Livin PO in Sandbed Hell
by J. Gordon Long
Category: Burke County (Ga.)

Livin PO in Sandbed Hell is a nonfiction, humorous autobiographical memoir about desperation and the "Poverty Motivational Method." There are no pretensions. The language is vintage Country PO, sometimes quite plain and coarse. Many will identify the grinding poverty and the resulting indignities to the mind, body and soul. To win was to ESCAPE! The book is amusing, sad, and sometimes gut busting funny. The endless back breaking work in the sun roasted fields, planting, plowing, and harvesting on an eighty acre row crop farm is vivid. In the rural south, poverty was an "Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Condition" for both whites and blacks. "Saving for a rainy day" was an absurd concept, since it was always monsoon season for the PO. Being "Poor" was way upscale from "PO", and I shall forever present it in capital letters!