**In Spite of!...but because Of!**

West Shawmut, Ala. 1954 a kinder, gentler, more peaceful time in life and society. (Gas was 22 cents a gallon). This is a community memoir chronicling, detailing, reflecting upon some of those memorable events, experiences, adventures of youthful yesterdays. West Shawmut, Ala. A nondescript, smalltown, quaint, folksy community nestled in southeastern Sweet Home Alabama not even a dot on the Ala. Map but yet a village haven of genuine love, hope, dreams, and aspirations for its perhaps 1,000 inhabitants. "It's not too far from the West Point, Ga. Kia automotive plant. A hoot, hollar, and a skip from Valley, Ala." Submerged in the heart of backwoods Chambers County right across the Georgia/Alabama boundary line and the Chattahoochee River resides the West Shawmut community. "In Spite Of!" is a time captured portrait of humble beginnings transformed to hardworking determination, overcoming impoverished circumstances with academic achievement, and obstacles overturned by divine intervention and fate. Kerry "The Hawk" Meadows transports the reader to a kinder, gentler, more peaceful time in life, to a quiet leave your door open community of neighborly downhome homegrown genuine "sit on the front porch" Yall sit a spell" real folks. The detailed imagery is steeped in thoughtful homespun language and old school relics as old as rabbit ear antennae wrapped in aluminum foil, outhouses, and 8 track cassette tapes.