When Columbia High Principal Coleman Jacobi threatens to send 16-year-old Earl Edge to Hopewell Reform School, Earl opts to lie about his age and join the US Army Air Corps. Fortified with a shoe box filled with fried chicken and deviled eggs, Earl begins his journey away from home with a bus ride to Fort Jackson. Mainly told through journal entries, this classic coming of age story chronicles the successes and sacrifices of a small-town trouble maker. William Price Fox currently lives in Columbia and is Writer in Residence at the University of South Carolina.