Jerry Apps - Living a Country Year: Wit and Wisdom from the Good Old Days

Living a Country Year

Living a Country Year

Wit and Wisdom from the Good Old Days

Jerry Apps

WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY PRESS

Published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press Publishers since 1855

The Wisconsin Historical Society helps people connect to the past by collecting, preserving, and sharing stories. Founded in 1846, the Society is one of the nations finest historical institutions.
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2018 by Jerold W. Apps

E-book edition 2018

First edition published 2007 by Voyageur Press

Wisconsin Historical Society Press edition 2018

For permission to reuse material from Living a Country Year (ISBN 978-0-87020-861-4; e-book ISBN 978-0-87020-862-1), please access www.copyright.com or contact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400. CCC is a not-for-profit organization that provides licenses and registration for a variety of users.

Cover: For Jeremiah Williams by Andy Fletcher. 2015. Oil on canvas. 42 60

Cover design by Sara DeHaan

Typesetting by Shawn Biner

22 21 20 19 18 1 2 3 4 5

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Apps, Jerold W., 1934 author.

Title: Living a country year : wit and wisdom from the good old days / Jerry Apps.

Description: Wisconsin Historical Society Press edition 2018. | Madison : Wisconsin Historical Society, 2018.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017037406 (print) | LCCN 2017046743 (e-book) | ISBN 9780870208621 (E-book) | ISBN 9780870208614 (pbk. : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Country lifeAnecdotes. | Farm lifeAnecdotes.

Classification: LCC GT3470 (ebook) | LCC GT3470 .A67 2018 (print) | DDC 307.72dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017037406

For Ruth

Contents

My brothers, twins Donald and Darrel, who appear in my stories many times, helped me to remember many of the details of the years when we were growing up on a small farm in central Wisconsin. We didnt always agree about what happened and when, but we agreed on the gist of the stories.

A special thank you to my wife, Ruth, a home economist, who tested all the recipes in this book. Occasionally, she had to make sense out of my mothers and grandmothers recipes, where the instructions included a pinch of this and a pinch of that and season to taste. Ruth also read the entire manuscript several times, pointing out errors and making suggestions for improvement. Additionally, I want to thank Opal Kunz, Carol Marting, and Ellen Schroeder, all home economists, who read and suggested improvements for the recipes, especially the directions.

My daughter, Susan, is a school reading specialist and a stickler for accuracy. I appreciate her careful reading of the manuscript. My son Steve is a journalist and staff photographer for the Wisconsin State Journal. He read for meaning and logic and straightened me out several times. Jeff, my younger son, served as an important sounding board for many of the ideas in this book.

Danielle J. Ibister, Voyageur Press/MEI editor, once more took my work and gave it her magic touch. I so much appreciate her efforts to make the book as readable as possible.

In 2005 I published my book Every Farm Tells a Story, a collection of stories and memories inspired by my mothers meticulous farm account books. The book was so well-received by readers that my editors at Voyageur Press asked if I would be interested in writing a follow-up volume, telling more stories of my growing-up years on the farm in the 1930s through the early 1950s.

My wife, Ruth, and I came up with the idea of telling another round of stories based on the seasons of the year. Each season would include some of my mothers recipes from those days, along with bits of wisdom I had picked up from my father and other farmers I knew. We called the book Living a Country Year: Wit and Wisdom from the Good Old Days, and Voyageur Press published it in 2007. One reviewer wrote, The meat of this new book is lovely stories about being a country boy, contemplation about the ways of nature and sage dollops of advice, sometimes delivered with gentle, dry humor. From [the authors] thoughts for May: Do nothing in haste, except running away from an angry dog.

Living a Country Year became the featured book in several community read projects. The Fond du Lac Public Library chose it for its community-wide read in 2009. As a capstone event, the library sponsored a chili supper using recipes from the book. After the supper, I spoke to more than two hundred people who had attended, sharing some of my stories, answering their questions, and enjoying many of their stories about life on the farm.

Of the many reader comments I received about this book, I have been most pleased when people tell me that it helped them remember their stories. As one reader wrote, Living a Country Year reaffirms our rural heritage. I am delighted that the Wisconsin Historical Society Press is publishing this new edition.

Many of us, whether we live in a city or a small town, are searching for the simplicity that was once a part of country life. I grew up on a farm during a simpler time. The days were long, and the work was hard. We had no electricity, indoor plumbing, or central heatingconveniences we have long since taken for granted. Though it may have been a simpler time, it was certainly not an easier time. Im often asked, Werent you miserable every day of the year, as you worked by the dim light of a kerosene lantern, hiked a mile along a country road to a one-room country school, walked for hours behind a team of work horses, and were lucky to get to town for a couple hours on a Saturday night?

Some of that life was difficult, especially in the dead of winter when the temperature skidded to twenty below zero and the only warm place on the farm was in the barn with the cows and horses. Farm work could also be boring, especially to a kid: picking cucumbers, hoeing potatoes, husking corn by hand. Other work was exciting and fun: working on a threshing crew, driving a new tractor, and hauling grist to the mill for grinding.

Even with all the hard work, we had more time (perhaps took more time) to enjoy what was all around us: nights filled with starlight, days with clear blue skies and puffy clouds. Wonderful smells everywherefresh mown hay, wildflowers, and apple blossoms. Interesting soundsthe rumble of distant thunder, an owl calling in the woods, a flock of Canada geese winging over in the fall.

Our family was very close. We worked together, lived together, and played together. We depended on one another and cared for one another. We were also close to our neighbors, even though some lived several miles away. We helped them; they helped us.

Many of the thoughts in this book come from growing up and living in the country and knowing farmers and small-town people. As a kid I especially enjoyed the stories told around the wood-burning stove, shared during meals in threshing season, or merely swapped over the back fence. Other ideas come from my present farm near Wild Rose, located a few miles from where I grew up.

My father was a great storyteller as well as a country philosopher. He had only a sixth-grade education, yet he was full of words of wisdom and one-liners that had deeper meaning. Pa also had a deep appreciation for nature and the outdoors. He was keenly aware of the changing seasons and all the new smells, sounds, sights, and tastes.