I start my day with two cups of coffee before I ever leave the bedroom so I can wake up, dress, and have breakfast by 10 a.m.įriends used to encourage me to get up and get going to have all my errands done by noon. Sam overheard the conversation and laughed. On Monday they worked me in with a 7:30 morning appointment. Naturally it would happen on the weekend but even so it was no big deal. It looked perfect so I picked it up and put it in a plastic baggie. It was my new permanent crown, nothing was broken. As I was flossing a tooth flew right out of my mouth landing on the bathroom counter. It’s not something I do all the time but I knew my dentist would be pleased so I flossed. What am I doing? Every minute of the day seems to require some “doing.” Last Friday night before bedtime I decided to floss my teeth. Since I’m officially retired, I get asked fairly often what I do now. – Jeannie Mobley, American author, archaeologist, professor – Mildred Armstrong Kalish, retired English professor University of Iowa Kalish's love of nature pervades every page, and her ethos of hard work and self-discipline will have you itching put up some tomatoes and try out her recipe for homemade marshmallows.After our chores and household duties were done, we were given permission to read…our elders positioned reading as a privilege…granted only to hard workers. (The list of chores for the 'big kids' would bring me to my knees.) But the children got to run barefoot, raise baby raccoons, and sneak secret rides on their uncle's unbroken colts. For those of us who have never brought in hay, sown potatoes, or killed our own dinner, the book will make you realize how easy life in the US has become.

A cheerful attitude invigorates 'Little Heathens' (as her grandmother called the kids) and gives it an air as clean as laundry pulled off the line. She includes recipes, home remedies, and advice on how to butcher poultry, but you won't find a whine from beginning to end.

So how does the author of 'Little Heathens' look back on those Iowa years? 'I have come to view that time as a gift,' she writes in her generous-hearted new memoir. Her family was forced to move in with her puritanical grandparents (who kept a buggy whip handy). Mildred Armstrong Kalish was 5-years-old the last time she saw her dad.

Mildred armstrong kalish