Living a Country Year: Wit and Wisdom from the Good Old Days

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. We skate with him on a frozen pond on a moonlit night. We watch him drive the hired man's Model T touring car at the age of ten, recover from polio by driving a tractor during disking season, and learn to ride bareback on a pony named Ginger. Whether shooting off firecrackers on the Fourth of July, suffering through "potato vacation," or overcoming stage fright at the one-room school-house's Christmas program, Apps is a delightful companion. Wearing his hard-earned wisdom lightly, Apps accompanies each month's tale with farm country aphorisms and the occasional recipe. By turns witty and profound, Living a Country Year reaffirms our rural heritage.