Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression
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.”
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Additional Product Information
- ISBN: 9780553804959
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32 Reviews
| From: Amazon Posted: Nov 25, 2007 Type: User Review |
Sweet Read!
I just saw this Author at our local library. She was a doll and I wish I could sit down with her and chat all afternoon! The book was from the heart genuine and easy to read. I wish I could click my heals and travel back to life when it was simple...
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 5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Nov 17, 2007 Type: User Review |
Christmas Purchase
This purchase was made for the purpose of a Christmas gift. I had no difficulty locating the item and I appreciate the prompt delivery of a product in excellent shape. Thank you.
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5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Nov 07, 2007 Type: User Review |
Well worth your time!
This book is such a fun read. It makes me want to go visit my grandma and ask her about her times during the great depression. Super delicious book.
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5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Oct 27, 2007 Type: User Review |
Tears of joy in re-living days gone by.
This was a gift I gave my 94 year old mother. It brought tears of joy and she says it is the best book she has ever read. She was a teacher and spends her days on the farm by herself doing crossword puzzles and cryptograms. Should be recommended...
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5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Oct 09, 2007 Type: User Review |
Worth a look for the recipes alone
Even though I am a 42-year-old city girl, this book resonated with me. Ms. Kalish writes with gratifying specificity of "the little things that make up a life." You'll wonder how her generation had enough energy to do the endless work it took to...
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5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Sep 17, 2007 Type: User Review |
Grandma's diary
Unless you want to read someone else's grandma's diary, pass on this one. It's entertaining if you are interested in the midwest during the depression (from one person's perspective) but I just couldn't finish it.
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 2.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Sep 17, 2007 Type: User Review |
Little Heathens High Times and High Spirits on an Iowa farm during the depression
Excellent!! Couldn't put the book down and have passed on to several friends who have enjoyed the book. This is the documentation you would like to hear of your own ancester's early life that few are lucky enough to have. The how's of early life...
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5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Sep 15, 2007 Type: User Review |
A world unto its own
What a great book. Very detailed descriptions of a farming life from how they worked to what they ate. The recipes alone are fascinating.
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5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Sep 12, 2007 Type: User Review |
Charming Memories
I enjoyed reading this book so much. My mother is the same age as the author and eventhough she was raised on a Michigan farm, there are similarities on views of hard work, a child's place in the home, and a time for relaxation with the family....
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5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Sep 09, 2007 Type: User Review |
A door to the not too distant past
This book was all that I hoped it would be; Mildred Kalish draws on an almost photographic memory that relates with astute detail the day-to-day events in her early life. Although written for a much later period, the writing style is similar to...
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5.00/5 |
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