| Short Stories (single author) |
|
HomeShop at BookSurgeFictionShort Stories (single author)Strawberry Lane: A Mystical Memoir of Boyhood in Rural South Texas |
|  |
| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review: ( 2 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Poignant and inspiring Nov 07, 2009
By J. Chambers
I bought "Strawberry Lane" after reading Edwin Scroggins' posts on the Amazon community forums. It's a marvelously entertaining book about the author's childhood in rural Texas in the 1930s. Although I was born in the 1940s and lived in suburban Atlanta, I was surprised at how similar my life was to Mr. Scroggins' life in many ways; however, it was the differences in our lives that fascinated me the most.
The young Edwin, his twin brother Eugene, their younger sister Peggy, and their parents lived, by today's standards, a very hard life. During much of the author's childhood, his family lived in a tiny house with no insulation, no electricity, and no plumbing. They made do with what little they had, and eventually they had electricity, which made a huge difference with electric lights and an electric pump to bring water from an outside well.
I enjoyed reading about Edwin and Eugene's adventures as they explored the wide-open land around them. The little town of Pasadena, Texas was there for shopping and the occasional movie, but mostly they made their own fun and games. As they grew older, they spent more time on chores around the house, since their father, who worked for an oil company, raised chickens for meat and eggs, and raised vegetables in their garden. What the Scroggins family didn't consume was sold door-to-door by the boys and their mother. Like all boys (myself included), they teased their younger sister mercilessly. During the story, the family is hit by a fire, a major flood, an unprecedented hard freeze (which actually had one beneficial result!), and a hurricane which destroyed everything but their house itself. The author continues his story in a sequel, "Return to Strawberry Lane," which I'm looking forward to reading.
Mr. Scroggins writes simply and to the point with no wasted words. He vividly describes his family's life during the depression years of the 1930s, but he does it in a matter-of-fact way without complaining about the difficulties, treating them as challenges to be overcome through hard work, ingenuity, and his faith in God. He writes poignantly of his relationships with his siblings and his parents, which will strike a note with many readers.
The bottom line: This is one of the better memoirs that I've read, and I recommend "Strawberry Lane" to all readers.
3 of 4 found the following review helpful:
wonderful piece of Americana Apr 04, 2008
By David C. Neisler
Edwin Scroggins recent book,STRAWBERRY LANE: A MYSTICAL MEMOIR OF BOYHOOD IN RURAL SOUTH
TEXAS is a heart-warming look at an America that no longer exists.The author offers a series of humorous,yet
often poignant glimpses of growing-up in south Texas during the 1930's.Accompanied at all times by his
beloved twin brother,Scroggins navigates the daunting challenges of childhood during the Great
Depression with a likeable mixture of naivete and determination.Although the family totters on the edge
of poverty,the two young brothers delight in a world of simple pleasures that might seem alien to today's
youth:exploring the fields near their home,listening to the radio,and the grand adventure of occasional trips
to their grandparents.Scroggins is especially effective in describing the hardships he and his brother faced
at school where the twins struggle to fit-in with their older classmates.
Being an identical twin myself I particulary enjoyed this book but all readers who wonder what it was like
to grow-up during the Great Depression will value this literary work.
|
| | |
|
|
