little heathens by mildred armstrong kalish

I live in a retirement community in Cupertino, California.Perhaps no one was more surprised than Mildred Armstrong Kalish when her memoir of Iowa farm life became a bestseller, and then appeared among the New York Times 10 Best Books of 2007. I have taught at the State University of Iowa at Iowa City, the State University of Missouri at Columbia, and at Adelphi University in Garden City, NY. I am a Professor Emeritus of English retired from Suffolk County Community College on Long Island. We have two sons, two daughters-in-law (par excellence), four grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.

Bill, we both furthered our education at and graduated from the State University of Iowa (photo). This is where I met and married fellow radio operator Harry Kalish. I was sent for radio training to Miami University at Oxford, Ohio and on graduation I served at the headquarters of the 5th Naval District in Norfolk, Virginia. In 1942, I joined the United States Coast Guard Women’s Reserve. However, instead of accepting a teaching position in Iowa, I jumped at an opportunity to move to New York as a governess in Yonkers. After my high school graduation, I earned an Elementary Teacher’s Certificate from Iowa State Teacher’s College at Cedar Falls. Later I worked as a hired girl on two local farms.

The summer I turned thirteen I became the companion, cook and caretaker of a retired missionary. Little Heathens details the remarkable challenges and the inestimable rewards of living a rural life where children were expected to accept responsibilities beyond the ordinary.įrom early on, I was eager to be self-supporting and independent. My growing-up was influenced by the Great Depression and by the self-reliance and work ethic of my mother’s parents - themselves descendants of pioneers who never quite made it into the 20th Century. Patrick’s Day in 1922, on a farm near Garrison, Iowa, in Benton County. After my high school graduation, I earned an Elementary Teacher’s Ce I was born on St. From early on, I was eager to be self-supporting and independent.

Little Heathens details the remarkable challenges and the inestimable rewards of living a rural life where children were expected to accept responsibilities beyond the ordinary.

Little heathens by mildred armstrong kalish