28 Books -- Day 9

The Open Gate -- written and illustrated by Kate Seredy (1943)

"The Prestons' streamlined, glittering sedan look and sounded more like a prairie schooner than a modern automobile as it wound its creaking way out of the city. All along the way people stopped to look; some grinned, others shook their heads disapprovingly. Father's temper was wearing a little thin by the time they reached George Washington Bridge. The guard at the toll house leaned his elbows on the car window whle Father groped for the money. "How much?" he asked the guard. The man grinned and scratched his head.

"What's the toll for covered wagons, Jack?" he called over his shoulder..." (pages 27-28)

 

John Preston is a grey-flannel ad man in 1940s New York City... until one summer day when he loses his job to his boss's son-in-law. His children Dick and Janet convince him to take a chance on a family vacation at an all inclusive holiday camp with all the comforts of home. But on the way there, the family takes a detour down a country lane and they end up in the midst of a country auction. Through a combination of dumb luck and a certain amount of manipulation ... the Preston family ends up buying a farm in the country.

 

These city slickers, used to the push button existence of the big city, have no idea what to do with a run-down farmstead. Fortunately, John's mother is along for the trip, and she grew up on a farm. Gran takes the reigns, the kids get a dog, John's wife Molly determines she will master the workings of the kitchen range, and soon they find themselves trying to make a new life as country folk.

 

Add in the interwoven stories of the dour old couple on the next farm, raising their artistically inclined grandson Andy, all the while being haunted by the memory of his parents death, and the more humorous, but no less touching story of their immigrant Slovak neighbor Mike who sees himself as simply "me, American," and you have a book which still makes me cry with it's simple goodness.

Patriotism runs through this on several fronts ... Mike's son joins the Canadian Air Force in the early days of WWII to try and keep the enemy from the shores of his adopted country, the Preston family joins the Farm Bureau and raises crops and beef for the government, and when the attack on Pearl Harbor does come, they all band together to provide what they can for the war effort.

A great read, and actually really still quite relevant to today's issues...