The Hatchet Creek community in Clay County was Garrett’s whole world. Just three miles wide and six miles long, it contained everything small farmers needed for a susTaínoble way of life: arable land, fresh springs and flowing creeks, a grist mill, a post office, a school, a store, churches, a country doctor and apothecary, mules and horses. Times were hard but the hill people always ate well from their own gardens and larders. They entertained themselves with revivals, weddings, funerals, political parades, sorghum-makings, and Sacred Harp singings. When rambunctious boys and girls weren’t picking cotton or doing daily chores, they skinny-dipped in the millpond; hunted for opossum, quail, and squirrel; fished for eels and goggle-eyed perch; and played party games called "paddle cat" and "grunts."

Horse and Buggy Days on Hatchet Creek will capture the reader’s imagination as it opens a window on the thriving culture of a bygone era. Mitchell Garrett’s neighbors and kin-preachers, teachers, storekeepers, millers, housewives, and children-will live again in the pages of this classic tale.