This collection of essays addresses humor and pathos in the Cotton Country of northern Alabama and Tennessee in the 1950s and 60s. After World War II, the G.I. Bill and the emergence of the new South brought Darnells Depression-era parents from the soil to the boardrooms and strip malls. From holidays, to classrooms, to fields, these children of the Greatest Generation flourished in an evolving culture that arose to change the face of Dixie forever.

ROBERT N. DARNELL, the author of Biscuits and Firecrackers, was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, in 1950. He grew up in Florence and then Decatur, Alabama. His essays have been published in several literary journals and magazines. He was a doctor of chiropractic, a certified acupuncturist, and he also held an MFA from Spalding University and a PhD in clinical pastoral counseling. As ordained clergy, he and his wife, Constance, have been instrumental in starting churches and home fellowships in many locations around the United States. They reared their two adult children in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, beginning in 1997. Dr. Darnell passed away in 2015, with the goal of finishing this collection of stories unmet. They were completed with a final edit by Constance, who has authored many magazine articles as well as Songs for Martha.