One of thirteen children, Beckom is born on a Georgia farm in 1932. Life isn't easy, especially when food is hard to come by and the work never ends. But it's his father's alcoholism that makes the biggest impression on Beckom, and more than once he witnesses his father's drunken rampages. He tries to bury his troubles when he falls in love with an older woman, but he has no choice but to leave her behind when he enlists in the U.S. Army at the age of seventeen in 1950.

After his discharge, Beckom lands in trouble, following in the footsteps of his father and drinking excessively. But when he ends up in prison in 1956 for a crime he didn't commit, he begins to realize how precious life is. Hard Times is Beckom's true story of his search for a better life, one filled with God's grace and mercy.