Vegetables for Sale: A Child's Discovery of Redemption in the American South

A faded sign with the words "Vegetables for Sale" is one of Michael Barber's most prized possessions. Michael and his grandmother created the homemade sign after she became weary of his continuous begging for candy money. At five years of age, Michael's grandmother placed him alongside the Heart of Dixie Highway to operate a vegetable stand. She taught Michael that it was better to earn rather than to be given something, with the exception of God's love. Fifty years later the old sign is still a symbol of his grandmother's wisdom.

Vegetables for Sale is a gathering of memories from Michael's childhood in the American South. With the voices of his youth becoming silent to eternity and the memories of a place and people being lost to time, his hope is to preserve and share the eternal lessons he was taught. Contained in the pages of his book are seven stories which share a life spent in a special place with a peculiar people who showed Michael the ways of mercy, grace, and redemption.

About the Author
Barber, Michael: - Home for Dr. Michael Barber has always been the American South, a place where family stories are passed down as an inheritance to the next generation. Vegetables for Sale is a gathering of seven stories from Michael's childhood. Each simple story has been told on the porches and in the pulpits of the South. The stories are shared with the hope of uplifting the spirits of others while preserving the memories of people and places he loves. Michael and his wife Legay are blessed with two beautiful daughters, two wonderful sons-in-law, two grandsons, and an overweight boxer named Big Mack. Michael retired from the school system superintendency after serving more than thirty years in the public schools of Alabama. He now spends his time preaching, teaching, speaking, and playing bluegrass in the hilarious hill-billy Cake Walk string band. Michael is proud of his Southern heritage but believes wonderful people live in every part of our great nation. Waiters in Cambridge have kindly brewed him sweet tea, and cowboys have offered up prayers with him in Wyoming. Michael and Legay have found God's grace and kindness on display in every city and state they have visited (while making really bad selfies). Michael and Legay also come from families who have served our nation, and both feel a great debt of gratitude to those who have served and currently serve in America's armed forces.