Farm work?

Well, if you're a teenage boy who grew up in the big city, in the mid 60s, it's an experience. There are stories to tell and characters to meet. Hosey Camp, Mouse, Uncle Millard, and others had an impact that was not always predictable on an impressionable, naive kid from Atlanta, Georgia.

Those days are gone. They don't farm like that no more. The family farm, to a great extent, has been replaced by mega cooperatives. But the memories remain, the tales last, and the characters (if they still exist) are hard to find.

Yes, the tales are true—well, mostly true. The characters are real and Dumplin Valley is a real place. Gnats in the Bacce Patch is a whimsical, and humorous glance at lessons learned and life experienced by a teenage kid over 50 years ago.