As a child, sharing the hardships of living during the great depression, I knew life was hard but I didn’t know how hard because this was the only life I had ever known. I learned from older people that it was a period of bad luck that would eventually pass and things would get better. No one imagined that the darkest of times could produce something wonderful and enduring.
I now realize that the lessons of life are concealed by a code that takes a lifetime to decipher. The folks in this simple farming community of Lone Tree were developing wisdom so basic that it had a universal thread that would apply to any culture. These gems of country wisdom are revealed in “Lone Tree”, a book-length series of vignettes of real characters and a way of life that lives on in memory and humor.
In a tone reminiscent of Garrison Keillor’s “Lake Wobegon” life in Lone Tree is brought alive from the vivid memories of one who was there as a young boy and lived to tell the tale-yours truly. You’ll learn, for example, that in Lone Tree the process of discovering romance-”was a slow and lengthy one for those of us who had not paid close attention to the behavior of farm animals during mating season. It started around the fifth or sixth grade when boys began to notice that catching a girl in a game of tag didn’t feel the same as catching a boy”.
More spiritual concerns were also a part of growing up. “Granddad used to say that lone Tree was a favorite battleground for both God and the devil. Everyone cheers for God but they know that sometimes the devil wins—the devil had his way when the river bottom flooded and the crops were ruined, but everyone had faith that God would retaliate the next year with a bumper crop”.
There was time for fun too. “I wanted to see what happened at a real barn dance. Would people dress up in their Sunday clothes, and did enough people know how to dance to make it worthwhile? We all held our hands over our ears while Curley and Waldo tuned their instruments, but after they finished it still didn’t sound like they were both playing the same piece”
A few excerpts from of that era, along with pictures, published in the Ventura Star in California generated a wave of positive responses from readers. As one put it, “There is something so compelling about the stories of ordinary life because, really, no life is ordinary”.
Purchase Lone Tree – one Tree: Wisdom – Humor – The Great Depression at Amazon.com.
