Book excerpt: Introduction: Born in 1947, I have lived in two worlds. The first world was pre-cell phone, pre- air conditioner, pre-computer, pre-fast food, pre-microwave, pre-travel, pre-mobility, pre-Walmart, pre-secondary education, pre-secularism, pre-mall, pre-middle class, and pre-consolidation. Most of these are self-evident for anyone my age and perhaps several of them are relevant only to me or the individuals raised in my community or similar communities. For instance, until I was sixteen years old I had never been more than 175 miles west of the small fishing village where I grew up on the coast of North Carolina. Until that time, I would not have been out of the state, except for the fact that as a child of a Navy serviceman, I lived my first seven years in Norfolk, Virginia