As a child and adolescent, we all have memories that are imprinted in our minds. The tales within this book, germinated from a few scattered images, grew to include aspects of magic realism and reality. Thus it is a work of fiction. I remember the old Chinatown, the characters and the feel of the Cumberland that was, and, I suppose, like all adults, we have a nostalgia for the old days. It was my intention to give the town, as a whole, a voice, and for the reader to come out with a feel for the old days of Cumberland, which, I realize, is not that old because her history goes back much farther than these pages portray. There are many more stories, untold, but these few were, and are, felt by this writer.