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He grew up calling himself a "little man" in a world of big shots, and spent a lifetime proving that horse sense beats status every time.

Born during the Great Depression in rural Chesterfield County, South Carolina, Al Hunter came from a family with no history of college and no expectation that he'd leave the farm communities that shaped him. A high school teacher saw something more. That encouragement led him to an engineering degree and a career with the National Security Agency, a chapter of his life he can share only in pieces, since much of the work remains classified.

What he can tell, freely and richly, is everything else: the mother who taught him that bragging is never acceptable, the father who worked relentlessly, summers at Camp Coker, a lifelong love of sports, a winding relationship with faith, and decades spent mentoring young people because, as he puts it, there's a special satisfaction in helping others find enjoyment in life.

Written for his children and grandchildren but open to any reader who loves a genuine American life story, this memoir blends candid reflection with original verse, folding poetry into nearly every chapter. Funny, humble, and unmistakably Southern, it's the record of a man who never needed to be a big shot to live a life worth remembering.

Come meet the little man who did it all his own way.