Echoes: Reflections of a Hometown Heritage

By Jay N. Musfeldt

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0977992403
• ISBN13: 9780977992409
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: Manning News
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 10 years and up

Customer Reviews

Combination of "Lake Wobegon" and "Huckleberry Finn", but real

This book is based on the author's experiences growing up on a farm in rural Iowa in 1950's and 1960's. It is 74 vignettes about growing up in a rural/small town farming environment where life centered around hard work, family, neighbors and community schools and churches in a time and lifestyle that cannot be replicated in our modern society. Some of the episodes are humorous, some are thought provoking and some are just plain feel-good stories. They are stories of a happy childhood experienced by someone who, at the time, thought his life was just "normal". Only after being able to look at it in hindsight could he appreciate how blessed he was to have experienced the time, place and value system that would mold his attitudes and actions in such a positive way for the rest of his life. The author's stories have a combination of "Lake Wobegon" and "Huckleberry Finn" qualities to them, but they are told in such a way there will be no doubt in your mind about them being real. You don't have to be from the Mid-West, have a rural and/or small town heritage or be old enough to remember the '50's and '60's to really enjoy this book, but if you experienced any of them, even briefly, the book will provide absolute nostalgic pleasure.

Small-town heritage

Wonderful nostalgic collection of stories written by a one-time Iowa farm boy, who wanted his children to have a better idea of what his childhood was like, in a different time and place. I wish my mother, who knew Jay and loved his stories, had lived to read it