Deborah Kimmett

Outrunning Crazy Deborah Kimmett

OUTRUNNING CRAZY: The summer of 1968 is where my mind plops down and lights up a smoke. I am ten years old... It's 1968 and Tammy Babcock is one of six kids living on an old dairy farm in rural Ontario; she's funny, smart-mouthed, and far too clever for her own good. Between drunk fathers, iron-fisted mothers, and a tumultuous relationship with her cousin, Elaine, Tammy's heart is set on getting as far away from the craziness of home as possible. But it turns out, crazy is something she can't outrun. Looking back from twenty-one, Tammy recounts snapshots of her short protected life, and tries to make sense of a mother who felt more at home talking to cows in the barn than her children, and an oblivious father who had one bad idea after another, and why her friendship with Elaine fell apart with disastrous consequences. In moments both laugh out funny and compelling, Tammy struggles through the uncertainty of growing up, searching for the answers so she can finally let go of the past.