A boy after my own heart

[wellinghall]

"At last he and Father got places at the long table in the dining-room. Everyone was merry, laughing and talking, but Almanzo simply ate. He ate ham and chicken and turkey, and dressinga dn cranberry jelly; he ate potatoes and gravy, succotash, baked beans and boiled beans and onions, and white bread and rye'n'injun bread, and sweet pickles and jam and preserves. Then he drew a long breath, and he ate pie.

When he began to eat pie, he wished he had eaten nothing else. He ate a piece of pumpkin pie and a piece of custard pie, and he ate almost a piece of vinegar pie. He tried a piece of mince pie, but could not finish it. He just couldn't do it. There were berry pies and cream pies and vinegar pies and raisin piese, but he could not eat any more."

Farmer Boy, Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Comments

[pellegrina.livejournal.com]

I thought when I first read that, aged about 8, that Almanzo was one of the daftest names I had ever heard of, and not much has changed, since in Italian it sounds like "beef-flavoured".

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I didn't read the books until well into adulthood. As a child, I only knew the TV series.

[gramarye1971]

I've actually been to the Wilders' home town -- it's in the northernmost part of New York State, near the border with Canada (Quebec, specifically, to correct myself), and it's still very rural and farm-filled even today. Dairy cattle everywhere. Damned cold in the winter. But very pretty.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I should have been able to guess who on my FList was most likely to have been there.