Momma and Sarah were driving down the road, Sarah was thinking about what she was told. “You must wear your seat belt.” Momma said. “And put on sun lotion and a hat upon your head. “I want you to stay buckled in, And shade the sun from your young skin.” Momma sighed, “Now, Sarah, you must wear your hat, To keep the sun from your eyes, you know that.” Momma picked up Millie and placed her on Sarah’s head. Sarah knew Momma was right about all she had said. So Millie, the hat, sat on Sarah’s head. “To shade Sarah from the sun,” Millie said. They were headed for grandpa and grandma’s farm, Where Sarah could run and play safe from harm. Sarah ran through the barn and around the house. Millie looked around as quiet as a mouse.
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.”
Stories for Lilah is a delightful manuscript comprising stories and poems written over a span of years. The stories and poems are certain to bring enjoyment to all ages, young and old, and covers a wide range of topics from dont feed the bears, why the tulip tree loses its leaves early, being different, several Millie the cow stories, as well as stories and poems that have hidden guidance or are just fun to read and share to the whole family!
Age range 3+ A child follows a day in the life of Milly the cow, as she munches grass with her friends, drinks gallons of water, makes cow pats in the field, and visits the milking parlour with her farmer. Milly's milk is made into butter, cheese and yoghurt.
A timely debate on women's rights and abortion. A unique and nostalgic study of Southern America following World War II. A dramatic mother/daughter conflict. In The Farm, Olaf "Ollie" Weber, a wounded Nazi prisoner of war, escapes a POW camp in Tennessee intent on assassinating President Truman. Ginger "Snaps" Wright accidentally helps Ollie elude prison guards, and when confronted, he rapes and impregnates the wannabe actress, who must then choose between Hollywood and motherhood. Finally, after years of shortages and suffering, it's time to dream big, and the Wright family, "Snaps," her mother Mary Lou, Uncle, and sisters Millie and Anne face tumultuous societal and economic changes. But the family must also grieve the loss of Millie's hero husband, Stanley, and help her find a way to find new meaning in her life. A battlefield medic, Stanley was one of the eighty-four victims of the Nazi war crime; the Massacre at Malmedy. The Farm is an exciting new story from the author of the critically acclaimed literary historical novel Gettysburg by Morning
Life’s Pages invites you on a journey back in time and entices you to travel through this true story about a remarkable little girl and the two families that loved and shared her.Against the backdrop of Prohibition and the Great Depression, the characters come to life once more, weaving themselves into your heart as they survive some of life’s most difficult, and unimaginable events. Courage and hope move them forward, as they choose to fully live and enjoy each page of their life’s journey, taking the reader with them as they continue forward–one page at a time.Life’s Pages is a beautiful story, simply written, and generously shared–a slice of Americana everyone can appreciate and enjoy.
