Books like Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression

Life during the Dirty Thirties was tough, but it had its moments:"The Victrola (gramophone player) was a special beauty; over four feet high, its mahogany-red cabinet was polished to a soft, glowing patina.  “There were no fingerprints on it and there were never going to be any fingerprints on it, either; no one but Aunt Belle was allowed to touch or wind it. “We listened, enchanted, to such selections as 'Hello, Central, Give me Heaven', 'There's a Vacant Chair at Home Sweet Home,' 'Tell Mother I'll be There,' and 'Life is Like a Mountain Railroad'.... “(And finally,) after a long Saturday night… we would leave Aunt Belle's warm kitchen to exit into the bitter cold and trudge the three blocks up the icy sidewalks to Grandpa's house, singing with spirit: “‘LIFE IS LIKE A MOUNTAIN RAILROAD WITH AN ENGINEER SO BRAVE - WE MUST MAKE THIS RUN SUCCESSFUL FROM THE CRADLE TO THE GRAVE!'"Now, isn’t THAT kinda like the stuff our OWN most precious memories are made of?I remember a trip home after night skiing in the Gatineau hills one frosty winter‘s night. We were dropping off family friends under a subzero starry sky, full of laughter and the endless string of inside jokes that come so easily to childhood forever friends.The family car was all toasty and cozy, and our frozen toes had tingled back to life in our tight ski boots.As we crested the snowy hill that Sunday night, above our old, familiar neighbourhood of City View, where welcoming houselights twinkled in the cold night air, the radio was playing a plaintive melody. The snowbanks sparkled - as a high soprano voice soared over the first notes of a song from the first Spaghetti Western, “Un jour, tu reviendras....’And in our youthful foolishness we thought - so foolishly! - that we too could always return again to such moments of pure joy, till the ends of our lives...But just remember the line “Carpe diem,” kids.NEVER be so sure about your tomorrows!Youth is pretty sure of itself, and can’t believe there are ever going to be tough times ahead - and it’s just so like these little heathens in the book, and me and my young ski buddies, to laugh uproariously into the Leaden Face of Fate!But we’ve all got to crack open the brightly colored eggshells that make our youth such a wonderful place to live in - sooner or later.And though after that hard times may abound throughout our lives, if we just hang onto our dreams we’ll make it safely to the end, just like the kids in this book. Their parents had to rise to the grim challenge that was the Depression, but even then THEY hung on to their most sacred dreams - the core values of faith, love and family that kept alive their dreams, and so gave their kids Safe Refuge from the bitter reality of the 1930’s.For to these kids in this book back in those gruelling years, and to the kids we were after that wonderful long-ago ski trip, these “quiet-voiced elders” had fastened Diamonds to the Soles of their and our Shoes!Real Diamonds - patiently cut by Love.And with love like that, we all knew we’d get through it all safely.Do we have a choice? Maybe not - for however hard life is:WE MUST MAKE THIS RUN SUCCESSFULFROM THE CRADLE TO THE GRAVE!Hang on to your dreams, kids, however distant and difficult to see they may be - And they will give you back your Life in the end!