Rural Living in the mid-20th Century
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| The agony of raising chickens. |
What’s an aigon-eye? As a small child I remember my mother and her sisters talking about an aigon-eye that was in a movie — another mysterious thing that I had never seen. Eventually, I learned the name of the book and later movie The Egg and I, by Betty MacDonald (1907–1958). According to the preface in the above edition, the 1945 publication — unexpectedly — was wildly popular. When I saw it on the shelf of recommended reads at the library, I decided to that I would finally read it after all these years.
On the whole, it’s not a terrible book, but it’s very dated, especially the author’s appalling racist views of the Native Americans who lived around her in the Pacific Northwest where she and her husband had a farm. I have no idea if this was the first humorous family memoir about the difficulties of being a farm wife or about some other family challenges. I know that other similar memoirs were popular at around that time; for example, Cheaper by the Dozen, published shortly afterwards, and I Remember Mama, a play and movie in the late 1940s. It’s still a popular genre, for example Angela’s Ashes and The Color of Water. You can probably think of many more, both humorous and serious.
Betty MacDonald’s narrative offers lots of supercilious discussions about uncouth but generous and well-meaning neighbors, lots of self-congratulatory descriptions of extremely hard work raising farm animals including despised chickens, and lots and lots of purportedly good-natured complaining. All this passes for humor. I guess I’ll skip the movie.
The Author’s Other Books
Here’s the biggest surprise: Betty MacDonald was also the author of a series of wonderful books that I remember fondly from my childhood. Our teachers read them to us and we eventually read them to ourselves. I never connected, until this week, that this author also wrote Mrs. Piggle Wiggle and the sequel Mrs. Piggle Wiggle’s Magic. (Now I see that the cover of the first edition of Mrs. Piggle Wiggle actually did mention The Egg and I, but it never made an impression on me then.) Life can be very strange, can’t it.
In case you haven’t read the books, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle taught kids to behave themselves by hilariously unorthodox rewards or punishments. One that sticks in my memory was the time she caused seeds to sprout in the very dirty ears of a girl who never washed (but learned her lesson). I was amused, but also annoyed at the preachiness that teachers expressed when reading to us, but I recall that on the whole, everyone loved these books. I’ll keep my happy memories by not rereading the books.
Backyard Birds in the Twenty-First Century
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Amy Tan, a great author, has documented how she became a birder.
The Backyard Bird Chronicles is a very pleasant read. |
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| Her sketches and notes delighted me. |
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Her description reminded me of several places where we have fed hummingbirds by hand.
(From our December, 2024, trip to Trinidad and Tobago). |
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I was surprised that she wrote about never seeing a hummingbird nest. I especially thought about this very daring bird that lived on electricity in Costa Rica. (Date: January 1, 2024).
As I read, being reminded of birds and birding from my experience contributed to my enjoyment of Tan’s book. |
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| Amy Tan constantly tries to please her avian customers with delicious treats! |
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| I love owls, as does Amy Tan, and I admired her beautiful sketches of them. |
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Of course Amy Tan’s descriptions made me think of owls I have seen.
(Owl in Costa Rica, December 2023) |
Reviews © 2025 mae sander
Shared with Eileen’s Critters and Deb’s Readerbuzz.
