For me, Beckom was one vast playground. From the plover - infested homestead to its dam crawling with yabbies; along the meandering mysteries of the Mirrool Creek; up to the forgotten pine forest; over to the dusty silos of harvest; this was my backyard. I could leave home at sunrise and return ragged at sunset, my heart overflowing with a day of games and adventures. What more does a kid need? In this collection of stories, Bill ‘Swampy’ Marsh takes us from his childhood in a small outback town in the 1950s and coming of age at an all - boys bush boarding school, to his journey as an adult, when he revisits and reflects on youth by travelling in his father’s footsteps through rural Australia. Loveable and eccentric characters are brought to life with humour and affection as we are led through mateship and manhood, cricket and footy, young love and heartbreak, battlers and larrikins, courage and loyalty. These are tales of everyday life in rural Australia. The simple things. The important things …