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Rural Life Series
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Living a Country Year: Wit and Wisdom from the Good Old Days (June, 2007)
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In his signature warm-hearted style, Jerry Apps
traces the wisdom gained in living a country year, chronicling each
month with a tale about growing up on a Midwestern dairy farm in the
1940s. Wearing his hard-earned wisdom lightly, Apps accompanies each
month’s tale with farm country aphorisms and the occasional recipe
for good measure. By turns witty and profound, Living a Country Year
reaffirms our nation’s rural heritage.
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Every Farm Tells a
Story (March, 2005)
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Fork handle—$.65 Mash for chickens—$7.15 One milk pail—$1.15 Horse
collar and pad—$8.15 Gloves for Herm—$.52
"Chores started on the home farm when you were around four years
old, depending on, as Pa would say, ‘how much meat you have on your
bones.’. . . "
So begins Jerry Apps’s "Every Farm Tells a Story," a collection of
true tales inspired by entries in his mother’s farm account books.
The values recorded in the account books prompt recollections of
Jerry’s childhood and the traditional family farm values and ethics
instilled in him by Ma and Pa. <more on this title>
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Country Ways and Country Days: From Weathervanes and Tractors
to Auctions and Outhouses . . . Remembering Rural Life (July
2005)
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Outhouses. Weather vanes. Draft horses. Threshing machines. Barbed
wire fences. Rural mail carriers. Gristmills. Barbershops. One-room
country schools.
Such objects of our vanishing rural past are today’s reminders of
our country ways and country days: early home life in the country,
work on the farm, how rural people kept in touch, the importance of
community, and how farm folks relaxed and had fun.
In “Country Ways and Country Days”, you’ll go back in time and learn
a bit about each item’s special role and its importance in country
life. Noted storyteller Jerry Apps presents short essays on farming
life and memories, drawn from his own experiences growing up on a
small farm. These charming anecdotes are followed by brief histories
of each item’s development and background.
Apps’s reminiscences about the things that kept life humming on the
farm and enriched the rural experience will leave you nostalgic for
a time when working the land was its own reward. |
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Country Wisdom: Timeless Values and Virtues
from the American Heartland (July, 2005)
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The wisdom of the upper Midwest is found in the minds and hearts of
the people who live there. Wisdom is expressed in the stories that
people tell of earlier days and earlier times. Stories of happiness
and hard work. Stories of hardship and joy. As rural people tell
their stories, remember these tales, for in these stories are the
values and beliefs that have been passed on from generation to
generation, and make the upper Midwest what it is today.
Some bits of country wisdom: -The two most important things we can
give our children are roots as deep as a giant oak’s, and wings as
strong as an eagle’s. -Work is never done, so take time to play.
-Living to accumulate money is not living. -When you hear the flocks
of migrating Canada geese each spring and fall, look upward. See the
grace and beauty, cooperation and respect.
Noted author Jerry Apps collected these oft spoken phrases,
observations, comments, and conundrums. Together with photographs by
his son, Steve Apps, staff photographer for the “Wisconsin State
Journal”, the statements lend humorous, touching, unique glimpses
into country life in the upper Midwest. |
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Humor from the Country (Amherst
Press, 2001. Voyageur Press, 2006)
Reviews |
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Life during the early to mid part of the 20th century is often
viewed as a time of backbreaking work for meager returns. Often, the
strength and resiliency of family and neighbors are overlooked. In
Humor From The Country, master story teller Jerry Apps gives us
insights into the lighter side of country life. Through stories based
on childhood memories. Apps shows us that country folk knew how to
have fun too. <more on this title>
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When Chores Were Done (Amherst
Press, 1999. Voyageur Press, 2006)
Book Sample |
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this book
The Midwest in the 1930s, '40s and '50s was a place where parents
and children worked side by side to eke a living from the land, and
neighbors stuck by each other through good times and disaster. In this
affectionate, insightful memoir, Jerry Apps takes us to that world.
Here we meet Frank, Pinky, and Harry, three farmers whose love of
music could transform an entire community; Morty, the odd loner whom
only a few wild animals could understand; and Fanny, the extraordinary
collie whose role on the farm was as important as that of any human.
<more on this title> |
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