“John had got thus far in his studies, which were apparently arithmetic and geography, but were in reality the Arabian Nights, and other books of high and mighty adventure. He was a simple country-boy, and did not know much about the world as it is, but he had one of his own imagination, in which
“Perhaps it is not generally known that we get the idea of some of our best military maneuvers from the turkey. The deploying of the skirmish-line in advance of an army is one of them. The drum-major of our holiday militia companies is copied exactly from the turkey gobbler; he has the same splendid appearance,
“One of the best things in farming is gathering the chestnuts, hickory-nuts, butternuts, and even beechnuts, in the late fall, after the frosts have cracked the husks and the high winds have shaken them, and the colored leaves have strewn the ground. On a bright October day, when the air is full of golden sunshine,
Bit of a departure this morning. Mr. Big Food’s Aunt Bea is enjoying the posts on boys and sends along a couple of items. This she picked up at the Hoover Presidential Library. She framed it, and it hung on a wall of their farm in East Texas for over 30 years.
“Although the country-boy feels a little joy when school breaks up (as he does when anything breaks up, or any change takes place), since he is released from the discipline and restraint of it, yet the school is his opening into the world,—his romance. Its opportunities for enjoyment are numberless. He does not exactly know
Next to “The Girl I loved”– a book length poem– “How John Quit the Farm” is my very favorite James Whitcomb Riley poem. Enjoy! Riley Farm-Rhymes with Country Pictures (1905). Amazon tells me I have to disclose that I’m an Amazon Associate and I get a small (and thus far by small, I mean next
“If there is one thing more than another that hardens the lot of the farmer-boy, it is the grindstone. Turning grindstones to grind scythes is one of those heroic but unobtrusive occupations for which one gets no credit. It is a hopeless kind of task, and, however faithfully the crank is turned, it is one
“Sunday in the New England hill towns used to begin Saturday night at sundown; and the sun is lost to sight behind the hills there before it has set by the almanac. I remember that we used to go by the almanac Saturday night and by the visible disappearance Sunday night. On Saturday night we
“Say what you will about the general usefulness of boys, it is my impression that a farm without a boy would very soon come to grief. What the boy does is the life of the farm. He is the factotum, always in demand, always expected to do the thousand indispensable things that nobody else will
“No other boy knows how to appreciate a holiday as the farm-boy does; and his best ones are of a peculiar kind. Going fishing is of course one sort. The excitement of rigging up the tackle, digging the bait, and the anticipation of great luck! These are pure pleasures, enjoyed because they are rare. Boys
Being a Boy, Charles Dudley Warner (1877). From Chapter 2. “For instance, some morning in early summer John is told to catch the sorrel mare, harness her into the spring wagon, and put in the buffalo and the best whip, for father is obliged to drive over to the “Corners, to see a man” about
Being a Boy, Charles Dudley Warner (1877). It begins… “One of the best things in the world to be is a boy; it requires no experience, though it needs some practice to be a good one. The disadvantage of the position is that it does not last long enough; it is soon over; just as
The fellow who does The Ace of Spades Headquarters Sunday Morning Book Thread is on holiday this week. Alas, that means I have no funny or whimsical book-related cartoons to swipe & repost this morning. And so… I offer you this. Originally posted here December, 2018. Enjoy! We live in an amazing time. On my
My favorite piece of music– of any kind– is Dvorák’s New World Symphony. So I was a delighted to discover this in my WPReader just now. The Internet lives up to its promise, sometimes. “Fleeing the congestion and mayhem of New York City in the early summer of 1893, Antonin Dvorák, along with his wife
Mr. and Mrs. Luis Avila grow fruit and vegetables and sell them at a roadside stand in Chimayo, New Mexico, thus eliminating the “middleman’s” margin. Farmers get only about 40 cents of the consumer’s food dollar. The Face of Rural America: The 1976 Yearbook of Agriculture [Link goes to Amazon. $19.99.] The book is loaded
Ordinary People and Everyday Life: Perspectives on the New Social History (1983) [Link goes to Amazon. Used from$1.98] Review: Ordinary People and Everyday Life: Perspectives on the New Social History presents thoughts by ten prominent scholars in American history and material culture on a new way of doing history in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. During
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1939) [Link goes to Amazon. Audible version of this crappy old book is free.] That infallible source which has “multiple issues” (I’ll say!): Let Us Now Praise Famous Men is a book with text by American writer James Agee and photographs by American photographer Walker Evans, first published in 1941 in the United
GUNFIRE! Opened the patio door. Missy and I stepped out. Missy turned around and wanted to go back inside. Opened the patio door. Rocky and I stepped out. Rocky turned around and wanted to go back inside. For my part, I am not ascared. In fact, I enjoy listening to our neighbors’ various calibers. It’s
It is highly unlikely that I have not posted this before. No matter. It can be enjoyed again and again. Ben Franklin’s letter to his daughter Sarah Bache (January 26, 1784) concerning the Eagle and the Turkey. The Turkeys was robbed of their rightful place in American history, I tell ya. For my own part
Covenant for America “FELLOW AMERICANS, let us get back to fundamentals, to the place where we recognize that something for nothing is as morally reprehensible as it is economically unsound and unsafe. Let us each shoulder his share of the responsibility for strengthening the moral and spiritual life of America. “A present trend has to
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