The nineteen-twenties and -thirties turned our world upside down. A world-wide depression set in, followed by the beginnings of a second world war hardly two decades after the first. In the U.S., this meant many leaving family farms, moving to cities, working in factories and other new and often strange professions.
For the Mustin family, some left their farm for the oil fields, others taking up military careers. For the author, an only child, military life meant moving constantly, never holding onto friends or a place he could call home. But for him and other "military brats" as they were called, the moves unfolded as adventures, allowing him an education in and exposure to cultures impossible to experience otherwise.
These essays speak to his life in story form - giving us a unique view of his home base in Louisiana - and of a growing philosophy of life that only constant travel can build. They aren't a travelogue, however, nor tales of tribulation and loss. Instead they tell us of growing up in an embryonic world culture leading to our first steps into space.