Interesting book to read about the Depression

[Istand4truth]

Right now I am reading an excellent book. It is called "Little Heathens Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression" by Mildred Armstrong Kalish. It's full of details in how things were done in those days. She describes the different steps taken to do things like harvesting animals and plants, tending to the sick and giving first aid on the farm, attending a country school house, frolicking with raccoons and other animals, keeping warm, doing the wash, chopping wood, making many food from scratch etc. I am really enjoying reading it.

Here is an excerpt:

"I remember one early December snowstrom that had set us all to taking the usual precautions. Settled in for the night, we were smugly looking forward to a happy snowbound day or two ahead, and when we woke we felt the usual excitement and lightheartedness in anticipation of those cozy days at home. All ordinary routines were stopped so that we could attend to the immediate needs of fetching water and wood, keeping the fire burning in the wood stove, and shoveling paths to the farm buildings. We could get to the wood pile just outside our door, but we couldn't get to the windmill for water so we had to melt snow in a kettle on the stove. We considered in all a joyous adventure.

This time, however, it snowed and snowed and kept snowing until we could not see out of the windows. We were completely cut off from the world. After four days we ran out of kerosene, the oil that we used in our lamps. Then we ran our of white flour, a staple we used in our bread. We all knew that it could be days before the three miles of dirt road to Garrison, now piled high with snow, would be opened.

It turned out that we had no reason for worry. Undaunted, Mama created her own oil lamps in the following fashion. She poured melted bacon fat into six Mason jar lids, place one by four-inch lengths of cotton flannel in the fat, and loosely place another lid on top, leaving a tiny corner of the cloth sticking out. When the makshift wicks were thoroughly soaked with the grease, she lit them with a match and placed them about the house, permeating the air with the wholesome fragrance of bacon. I've often thought how this action made real the figurative expression, 'Better to light a candle than curse the darkness.'

Mama solved the bread problem with equal ingenuity. She washed the pint-sized hand-cranked coffee grinder and set us kids to grinding the field corn that had been saved in the buttey, I recall that, working in shifts, it took us an awfully long time to get it to the consistency of fine cornmeal. But I also recall that the corn bread she baked with that meal, using an iron skillet, was unusually tasty.

Mama's ability to meet challenges head-on and with a positive attitude created in us kids a sense of confidence that there was a way to solve every problem--just find it. Of course, she had developed that attitude through the examples set by her parents, Grandma and Grandpa."

---page 201-203 Chapter 21 Little Heathens Hard times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression
Mildred Armstrong Kalish

[ChelC]

That does sound like a fun book! That is the reason I love the Little House series. It is very detailed in explaining their way of life so much so that it is quite instructional!

[Istand4truth]

It was a very good read. I couldn't put it down. I have a copy from the library, but I am considering buying my own copy because I really like the detailed instructions on some things. It might be good to have on hand.