Over the few years that I have been writing this newsletter, I have referred to the series of Little Britches books written by Ralph Moody. Ralph Moody is an American author who wrote a series of autobiographical novels about his life in the early 20th century when his family moved from the East Coast of the US to farm in Littleton, Colorado.
Ralph was around 50 years old when he wrote the first of eight books describing his life experiences from when he was an eight-year-old boy until he married. Ralph had no experience as a writer but took a writing class in 1950 and produced his first book – Little Britches: Father and I Were Ranchers. He eventually followed with seven others that describe the challenges of life in the early 1900s farming in the American West.
The books should be prescribed reading for every young person because they describe a time and an experience when there were no government handouts. All you had to rely on was only hard work and the support of family and community.
The books contain myriad life lessons, and many times when something gets tough, I ask myself: ‘What would Little Britches, Mother or Father do?” The books should be read aloud to children and returned to frequently for lessons about life.
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