"When we came back out of the cookhouse, someone yelled, "Your house is on fire!" and pointed to the small logged-off canyon that separated our place from the other houses in the camp. I remember a column of black smoke, probably from the tar paper the mill owners used for roofing.

By the time we drove back to the house, it was pretty much gone. Everything my parents owned was destroyed: clothes, dishes, hunting rifles, fishing poles, canned goods, and Mother's money stash. The only item rescued was a pressure cooker that was on the floor under the kitchen table."

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Born in 1941, devoted Oregonian Rod Collins began his life in California (to his childhood dismay) and kept this fact from his Oregon friends for years. At two years of age, he moved with his parents to southern Oregon and settled in the beautiful Rogue River Valley. Looking back on his life, Rod describes his early years growing up with the barest of necessities among a community of grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins that made the tough times bearable and the good times treasured. An award-winning author of seven published novels and a self-help management book, Rod applies his fine storytelling talents to his memory now, writing about his life and the people that shaped him with love, lessons, generosity, and humor.