Pieces Of Rope Too Short To Keep: A Childhood In Back Country Vermont

by Steven Gardner

Author Steven Gardner spent his adult life in Southern California high tech. But whenever his friends shared a story about growing up in sun-soaked suburbia, he’d counter with one of his own from his youth in 1960s back country Vermont that no one could quite believe. Pieces Of Rope Too Short To Keep collects all those memories of a childhood filled with beaver dams, raccoon traps, drunken pigs, hitch hiking adventures, baseball dreams, bare handed trout catching, broken down cars, woodpecker shootings and head-butting goats into a rollicking picture of an upbringing not many people have experienced. And to top it off, it’s probably all true.

258 pages, Paperback

Published August 19, 2018

Reviews

[Susan Mills · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can imagine this author Steven Gardner must be the life of any party. He’s got great wit and a way with telling stories. Excellent read. The book is organized by theme rather than chronologically, which worked for me, keeping the momentum going, never bored for a moment.
I do wish there was just a little info about Gardner’s sister Johanna, so we could hear what rural life in VT was like for the women/girls in the 60’s. The author’s life as a boy was idyllic in some mythological all-American boy sense, but also brutal and dangerous and economically perilous.
As one of those people he mentions at the end of the book who moved to VT later in life from a northeastern city, I feel thankful that Route 30 is now paved, that people are more likely to get their pets spayed and not shoot or drown them, that cars have to pass inspection standards, and maybe a few other things. I’ve learned a lot from the book, and for the things I had already learned since being in VT, I had a laugh-filled trip thru the book. I’m pretty sure climate change has changed a few things, too, like some of those streams where he fished no longer have near as much water, and it doesn’t stay 20 below zero or snow 3 feet at a time so much any more.
A pleasure to read. I’d recommend the book for Vermonters, rural people everywhere, and those who have some rural bones in them to enjoy in story form, at least.

[Susan Flieder · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved stepping back to a simpler time told by an engaging storyteller with a great sense of humor! I only wish my kids could experience the childhood Steven lived, in the days before video games and the over-scheduled lives of our current youth.

[Susan H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great stories about growing up in rural Vermont. I picked up this book while staying at an inn in Newfane and I really enjoyed it. Stories of a simpler time which were not so simple - hard work being the main underlying theme throughout the story.