There is a difference between growing up and growing older.

Growing up in the suburbs in the 1950s was a completely different experience than growing up after the year 2000. Just about everything was self-created and directed. From a very early age, we left our house right after breakfast and would return in time for supper. No parent or adult told us what to do to occupy our time. Mostly, they told us what not to do and we paid little attention to that advice.

Each new adventure took us to its logical or illogical conclusion. Sometimes a lesson was learned, more often than not the hard way. This is a journey through those experiences, many of which are not repeatable today.

Growing up is mental, and growing older is physical. Both form integral parts of the experiential library. Whether in the late 1800s, the mid-1950s or now, it is the best time to be alive in an ever-changing world.

Join C.M. Rip Cunningham in his recollections of what it means to grow up in an ever-shifting environment, supplemented by excerpts from As the Twig is Bent by Dr. John H. Cunningham."Rip Cunningham has led a charmed life and he writes about it charmingly in Where the Acorn Falls. From an idyllic boyhood in the '50s, through high school, college, a stint with the Coast Guard, and his professional life of owning and running "Salt Water Sportsman" magazine, he never stopped having fun in the outdoors with rod and gun. He writes with so much style and verve that a reader can't help but envy both his skill with the written word and the life he describes with it."

Charles Gaines

A lifelong sportsman and New York Times bestselling author of 22 books. He lives with his wife and dogs in Nova Scotia and Alabama."At times light-hearted, at times self-disclosing, Cunningham's intimate reflections on his road less traveled are filled with love, candor, and life's inevitable regrets."

Harry Groome, author of The Best of Families"Where the Acorn Falls is a charming, nostalgic remembrance of simpler times packed with details and fond memories of a life well lived."

-- Cort Casady, Emmy Award-winning television writer-producer and author of Not Your Father's America