An oral history of a Southern family as told to the author by her eldest brother, Tom Hauser. It is a first hand account that follows the Hauser family from North Carolina to Iowa, South Dakota, Nebraska, Montana and back to North Carolina. The beginning premise of the book was to have Tom tell about the birth of each of his seven siblings. He had a remarkable memory and almost total recall of events he witnessed and of those stories that were told to him by our father, who in turn remembered stories that his Grandfather, Tom the Snorter had told. These stories go back to the Civil War and the late 1800's. Some of these stories the author remembers hearing as a child. Oral history that has been passed down thru the generations and now appears in print for the first time. It covers the era of the horse to the era of automobiles, of how farms were rented, how family's worked together to make a living, of racism and it's effect on the family, a troubled marriage, how a father disappeared for 25 years and was found and reunited with his family. It is a remarkable journey of one family.
About the Author: Betty "Miss Bett" A. Hauser lives in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Loveland, Colorado but she always says she is fortunate because she really has two homes, Colorado and North Carolina. Although raised for the first 17 years of her life in Iowa she was brought up with all the rules of a Southern lady, ie., don't wear white shoes before Memorial Day or after Labor Day, the words "bless your heart" can be used in many situations, and "tacky" is the absolute worse insult there is regarding everything from behaviors to clothing. Her mother defined a lady as "someone who can speak with the lowest of the land or the highest of the land and make that person comfortable" a worthy goal for every one. She has 4 children (all of whom were born in North Carolina) and their spouses, twelve grandchildren and nine great grand children who all live in Colorado with the exception of one son who makes his home in North Carolina with his wife, three children and one grandson. She spent many vacations in North Carolina talking to family members about our family history and on one memorable occasion spent the day with her brother Tom and first cousin Wayne visiting all the gravesites of our Grandfathers from Martin Hauser, 1761, Bethania, NC to her father, Thomas Eugene Hauser, 2004, Macedonia Cemetery, East Bend, NC. thus covering 243 years of Hauser's including Grandpa Sam Hauser on Stoney Ridge who the dogs dug up but brother Tom assured her that they found as much as they could and put him back! Her lifelong love of history and reading has led to this book.