"Midwest Living" editors share their off-the-beaten path discoveries. Full-color photos and maps that locate featured towns at a glance illustrate this guidebook. Spiral binding, handy glove-box size, and sturdy pages make this the perfect take-along guide. Travel Guide sections put trip planning information at reader's fingertips, including lodgings, restaurants, attractions, and local information contacts. 112 color photos and 20 illustrations.

Do you like small towns, places off the beaten path, trips down memory lane? Ever wonder if old-fashioned values are still alive in America? Then kick back, unwind, and hop onboard with travel writer Bill Graves as he takes you On the Back Roads. Graves has a knack for finding the quirky, the offbeat in some of the most obscure, yet fascinating, small towns on the map. Among the places and faces he discovers: a town where it's against the law not to own a gun, a town famous for its split pea soup, the wise 83-year-old Emmy who camps alone in the dessert, and a man who hunts live ants for a living. The list goes on! Retired and free to roam in his motorhome, the &“RV Author,&” Bill Graves, logs 40,000 miles through the western states of California, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Oregon and Wyoming.

Small Town is a fictional story of a familys generational navigation through the Jim Crow South. The book is a collection of fictional stories woven together to describe the lives, times, and struggles of a black family living in the Deep South in a climate of racial animus. Three generations of family members experiences are depicted in a plethora of colorful characters. The only thing that helped this family through precarious and challenging times was their faith, family, and friends. Ultimately, the book Small Town shows us that no matter what we encounter or embark on in life, we can achieve and be successful under even the most distressful circumstances. This familys accomplishments were typical of a generation of people who were persistent and who instilled perseverance in their children, passed down from generation to generation. The Southern town where the setting of the book is depicted is a typical southern small town as they existed after the Civil War Reconstruction. Small Town refers not only to the population of the Southern town but also its mentality. Small towns were microcosms of the racist and white-supremacist attitudes that were pervasive below the Mason-Dixon line before and after landmark civil rights legislations. Rumors and rumors of rumors were a constant in this environment. Everyone knew your comings and goings in this small American town, and similarly, just like the major cities, only a few prominent families dictated who would be the haves and the have-nots. The fictional family in this book displayed the balance and flexibility to walk the tightrope of race and bigotry to maintain a social status that was rare and unique for black families in the Deep South. Religion and education were the foundations for this family and were their main weapons against any adversity that they encountered.

A revealing examination of small-town life More than thirty million Americans live in small, out-of-the-way places. Many of them could have joined the vast majority of Americans who live in cities and suburbs. They could live closer to more lucrative careers and convenient shopping, a wider range of educational opportunities, and more robust health care. But they have opted to live differently. In Small-Town America, we meet factory workers, shop owners, retirees, teachers, clergy, and mayors—residents who show neighborliness in small ways, but who also worry about everything from school closings and their children's futures to the ups and downs of the local economy. Drawing on more than seven hundred in-depth interviews in hundreds of towns across America and three decades of census data, Robert Wuthnow shows the fragility of community in small towns. He covers a host of topics, including the symbols and rituals of small-town life, the roles of formal and informal leaders, the social role of religious congregations, the perception of moral and economic decline, and the myriad ways residents in small towns make sense of their own lives. Wuthnow also tackles difficult issues such as class and race, abortion, homosexuality, and substance abuse. Small-Town America paints a rich panorama of individuals who reside in small communities, finding that, for many people, living in a small town is an important part of self-identity.

A Small Town's Legacies takes the reader on an historical journey that begins in the 1700s with early settlers building homesteads in the swampy wilderness of Northwest Pennsylvania. Their experiences of hardships, ingenuity, and bravery enabled these stalwart people to survive and create a thriving community first known as Coniot. The early residents of Espyville and the generations that followed adopted resourcefulness that allowed them to implement ideas new to the American way of life. A century and a half before Pymatuning Lake put Espyville on the map, the inhabitants had already established their imprint on America. This is the story of the people who chose to live in a small town in America and the legacies they entrusted to future generations.

"This guide book sparks enthusiasm and interest in our state. The reader may want to throw together an overnight bag, tuck in this book under his arm or in a backpack, and head out for what is sure to be a most interesting and entertaining weekend getaway." --The Mississippi Press Mississippi is known for its blues and barbecue, but there are hundreds of other attractions in the state, all within easy reach of the traveler with only a weekend to spare. The Baldwins outline several weekend trips designed for a wide variety of travelers from singles to couples, and families to retirees, all just a short drive from major cities in or near Mississippi. Weekend Getaways in Mississippi includes all the information you need to get to events like the Eudora Welty Film Festival in Jackson, attractions like Tennessee Williams' birthplace in Corinth, or the best spots for blues and barbecue, like the Delta Blues Museum or Abe's Blues and Bar-B-Q in Clarksdale. Getaways include the historic state capital, Gulf Coast beaches, and much more. Specific entries for hotels, restaurants, and attractions list addresses, phone numbers, and instructions for getting there. Let them guide you in your travels. You may discover some hidden treasures of your own along the way.