Country ragamuffins: reflections on a midwestern farm childhood

Cover Page; Introduction; Part One: Family; Norwegian Buffoonery; Depot Agent; The Eight Ragamuffins; Grandma Galena; Part Two: Home; The Home Place; A Symphony of Seasons; Part Three: Work; Barn Chores; Don't Pop the Clutch; Cooking and Baking from Scratch; Garden Produce and a Blue Speckled Canner; The Wringer Washer; Cleanliness Is Next to Godliness; Allowance; Part Four: Play; Put an Egg in Your Shoe and Beat It; Summer Evenings; Fishing, Hunting, and Trapping; High Card Deals; Winter Fun; Hardcover Friends; Part Five: Family Folkways; Irish Relatives; Feed Sack Dresses; Cod Liver Oil.;In Country Ragamuffins, Maxine Bergerson Werner invites readers on a journey back to the 1950s as she recalls her upbringing as the oldest girl among eight siblings in a Norwegian farming community in rural Minnesota. To convey and preserve the experiences, values, and character of a typical Midwestern farm family of the time ""before those memories grow dim and finally disappear, "" the author offers this chronicle laced with humor and appreciation. Werner's parents cultivated a lifestyle that combined hard work, learning, and time for childhood fun and play in the surrounding fields, pastures.