Flossie Smith

Flossie Smith is fighting for the right to be her own person. Her older sisters, mother, aunt, and school teachers are all pushing the twelve year old girl, to give up her tomboy ways and become a lady. Not ready to learn to bake cookies, Flossie prefers to spend her days at the side of her best friend, neighbor boy, Josh Miller. Together the two twelve year olds spend long days working in the Miller's truck garden, helping to grow vegetables for the tables of Artesian City. When the kids are not working in the fields, you can find them playing and fishing along the banks of their playground, the forests and waters of Stout's Creek. Their family's hunters and gatherers, the kids fish for "sunnies", hunt squirrels and rabbits to help provide protein at their parents dinner tables. All are a welcome change from a diet of pork, goat, and chicken. In spring the heroes take paper sacks and seek out the elusive golden sponge morels that most Hoosiers regarded as a rare delicacy. During the summer, the mushroom season long past, Flossie and Josh gather wild berries for the jellies, jams, and pie fillings that Margaret Miller is famous for. During their first fishing trip for 1932, Josh offers to make Flossie his blood brother pledging his friendship for life. Blood Brothers, according to Josh, share everything including birthday presents. Flossie, who is living her life in hand me downs from both her sisters and brothers, knows she will never have anything nice to share with her friend. Josh tells her not to be concerned because being a Blood Brother is a life time commitment. Among the many gifts Josh receives for his twelfth birthday is a coon hound pup. Good to his word Josh shares ownership of the dog with Flossie. This gift opens a whole new world for Flossie. In Flat Rock Township, women are not free to hunt with men, particularly at night. Flossie dreams of joining the hunt with Josh and the other members of the Flat Rock Township Coon Hunters Club. Her mother, sisters, and aunt are all scandalized and are concerned that this new outrage will dampen the eagerness of a potential husbands from calling at the Smith house. Again, only the intervention of her father, saves Flossie from the front porch. Vol 1 of the Miller Family Saga tells the story of the early training of both the hound and its masters. During a string of errors in judgment, the kids learn along with the dog. Flossie under the tutelage of Little Harry Waggerman becomes the unchallenged finest shot in Flat Rock Township while at the same time she develops a mystic relationship with her coon hound the kids name, Bob. In the back story, the Miller adults struggle with the membership of the local Klu Klux Klan. The Klan wants to run out the Jacksons, a family of Negroes from the community. Isaac, Margaret, and Cicero, all fight the Klan in their own way. A Methodist Bishop remarked of Margaret and Isaac Miller, "They are the finest examples of true Christians that I have ever known. They burn with passion to see their fallen neighbors to come to the Lord. At the same time they are both totally committed to the "social gospel" of Christ and are indeed willing to lay down their lives for their neighbors." That premise is tested in the last chapter of the book when a local Klansman tries to assassinate Isaac Miller in front of more than 2000 people. Only the quick actions of Flossie and Josh save the boy's father's life. Come and join our characters, Flossie Smith, Josh, Cicero, Margaret, and Isaac Miller as they work, play, and fight the good fight against old ideas and evil men.