| |  | Books : Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression |  | | | | | | | | | |
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 977.761033092
EAN: 9780553384246
ISBN: 0553384244
Label: Bantam
Manufacturer: Bantam
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 304
Publication Date: April 29, 2008
Publisher: Bantam
Release Date: April 29, 2008
Sales Rank: 852
Studio: Bantam
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
I tell of a time, a place, and a way of life long gone. For many years I have had the urge to describe that treasure trove, lest it vanish forever. So, partly in response to the basic human instinct to share feelings and experiences, and partly for the sheer joy and excitement of it all, I report on my early life. It was quite a romp.
So begins Mildred Kalish’s story of growing up on her grandparents’ Iowa farm during the depths of the Great Depression. With her father banished from the household for mysterious transgressions, five-year-old Mildred and her family could easily have been overwhelmed by the challenge of simply trying to survive. This, however, is not a tale of suffering.
Kalish counts herself among the lucky of that era. She had caring grandparents who possessed—and valiantly tried to impose—all the pioneer virtues of their forebears, teachers who inspired and befriended her, and a barnyard full of animals ready to be tamed and loved. She and her siblings and their cousins from the farm across the way played as hard as they worked, running barefoot through the fields, as free and wild as they dared.
Filled with recipes and how-tos for everything from catching and skinning a rabbit to preparing homemade skin and hair beautifiers, apple cream pie, and the world’s best head cheese (start by scrubbing the head of the pig until it is pink and clean), Little Heathens portrays a world of hardship and hard work tempered by simple rewards. There was the unsurpassed flavor of tender new dandelion greens harvested as soon as the snow melted; the taste of crystal clear marble-sized balls of honey robbed from a bumblebee nest; the sweet smell from the body of a lamb sleeping on sun-warmed grass; and the magical quality of oat shocking under the light of a full harvest moon.
Little Heathens offers a loving but realistic portrait of a “hearty-handshake Methodist” family that gave its members a remarkable legacy of kinship, kindness, and remembered pleasures. Recounted in a luminous narrative filled with tenderness and humor, Kalish’s memoir of her childhood shows how the right stuff can make even the bleakest of times seem like “quite a romp.”
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews Average Rating: 
Rating:  - A clear-eyed and unsentimental look at the past
It would be a mistake to read this book through the lens of nostalgia. Certainly the childhood Kalish describes is very appealing, particularly her commentaries on how her family fostered thrift and independence. It's always tempting to think that the past is somehow a better place. However few of us, I suspect, would wish to return to a time when a failed marriage could mark a woman for life (and Kalish is clear about the effect of this on her mother) or when one measure of a woman's worth was the ... Read More
Rating:  - A Keeper!!!
I read aloud so many parts of this great book to my husband that he just had to read the whole thing for himself - brought back many, many memories - funny how hard times can be remembered so favorably!We highly recommend anyone reading "Little Heathens" who grew up on a farm, in the country or in a small town, or wish they had.Kudos to the author!!
Rating:  - Back in the day
This is like listening to your grandma (or that old lady in the Titanic movie) telling in a gentle, slow-cadenced voice, about the "old days."Among the topics covered:thrift, medicine, chores, farm food, gathering food, and wash day.The book starts off mildly entertaining, but just like grandma (or grandpa), it gets long-winded.You start to feel bored and restless and wonder how much more you can sit through before you make the move for your coat.You might decide that the next time she repeats, ... Read More
Rating: - Interesting and fun
Certainly not an earth shaking book, but interesting and fun.After I read it for a book club, I bought this copy for my mother, who is the same generation and spent a great deal of time being raised by her older sister and brother in law on their farm in Illinois.She loved it.
Rating: - Things didn't change much im 20 yeras
I grew up on a farm in southern Idaho, homesteaded by my grandparents in 1903,The stories are very@simular to the way@we lived, but with the addition of electrcity, I think I shall write a book. But most of all I am reading it om m y Kindle| Marilyn Dakan. Ruidoso, NM
Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression | | | |
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