The Grudge Ditch Gang : A Novel of Memoirs

If you liked "The Help," were inspired by "The Color Purple" or appreciated "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," you will love "The Grudge Ditch Gang" by Jessie Haynes. From worshipping on the morning bench or chasing wild hogs to making home-brew for some of the famed "Hole in the Wall" patrons or sitting at the feet of Civil Rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, this colorful memoir of young Jessie highlights the author's childhood as she grew up in the Mississippi Delta. "The Grudge Ditch Gang" weaves together a community's effort to raise its children in the face of politics, poverty and social change while striving to gain basic services as sanitation, streets and other utilities. The humor, struggles and successes are told through the eyes of a young girl who grows up wrapped in the love and protection f her parents, 12 siblings and other surrounding large families who cared a neighborhood in the "Low End" of this small Mississippi Delta town. Their community nemesis gave the children the uncoveted name of the Grudge Ditch Gang. Prepare yourself for laughter, tears, joy, pain and a story that makes many of us envy young Jessie's economically impoverished life that was rich with the love of family and community.