Table of Contents
Preface: Why Have I Written? xi
Introduction 3
Part 1
The Coburn Farm 9
The Honest Man 14
Mother's Quilt Blocks 16
The Coburn Kids 19
Bigger 22
The House 24
The White Pine 28
The Old Log House 32
Running Water 35
The Party Line Telephone 39
The Radio 41
The Phonograph 44
Washday 47
Ironing 51
We Didn't Have Much Money 53
Plum City 58
Leaving the Village 62
Our School 64
Learning to Read 71
My First (and Only) Doll 75
Uphill Both Ways 78
A Matter of Perspective 82
The Olsons 84
Ethnic Food 88
The Mystery of Charlie Stone 90
Old Joe George, the Peddler 93
The Hired Man 96
The Farm Animals 99
Jiggs 102
Part 2
The Milking 115
Spring 118
The Leek Party 120
The Slippery Elm Tree 123
We Ate What Was Placed before Us 127
Summer 132
The Dry Years 135
We Did the Best We Could with What We Had 139
The Hottest Summer 142
The Coldest Winter 144
Haying 146
Harvest 149
Chickens 153
Sunday Dinner 156
Canada Thistles and Quackgrass 160
"Going to The Uncles! Going to The Uncles!" 163
Autumn 168
Autumn Gold 170
Wish Books 172
Butternuts and Maple Sugar Candy 174
Cutting Corn 177
Corn Husking 180
Winter 183
Starry Night 186
Dark Days of the 1930s 188
The Armistice Day Blizzard, 1940 192
Long Underwear 195
Using the Telephone 197
Christmas Shopping in 1932 200
Christmas Morning 202
Afterword: Last Visit Home 207
The Long Journey from There and Then to Here and Now 209
Appendix: About the Farm 213
Acknowledgments 215
