For the Amazon.com page of his book, Bow & River Gigs: Used in the Clear Streams of the Ozarks,
Ray Joe Hastings wrote:

I was born on Sept. 24, 1937, and my earliest memories are of the hard times that my family had to endure. Late in the fall of 1941, Mr. Dewitte Fogle gave my dad permission to build a cabin on some land that Mr. Fogle owned. That piece of ground was on a knoll above the high-water mark on the very headwaters of the east prong of Fourche Creek. Dad and Mom, with the help of some of the older children, built a log cabin there. There were eight children altogether four boys and four girls but the two older children were already married, which left six of us at home. Even though there was a need for a larger home, it began as only a two-room cabin with another room added later. I was very small when they built it, but I remember it well because I helped chink the cracks with mud. The rooms had plain board floors with cracks wide enough to sweep dirt through. This was the way of life for us in the early 1940 s since we were extremely poor as were most of the other people we knew in the Ozark hill country. Throughout my adult life and after I began my own family (three daughters and one son; two stepsons, one stepdaughter, and a houseful of grandchildren and great-grandchildren), I have enjoyed hunting, fishing, and even trapping when my children were younger in order to supplement my income. I worked on highway construction during the nicer weather, but during the winter I was usually unemployed when construction slowed, so that was a good time to trap, and it also gave me a good opportunity to hunt and fish. I am an active member in the Emmanuel Baptist Church, and I was also a member and past president of the Kiwanis Club of Doniphan. It was during the time when I was the county commissioner that I became interested in collecting bows, spikes, and river gigs. As I was fortunate enough to find each item, I carefully documented the provenance of each one, including where it was made, who made it, the year it was made, and the creeks or rivers where it was used. The collection that I have accumulated is what has led me to the writing of this book.

Ray Joe Hastings was a master in gig making for the Missouri Folk Arts Program's Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program in 2003, 2007, and 2011.