Alda M. Figel-Sallier was an ordinary woman who lived an ordinary life, but that doesnt mean her life was unimportant. Known as Curley to her family for her curly hair, she wrote her life story of stream-of-consciousness reflections, which has been left unedited in this book with an introduction by her great-great granddaughter. Sallier recalls growing up in rural Indiana in the 1870s and 1880s, becoming a railway mans wife, and then a mother. Through her eyes, were shown flawed men and women, tiny triumphs and crushing losses, and what life was like for everyday people during a booming time in the United States of America. I Curley is a detailed look at what life was like at the end of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century as told through an account of a life well lived.