This is the story of how growing up Jewish in a small mountain town molded Joe's life and in many ways made him the person he is today. Joe discovered that few of his contemporaries grew up as he did, roaming the mountains of North Carolina, footloose and fancy-free. Throughout his life he has explained what it was like to be the only Jewish family in a small southern town answering questions like "How did your family get there?", "What was like growing up in the mountains in the 1940s and '50s?"

Joe Kaplan was born in Waterbury, Ct. in 1942 and shortly thereafter the family moved to Scranton, Pa where they lived while his father was serving in the Army. After the Second World War the family moved to Canton, NC where he grew up in the only Jewish family in a small town in the mountains of Western North Carolina. He had a career in small businesses, first in the nursing home industry and then in real estate during which he developed an understanding of the importance of actively listening to people's life stories.