A Redneck Kid’s Stories of Refusing to Grow Up

About the Book

These roughly chronological stories starting with my earliest memories and continuing to the next eighty years are based on actual activities, including some encounters while coping with aggressive roosters and in-laws. My happy life has been enriched with lessons learned by watching birds, animals, and other humans, even snakes. Life in the piney woods of Alabama prepared me for many adventures encountered in New England, Old England, Korea, Upper Peninsula, south Louisiana, and the Midwest. Sadly, many of the people mentioned are now deceased. Some names have been changed to avoid embarrassment. These awesome people have shaped my happy lifestyle, even the policeman that dropped his pad and vamoosed as well as the Tacoma sex-soliciting pervert, not to mention a drafts lady toting a pail of water or the Bentley-craving client. In the book, you will find a list of reasons I refuse to grow up and a list of a several things eighty years of living have taught me. You might even learn about a “titty bream.”

About the Author

Charles Ray Totty was born in 1932 to Robert Asa (Bob) and Mollie Ransom Totty. Bob Totty worked and supported his family of six children while his wife, Mollie, stayed home to care for the children. They lived in rural Alabama and kept chickens, a hog or two, and a milk cow. Ray was the only boy and was next to the youngest. He attended Concord Elementary and Hueytown High School, graduating in 1950. He attended Auburn and Alabama, earning a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. Ray and Mary Emogene Weems fell in love and married before Ray finished college. Ray was drafted into the US Army before the birth of two wonderful and successful children. Ray’s career as a professional engineer carried the family to many different places while the children were growing up. The family finally settled down in south Louisiana and fell in love with the Cajun folks. Ray worked from the time he was a young redneck kid until he was seventy. In early life, he did spend time working in various fields with hoe in hand.