The book begins with an amusing account of the antics of a small boy who started school in 1939. In later years, when he became a student teacher at the school he himself had attended, his old sports master, with whom he enjoyed a mutual respect, told him that his name had been regarded by all his other teachers as a teacher swear word. Attending a one-teacher school in the bush when he was eight was such a revelation that he decided to be a teacher and, from observation of what he liked and disliked, gradually formulated how he would teach. While student teaching at that same school, he began formalizing those ideas, which he continued to modify over years of teaching. He presents this philosophy in his book, detailing the experiences that originally brought about his decisions, and how he used these teaching principles in many testing teaching situations in farming communities, large towns, and on a Pacific island. Expressed with sincerity and a gentle humor, the book presents, in story form, a philosophy that is sound and provides much food for thought for present-day teachers, teachers in training, and any parents who are interested in their children’s education.
The Back Forty is about a young man who grew up with three siblings. He did all the things a young person would do growing up on a farm and going to school in Arkansas in the early 1930s. The Back Forty is a beloved American idiom that describes a forty-acre section of land that may be lived on and cultivated to earn a living.
The author invites you to hike up your knickers, sleeve wipe your nose and trot along with Bud Pugh and his "Depression Era" street urchins. You might spin tops, play Indian Ball, smoke corn silk, or swipe a melon from a street huckster. The author uses an unobtrusive device for telling about the fun that small kids made for themselves during the mid thirties of the "Great Depression." With a series of vignettes, accompanied by delightful drawings, he records the fact based escapades of his fictitious friend, Bud Pugh, and Bud's middle class gang from the streets of Harrisburg, Pa. some seventy years ago. Bud takes the reader into the clubhouse fo the "Cloverly Heights Gang" where they share a corncob pipe and split a cantaloupe filched from a street huckster. On their roller-skates they hitch a ride on a horse drawn milk wagon, with near disastrous results. Our diminutive protagonist fleetingly reflects on somber subjects. He treats the dour economic conditions pretty much out of hand, since they seemed to have little effect upon his pleasures or the pleasures of his peers. The seeds of life's finality were sewn in his juvenile brain one day when, they were told that Carl had passed away. Bud cried that night in bed, but more because he heard his brother, Jim, sniffling, than because he understood that he would never see Carl again. That would only come tomorrow and tomorrow. They tasted bigotry, but were nonplused by its dangers. In spinning his tales, now and again, for the benefit of the uninitiated, Bud takes time to explain such things as how to make an "Innertube Gun", or the rules used by the gang when playing Mumblety-Peg. You will meet Pete Sure, the oldest of the gang and its undisputed leader. There is Tony de Angelo, the only kid in the gang who went to Catholic school. Bill Shell is the reticent representative of the group. He usually goes along, but not always. Sherm Sourbeer enigmatically lives up to his surname by seeing a cloud around most silver linings. Jim Pugh is the gang's outrigger and pensive protector of his younger brother, Bud. Sammy Lipman is an adjunct to the gang and its only Jew. The cross-eyed little bundle of energy known as Tomcat Koser is another part-time gang member. Finally, there is our artless Bud Pugh, consummate tagalong. These are the reader's companions in adventure, the kids of Tom Browkaw's "Greatest Generation.
Don, writing the letter to my dad was very cleansing. I actually cried as I was finishing it. I have never cried emotionally over my father before. I actually felt closer to him than I have ever felt. Thanks for giving me that gift." Wally "Famous" Amos. "Dear Dad, I wanted to always tell you that I hate you because you left me when I was only three." Shameka-age 12. You will likely see yourself and your father in this book. Roberts' unique idea of having the writer talk directly to his father, instead of just about him, makes the exercise very intimate. Each letter captures a moment in time in the writer's life. Roberts asked them to sit down and, at that moment, write a letter to their father and say whatever they wanted to say to him as if he would read it TODAY.
From out of the nowhere some serious roadblocks appear to have ruined Tony's life. Learn how, with the assistance of two Internal Revenue Service agents, he is able to avoid some serious taxes, penalties and interest charges, while at the same time ridding himself of some serious impedimants to a happy future, including unloading his unfaithful wife and a dishonest employer.
During the time we have been involved in this writing effort, we have remained committed to our original purpose- to get some of our thoughts on paper regarding the trend toward mediocrity in today's society. We view such a trend as a serious threat to this country and its people. Believing that pursuit of excellence by many people may not stop the trend, but can slow it, we challenge you to join us.
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