A Farm Boy In The Rain

A Farm Boy in the Rain is Robert Brown's uplifting memoir of a poor farm boy who stood in the rain weeping at the hand fortune had dealt him, but who actually went on to have an interesting and fruitful life. It is a true story of how he met and overcame many daunting challenges in his life including devastating blindness. It is a story of the many people he met and worked with over the years, what he saw, and what he accomplished. Robert wrote this book from memory while in his eighties, being totally blind for over thirty years. The story starts with a description of his childhood years. As a child, he witnessed the death of a beloved grandparent and the destruction of his family, agonizing sickness, and finally rescued. Throughout the book, he tries to show how miracles always accompanied the events in his life. He describes in detail what he saw and heard in those years, that slipped by rapidly — the years of economic depression, World War II, the fifties, the sixties, and all the remaining decades of the twentieth century. A Farm Boy in the Rain is an uplifting story of determination and perseverance.

A Farm Boy in the Rain is Robert Brown's uplifting memoir of a poor farm boy who stood in the rain weeping at the hand fortune had dealt him, but who actually went on to have an interesting and fruitful life. It is a true story of how he met and overcame many daunting challenges in his life including devastating blindness. It is a story of the many people he met and worked with over the years, what he saw, and what he accomplished. Robert wrote this book from memory while in his eighties, being totally blind for over thirty years. The story starts with a description of his childhood years. As a child he witnessed the death of a beloved grandparent and the destruction of his family, agonizing sickness, and finally rescue. Throughout the book, he tries to show how miracles always accompanied the events in his life. He describes in detail what he saw and heard in those years, that slipped by rapidly - the years of economic depression, World War II, the fifties, the sixties, and all the remaining decades of the twentieth century. A Farm Boy in the Rain is an uplifting story of determination and perseverance.

Growing up on the family farm, Jerry Apps learned from a young age that water was precious. The farm had no running water, a windmill pumped drinking water for the small herd of cattle, and Jerry and his brothers hauled bucket after bucket of water for the family’s use. A weekly bath was considered sufficient. And when it rained, it was cause for celebration. Indeed, if ever the Apps boys complained about a rainy day spoiling their plans, their father admonished, "Never curse the rain," for the family’s very livelihood depended upon it. In Never Curse the Rain, Jerry shares his memories of water, from its importance to his family’s crops and cattle to its many recreational uses—fishing trips, canoe journeys, and the simple pleasures of an afternoon spent dreaming in the haymow as rain patters on the barn roof. Water is still a touchstone in Jerry’s life, and he explores the ways he’s found it helpful in soothing a troubled mind or releasing creativity. He also discusses his concerns about the future of water and ensuring we always have enough. For, as Jerry writes, "Water is one of the most precious things on this planet, necessary for all life, and we must do everything we can to protect it."

This autobiography of the first Dean of the College of Agriculture at Cornell University offers an unconventional account of farm life in New York and the Middle West during the nineteenth century, and of the difficulties attendant upon building up a vital and progressive agricultural college. Born in Seneca County, New York, in 1833, Isaac Phillips Roberts emigrated west—first to Indiana, where he worked as a carpenter until he was able to buy a farm, and taught school during the winters; then, in 1862, to Mount Pleasant, Iowa, in a pioneer wagon with his wife, Margaret, and daughter. In 1869, he became the Superindent of the Farm and Secretary of the Board of Trustees of the Iowa Agricultural College at Ames, where he soon became Professor of Agriculture. In 1873, he returned to New York to take a similar position at Cornell University; shortly thereafer, he was made Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture and Director of the Experiment Station. During his thirty years of service in Ithaca, he wrote voluminously on agricultural subjects, and after his retirement, penned Autobiography of a Farm Boy, initially published in 1916, reissued by Cornell University Press in 1946, and now made available in paperback. He died in Palo Alto, California, in 1928.

This story about a farm boy who for the first time is really exposed to the world as he had never envisioned it to be, but grew up fascinated by the variety and unique types of people whom he has encountered over the course of his lifetime. Obviously, a great deal has been left out or omitted: some intentionally, and some inadvertently. The aging mind begins to remember people, places and events which have had a lasting impact as the years have gone by. Ive no doubt left out some very salient points which others may remember, but I have forgotten. I also, however, have remembered events people and places which some persons may have preferred to forget. Hence, as time goes by those whose lives have had the greatest impact upon my own life may already be among those who have gone on while the rest of us await our own end one of these years.

From his childhood growing up in Depression-era rural Manitoba to his rise through the ranks to become a colonel in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), Col Gordon Brennand’s memoir, Farm Boy to Flyboy, is as much a history of the RCAF in the twentieth century as it is an account of his own life. Born a bit too late to participate in WWII, Gordon was inspired by Canada’s involvement in the Korean War to pursue a life in the military. After a failed start in the Navy, he enlisted with the Air Force with faint hopes of perhaps becoming a fighter pilot. Not only did he succeed, he logged four thousand hours on various jet aircraft types including over 1100 hours on the F-86 Sabre, which was the state-of-the-art fighter jet throughout most his thirty-four-year career, not to mention hundreds of hours on various other types of aircraft. He experienced several close calls during that time, including one incident when he had to eject and another when he had to force land due to engine failure. He went on to command two bases and has spent time living in most Canadian provinces as well as Germany, where he served for three years during the Cold War. Fascinating and insightful, this book will appeal to those who are fascinated by the military and flying as well as those who are simply seeking a first-person account of what life was really like for the men and women who served in the RCAF throughout one of the most pivotal periods of twentieth-century history.