I was raised in the ‘40s and ‘50s in southern rural Oklahoma. We had no electricity or running water, so our water supply came from a 50-foot-deep well, using a rope and a bucket. Most of our food ...view moreI was raised in the ‘40s and ‘50s in southern rural Oklahoma. We had no electricity or running water, so our water supply came from a 50-foot-deep well, using a rope and a bucket. Most of our food we raised ourselves, such as hogs, cattle and chicken. If we didn’t raise it, we hunted it. My dad could knock a squirrel out of a tree at twenty yards with a slingshot. A half-acre vegetable garden filled the table with ripe tomatoes, onions, okra, beans and a good supply of potatoes.Birthday and Christmas presents could always be counted on to be socks, shirts or underwear. I learned very early that if there was something I wanted, it was up to me to earn the money to buy it. Thus, I bought my first car when I was just fourteen, with $350 I earned by mowing lawns, hoeing gardens, or harvesting pecans from my father’s orchard. My first real job was at fifteen, where I helped clear a warehouse that had burned down. I suppose they liked my work ethic, as they asked me to continue after the new warehouse was built. I started my first company when I was thirty years old. Along the way, my wife and I employed as many as sixty-five employees at a time. Our last company sold in 2010 with retirement soon after.This is Jim Barrett’s first novel. Over the years, clips and snippets came to him until after retirement, he finally had time to organize and arrange the parts into order. Although he spent his life as an engineer, he always enjoyed reading a wide range of topics from science fiction to non-fiction history.A few of the characters in The Calling Birds blossomed from people known in his youth with others completely fabricated. They present a broad spectrum of characters whose lives intertwine and overlap in ways that bring out their activities and loves in unique ways.Now retired in Southern California, he loves spending time with his grandchildren with frequent fishing trips, travel and getting together with old friends and classmates. He is well into his second novel, Confessions of a Teenage Bootlegger, and looks forward to its upcoming publication. Jim is available to address your literary group, book clubs or just a nice cup of coffee to recount old times and experiences. Contact him via email at marinpub10@gmail.com.view less