When Haven Kimmel was born in 1965, Mooreland, Indiana, was a sleepy little hamlet of three hundred people. Nicknamed "Zippy" for the way she would bolt around the house, this small girl was possessed of big eyes and even bigger ears. In this witty and lovingly told memoir, Kimmel takes readers back to a time when small-town America was caught in the amber of the innocent postwar period--people helped their neighbors, went to church on Sunday, and kept barnyard animals in their backyards.

Laced with fine storytelling, sharp wit, dead-on observations, and moments of sheer joy, Haven Kimmel's straight-shooting portrait of her childhood gives us a heroine who is wonderfully sweet and sly as she navigates the quirky adult world that surrounds Zippy.

Prologue
Baby Book
Hair
The Lion
Qualities of Light, or Disasters Involving Animals
Julie Hit Me Three Times
Daniel
There She Is
Blood of the Lamb
Unexpected Injuries
The Kindness of Strangers
Favors for Friends
Haunted Houses
Professionals
Chance
A Short List of Things My Father Lost Gambling
The World of Ideas
Location
Diner
Slumber Party
ESP
Interior Design
Cemetery
Drift Away
Reading List
Arisen
The Social Gospel
The Letter
A Guide for Reading Groups