My father-in-law, an old Appalachian mountaineer, was always telling amusing stories about his friends and neighbors. A few years before he died, I jokingly admonished him to be careful about what he said about people because someday I would publish them in a book for everyone to read. After I retired in 1996, I finally had time to begin this task. These stories are true, except perhaps, one that I later discovered may be one of those stories that...