As the title suggests, the memoir is structured into 49 vignettes that jump between past and present. As Bearden asserts, “We all have foundational stories that run the width and breadth of our lives, haunting, calling out, informing, visiting us in our quiet moments, calming or fanning the fires of our insecurities.” This is where his storytelling shines: offering retrospection on the coming-of-age narrative that surfaces throughout the memoir. Bearden recounts amusing stories of sneaking into the high school prom at age 10 to watch the dance band the Red Counts play, nostalgic tales of hitchhiking across America in the 1970s, and his attendance of a church camp in the summer of 1963. His humor is infectious, and his insights into race, class, and poverty (in particular his discussion of cotton-picking and exploitation in the Delta region) are impressive. It is in these moments where Bearden’s story becomes a personal history of a particular place, connecting the dissolute, sometimes poignant years of his youth with a wider community.