Ben Rod Jordan's rustic environment consisted of unpaved roads, no electricity, no running water, no television or even a telephone. He and his companions created their own entertainment, usually provided by the swimmin' hole, hunting with his brothers and rambling the wood with their dog Bruno. Being isolated by the steep hills surrounding him, Ben Rod was invigorated by the sounds of the rattling freight trains and the whistling of the river boats sounding over the hills, stimulating his imaginative mind. His educational facilities consisted of a small one room schoolhouse, one teacher, a student body of sixteen which included students from the first to the eighth grades. Hearing the radio for the first time flinging a voice from a distance of thirty miles, amazed him, but further energized his vivid imagination causing him to wonder what lie beyond his rustic hilly environment. Fearing preachers, "because they buried little boys," he always managed to escape their presence. Ben Rod and his companions active mischievous lives even though hard and difficult, enjoyed life to the fullest when their duties were not required tilling the hilly farm on which they lived.
