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Doodlebug, Doodlebug Your House Is On Fire!:
Stories of the little curly-headed boy
James Patterson McRae
Drawings by J.P. McRae
$12.95 paperback, 85 pages
Published: January 2011
ISBN 978-1-59715-073-6
Growing up in Laurinburg, NC, James P. McRae had total freedom to roam the large family farm. He often would wake up earlier than his parents or sister, put on his overalls, and leave the house to “explore.” His mother always said that she could tell where he had been from the color of the dirt in and behind his ears. Apparently, she also had somehow befriended “a little bird” who knew everything and always told on little James whenever he got into some mischief.
James McRae remembered his childhood with great fondness, but after watching his grandchildren play, he realized how much times had changed and decided to write about some of his adventures. Although he had told many of the stories to his children as they were growing up, he had never written them down.
All the stories are true, accompanied by Mr. McRae’s own sketches, and are presented to us as a gift from “the little curly headed boy.”
James P. McRae, or “Jimbo”, as his friends and family called him, grew up in Scotland County, North Carolina. He earned degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. He had an administrative job at St. Andrew’s College in Laurinburg, NC, worked for Pioneer Corn Company, was a major hog farmer, and a teacher for handicapped children.
After moving to Washington, NC, he and his wife drove a big truck all over the United States for his sister’s trucking company. He loved the freedom of the road, but whatever work he was doing, “Jimbo” always felt the pull of the farm and the “simple” life. He loved to work with his hands and was a great carpenter, woodcarver, and artist. In recent years, until his death in 2009, James McRae was a self-employed farmer. He enjoyed raising vegetables and selling them at the farmers’ markets in Greenville and Washington, NC.
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