I love watching old movies on television because I know how everything worked in them. The telephones transmitted messages - that's all. The coffee makers just made coffee and only when you set them on the stove. Typewriters didn't have screens and lots of confusing options. Looking back, I still feel comfortable and at home wit the way we lived.

This collection of columns I've written, some of which have been published in a weekly newspaper, The Yankton County Observer, along with some vintage recipes, photos, and a few of my relevant poems, presents a picture of what life was like on the farm in the 1950s. It wasn't always easy growing up then, and I wouldn't want to be without running water and the electricity today, but it's fun to remember those days.