Amazon Category:  Humor Publisher: Willow Creek ISBN-10:  0972965505 Type: Non-Fiction Pages: 319 Copyright: September 15, 2003 ISBN-13: 9780972965507 It portrays the numerous humorous exploits, misadventures and shenanigans of a youth while growing up in the East Texas backwoods community of Chinquapin during 1947-1955. While it is mainly intended as humor for the general reader of any age, CHINQUA WHERE? also includes the seriousness and realism associated with bittersweet memories and the disappointments of rural family life. This work portrays the "numerous humorous exploits, misadventures and shenanigans" of a youth while growing up in the East Texas backwoods community of Chinquapin during 1947-1955. While it is mainly intended as humor for the general reader of any age, including children, CHINQUA WHERE? also includes the seriousness and realism associated with bittersweet memories and the disappointments of rural family life. This is social history and humor at its best.

Midwest Book Review
Chinqua Where? The Spirit Of Rural America, 1947-1955 is a heartfelt collection of short essays and memories about author Fred McKinley's life growing up in rural East Texas during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Life without indoor plumbing, central heating, or running water, and in a place where baths were in washtubs, the children went barefoot in the summer, and when the main forms of entertainment were wandering the woods, listening to a battery operated radio, or watching movies on Sunday afternoon, are all part and parcel of this vivid retelling of rural Texas childhood. A host of vivid impressions make for an unforgettable trip down memory lane and combine to make Chinqua Where? a superbly written and informative autobiography.

McKinley Captures American Spirit
As a television talk show host and producer, I get so many books to read and review. I sat down to read only a few chapters of this one and wound up reading the entire book! CHINQUA WHERE? replicates rural life ANYWHERE, not just in Texas. Fred McKinley's chapters reminded me of stories told to me by my grandparents about days gone by in rural Pennsylvania. Lots of history, lots of laughs, lots of love!