Thomas Ard Sylvest

Collard Greens: Growing Up on a Sandhill Subsistence Farm in Louisiana During the Great Depression Thomas Ard Sylvest

Written by a man who grew up in the poverty stricken hills of Louisiana during the 1930s depression, this is a book which will tempt you to ask whether it is real or fiction. From cooking to recreation, from transportation to music, from schooling to simple every day duties, this book realistically shares the joys and pains, as well as the rewards and consequences of performing all those activities at a time when the words challenging and difficult definitely took on new meanings. Discovering what had to be done in order to survive, without electricity, without antibiotics, without a family vehicle, without running water, and without cash, will almost shock you. If nothing more, you will develop an even greater attitude of gratitude regarding what we have and what is available to us today. So honest and realistic is this sharing that this book would surely be a useful reference for a movie producer with a setting in that time and place. So informative is this book that a teacher recently remarked, ?If you want your children to have a real genuine historical experience about life ?in those olden days? and you don?t have a time machine, then this book should be required reading.? In addition to sharing these remarkable memoirs, the author has added many inner self-revealing anecdotes, offering you as well, a powerful model on how to find the positives in many of life?s experiences. You may have a hard time correctly pronouncing Natchitoches. You may not know what a ?batten? is, or how to hitch a mule to a wagon. Farming may not be your thing. You may not like the taste of collard greens! But for sure, reading Collard Greens, will be an experience that your heart, mind, body, and soul will never forget. A.. Dershak, B. A. Fourth grade teacher