“Swamper Tales” by Roger Peach will be presented at 1:30 May 28, at the Monroe County History Museum, 724 Elaine Dr., Waterloo.

Life on the southern Illinois county fair circuit was hot and dirty, but seldom dull as you will see when Peach shares recollections from his new book. Gigantic bulls, larger than life characters and dramas, both big and small, will reach back more than 50 years to the volatile 1960s, when cattle and their caretakers traversed southern Illinois in a manner all but extinct today.

When Peach went to work on a Perry County dairy farm for the first time at 16 years of age, he was a pure city boy. He didn’t know his cardinal directions and couldn’t tell a Holstein from a mule. It took eight seasons to turn him around and his book, “Swamper Tales,” is a direct result.

In his last season on the circuit, a favorite employer described him to a good cattleman as a “pretty fair hand!”