Pat Graves grew up in West Texas and was a child of the Great Depression. Many of the stories she relates in the book are true and based on her life with her father and mother and her two brothers. Early in her life she was trained in piano and voice. She became a teacher and a performer, and this led to several positions as an artist-in-residence.

As one who remembers the Great Depression, Pat has written a fictional story based on some of her funny experiences in a time when most people had nothing but bad dreams.