Sounds of Summit

Sound evokes memories and has the power to transport us to a different time and place. Reflecting on his childhood and adolescence in the 1950’s in Summit, Mississippi, Larry E. Adams chronicles how the distinctive sounds that delineated everyday life actually defined his hometown and ordered the family life he knew. Using sound as a reference point, Larry describes the social and economic realities that prevailed during a period of radical change in and around Summit, as agriculture gave way to light industry, manual labor yielded to mechanization, and transportation and communication were completely transformed. Sweeping changes in community mores, education, politics, and human relationships were harbingers of a new era, and the distinctive sounds that had characterized the village faded away as a new society unfolded. His memory of those bygone sounds sparked noteworthy stories of the contentment and naïveté of a simpler time, and through those stories, we meet the colorful and complex personalities of a beloved community. Although time has altered the sounds of Summit, the town continues to shape the character of those lucky enough to live there. Sounds of Summit: An Auditory Memoir of Life in a Small Town of Southwest Mississippi is a moving tribute to the triumphs and traumas of a post-World War II community through the sounds that punctuated its days and dominated the consciousness of its citizens.