The Most They Ever Had

I have tried to read absolutely every thing Rick Bragg has written. When I find a new title, its a no-brainer buy. This book, however, was not what I would call entertainment, but rather "LIFE" as I know it. You see, I'm living this story! The factory I work in is full of these type folks who have given their lives..their backs..their lungs..their all for a Friday paycheck. At the end of the week, they drag themselves to the parking lot full of older, well worn vehicles that might or might not get them all the way home only to wish that overtime was being offered on a Saturday..."'cause I ain't got nothing to do at home, and I need to work 'cause all my friends are here at work!" He told of a couple of guys that escaped the factory floor. The percentages are low for those that can. I will be one of them next year. I'm escaping the factory floor after 27 years to draw my retirement!!!

It's a quick read that leaves you laughing, crying and wondering how does anyone write like that. Although very poetic in his story-telling, Bragg still brings to consciousness how we as a county were quick to legislate our precious jobs overseas yet slow to protect the voiceless factory worker through the decades. His stories about the eccentric mill manager are hilarious and leave you wondering if they could really be true until Bragg insists they are true. His other stories from the aging mill historians will leave you wondering how many other stories are treasured in the hearts of our southern elderly. His Twain-flavored story-telling is visual and priceless. Order the book.

I've been a fan of Bragg's since I read the first word he put onto the page in "All Over But the Shoutin." I went to a recent booksigning in Georgia and found him to be just as down to earth as his writing indicates. I'm glad that the millworkers had such a skillful interviewer as he talked with them about what it was like to grow up in a milltown and to work in the cotton mills that dot the south. Some stories and images will stay with me forever.

I don't know what someone who is not from the South will think of this book. I am from there, from the places Rick Bragg writes about. I am from those people. I come from the red clay and the black dirt. This story of the mill people resonates in my bones, in my genes. It hums and throbs like those machines. It cuts through me like the mill whistle in my home town pierced through the air. This is not a story about the economy. Not a microcosm for what is happening all across the country. It is a story about the people in one small mill town. It is a story about what they felt, and what they knew, and what they had to do. It is a moving story. It is real. Bragg is eloquent as he listens to these people telling their stories, eloquent in letting their silences speak.

If you are not already a Rick Bragg fan, this book will make you one. I read an announcement in the paper that Bragg was going to be signing books at a local store. In this article, he apologizes for this book being a THIN volume. Do not be mislead by the size. The stories are HUGE.