Bob Beardslee has spent his lifetime in Red Cloud, Nebraska. He has two adopted children and three grandchildren. Bob observes life in a small town as a humorous experience and tells short stories that range somewhere between Mayberry, U.S.A. and Norman Rockwell. Henry David Thoreau advised people to "Simplify, Simplify, Simplify." Bob has reached back to a small town past that will surely speak to those who have memories. The essays also provide an insight for younger readers who have no real knowledge of life in the not-so-distant past. In her novel "My Antonia," Willa Cather has a quotation that aptly fits Bob's memories: "In the course of years one parts with many illusions. Some memories are realities and are better than anything that can happen to one again."