false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178217293m/771858.jpg 771858 5 <i>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.</i><br><br>So begins Mildred Kalish&#8217;s story of growing up on her grandparents&#8217; 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.<br><br>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.<br><br>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.<br><br><b>Little Heathens</b> 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.; 3233690 29 5 2007 Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression total:1385|5:256|4:517|3:441|2:148|1:23| 1385 4990 2383 597 2 7 false false Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Jan 01 20:13:05 -0800 2008 Sat Oct 04 14:02:20 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 5 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Tue Aug 28 11:06:28 -0700 2007 Wed Dec 19 13:45:48 -0800 2007 more...]]> 3 4 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Sep 09 06:00:56 -0700 2007 Fri Sep 14 17:39:25 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 3 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 02 20:19:20 -0800 2007 Wed Feb 06 18:21:13 -0800 2008
Anyway, this is a cross between reading an updated _Little House on the Prairie_ and sitting at my grandparents' respective tables listening to their stor...more...]]> 3 4 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Feb 06 14:25:43 -0800 2008 Sun Feb 17 15:12:42 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 2 false false Fri Jan 16 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 19 18:26:27 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 19 18:39:25 -0800 2009 New York Times. What a fabulous memoir. Her writing is utterly clear, and the events, both everyday and extraordinary, ar...more...]]> 3 3 false false Sun Apr 20 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Apr 28 21:56:05 -0700 2008 Mon Apr 28 22:12:17 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 3 false false Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Oct 17 06:50:36 -0700 2008 Fri Oct 17 07:03:53 -0700 2008 1 more...]]> 5 2 false false Fri Nov 21 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Nov 18 11:35:09 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 14 13:16:18 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 2 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Mon Dec 31 12:35:58 -0800 2007 Mon Dec 31 15:27:14 -0800 2007
Reading through some of the reviews here, I notice that some people are irked by the folksy, chatty style of the author. I found it charming--maybe it sounds like you're sitting around talking ...more...]]> 2 2 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Oct 09 08:19:15 -0700 2007 Tue Oct 16 11:27:26 -0700 2007
There's also a ...more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Aug 27 23:45:03 -0700 2007 Mon Aug 27 23:45:43 -0700 2007

I delved into this book with great anticipation. The author is only a few years younger than my mother and the area she writes about in rural Iowa is just 50 miles east of where my grandfather was born.




There were many things to like in this book that ...more...]]> 4 1 false false Sun Aug 23 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 05 21:30:47 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 15 16:59:57 -0700 2009
I could go on for hours about this book. I felt a kinship to the author simply d...more...]]> 2 1 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Aug 23 16:14:11 -0700 2007 Wed Oct 24 20:13:54 -0700 2007 more...]]> 1 1 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Sep 11 14:25:29 -0700 2007 Wed Sep 12 12:49:30 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Feb 24 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 24 17:09:38 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 24 17:32:16 -0800 2009
I enjoyed the unusual s...more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Jan 15 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 16 12:36:17 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 16 12:52:25 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 24 09:57:47 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 24 09:57:47 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Sep 23 08:27:27 -0700 2008 Sat Nov 01 12:43:36 -0700 2008
The recipes were a nice add to the book. Again, same recipes were used here in Indiana by my family.

Too bad there weren't any pictures...more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Sep 29 11:24:04 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 29 11:34:20 -0700 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=771858