Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression
by: Mildred Armstrong Kalish
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I tell of a time, a place, and a way of life long gone. For many years I have had the urge to describe that treasure trove, lest it vanish forever. So, partly in response to the basic human instinct to share feelings and experiences, and partly for the sheer joy and excitement of it all, I report on my early life. It was quite a romp.
So begins Mildred Kalish’s story of growing up on her grandparents’ Iowa farm during the depths of the Great Depression. With her father banished from the household for mysterious transgressions, five-year-old Mildred and her family could easily have been overwhelmed by the challenge of simply trying to survive. This, however, is not a tale of suffering.
Kalish counts herself among the lucky of that era. She had caring grandparents who possessed—and valiantly tried to impose—all the pioneer virtues of their forebears, teachers who inspired and befriended her, and a barnyard full of animals ready to be tamed and loved. She and her siblings and their cousins from the farm across the way played as hard as they worked, running barefoot through the fields, as free and wild as they dared.
Filled with recipes and how-tos for everything from catching and skinning a rabbit to preparing homemade skin and hair beautifiers, apple cream pie, and the world’s best head cheese (start by scrubbing the head of the pig until it is pink and clean), Little Heathens portrays a world of hardship and hard work tempered by simple rewards. There was the unsurpassed flavor of tender new dandelion greens harvested as soon as the snow melted; the taste of crystal clear marble-sized balls of honey robbed from a bumblebee nest; the sweet smell from the body of a lamb sleeping on sun-warmed grass; and the magical quality of oat shocking under the light of a full harvest moon.
Little Heathens offers a loving but realistic portrait of a “hearty-handshake Methodist” family that gave its members a remarkable legacy of kinship, kindness, and remembered pleasures. Recounted in a luminous narrative filled with tenderness and humor, Kalish’s memoir of her childhood shows how the right stuff can make even the bleakest of times seem like “quite a romp.”
From the Hardcover edition.
I tell of a time, a place, and a way of life long gone. For many years I have had the urge to describe that treasure trove, lest it vanish forever. So, partly in response to the basic human instinct to share feelings and experiences, and partly for the sheer joy and excitement of it all, I report on my early life. It was quite a romp.
So begins Mildred Kalish’s story of growing up on her grandparents’ Iowa farm during the depths of the Great Depression. With her father banished from the household for mysterious transgressions, five-year-old Mildred and her family could easily have been overwhelmed by the challenge of simply trying to survive. This, however, is not a tale of suffering.
Kalish counts herself among the lucky of that era. She had caring grandparents who possessed—and valiantly tried to impose—all the pioneer virtues of their forebears, teachers who inspired and befriended her, and a barnyard full of animals ready to be tamed and loved. She and her siblings and their cousins from the farm across the way played as hard as they worked, running barefoot through the fields, as free and wild as they dared.
Filled with recipes and how-tos for everything from catching and skinning a rabbit to preparing homemade skin and hair beautifiers, apple cream pie, and the world’s best head cheese (start by scrubbing the head of the pig until it is pink and clean), Little Heathens portrays a world of hardship and hard work tempered by simple rewards. There was the unsurpassed flavor of tender new dandelion greens harvested as soon as the snow melted; the taste of crystal clear marble-sized balls of honey robbed from a bumblebee nest; the sweet smell from the body of a lamb sleeping on sun-warmed grass; and the magical quality of oat shocking under the light of a full harvest moon.
Little Heathens offers a loving but realistic portrait of a “hearty-handshake Methodist” family that gave its members a remarkable legacy of kinship, kindness, and remembered pleasures. Recounted in a luminous narrative filled with tenderness and humor, Kalish’s memoir of her childhood shows how the right stuff can make even the bleakest of times seem like “quite a romp.”
From the Hardcover edition.
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: 
- enjoyable
a great read, sort of like an updated Little House for the adult reader.Details about farm life including recipes & the like, but full of antics and stories of family life as well.overall, the author seems too disgruntled with her upbringing and almost makes that the overtone of the book.a fun book though.
Rating: 
- Excellent memoir
Little Heathens by Millie Kalish is a wonderful book about the author's life on an Iowa farm in the 1930's.She makes the setting and times come alive and I especially enjoyed getting a glimpse of my parent's generation and what their childhood might have been like.
The values she was taught as a child enabled her to become a member of the armed forces, go to college and become a college professor.Her family offered love and support to its members in times that were very challenging. ... Read More
Rating: - Outstanding, and a reminder of what 'builds character'!
My wife borrowed a copy of Little Heathens from our daughter, read it, and said I might like to read it.I did, and thoroughly enjoyed it.It's very well-written, humorous, heart-warming, and. . .a reminder of how life can be lived, and enjoyed, even in very difficult times.I'm sure it will be especially interesting to those who, like me, grew up in the Depression.
Rating: - A clear-eyed and unsentimental look at the past
It would be a mistake to read this book through the lens of nostalgia. Certainly the childhood Kalish describes is very appealing, particularly her commentaries on how her family fostered thrift and independence. It's always tempting to think that the past is somehow a better place. However few of us, I suspect, would wish to return to a time when a failed marriage could mark a woman for life (and Kalish is clear about the effect of this on her mother) or when one measure of a woman's worth was the degree ... Read More
Rating: - A Keeper!!!
I read aloud so many parts of this great book to my husband that he just had to read the whole thing for himself - brought back many, many memories - funny how hard times can be remembered so favorably!We highly recommend anyone reading "Little Heathens" who grew up on a farm, in the country or in a small town, or wish they had.Kudos to the author!!
- enjoyablea great read, sort of like an updated Little House for the adult reader.Details about farm life including recipes & the like, but full of antics and stories of family life as well.overall, the author seems too disgruntled with her upbringing and almost makes that the overtone of the book.a fun book though.
- Excellent memoirLittle Heathens by Millie Kalish is a wonderful book about the author's life on an Iowa farm in the 1930's.She makes the setting and times come alive and I especially enjoyed getting a glimpse of my parent's generation and what their childhood might have been like.
The values she was taught as a child enabled her to become a member of the armed forces, go to college and become a college professor.Her family offered love and support to its members in times that were very challenging. ... Read More
- Outstanding, and a reminder of what 'builds character'!My wife borrowed a copy of Little Heathens from our daughter, read it, and said I might like to read it.I did, and thoroughly enjoyed it.It's very well-written, humorous, heart-warming, and. . .a reminder of how life can be lived, and enjoyed, even in very difficult times.I'm sure it will be especially interesting to those who, like me, grew up in the Depression.
- A clear-eyed and unsentimental look at the pastIt would be a mistake to read this book through the lens of nostalgia. Certainly the childhood Kalish describes is very appealing, particularly her commentaries on how her family fostered thrift and independence. It's always tempting to think that the past is somehow a better place. However few of us, I suspect, would wish to return to a time when a failed marriage could mark a woman for life (and Kalish is clear about the effect of this on her mother) or when one measure of a woman's worth was the degree ... Read More
- A Keeper!!!I read aloud so many parts of this great book to my husband that he just had to read the whole thing for himself - brought back many, many memories - funny how hard times can be remembered so favorably!We highly recommend anyone reading "Little Heathens" who grew up on a farm, in the country or in a small town, or wish they had.Kudos to the author!!
