest of her life, the bonds she made with her friends and family members only grew stronger, and from there, Jo Ann dove head-first into life. From having a relationship with the prime suspect of the infamous D. B. Cooper skyjacker case to taking on a twenty-six-year journey with her husband on diplomatic assignments to Central and South America, Africa, and the Middle East to surviving a grizzly bear attack, Jo Ann shares it all with humour, grace, and, occasionally, sorrow. Paths I Have Walked is a story of trauma, heartbreak, compassion, true friendship, finding love, and the gift of motherhood. It is a deeply human, compelling, and poignant self-portrait of a resilient woman ready to face life, no matter the odds.