This month's book reviews

A boy works as cook's helper to his dad
in a logging camp in 1898

Ben Ward is thirteen and had finished seventh grade. His dad, who was cook in a lumber camp, offered to take Ben with him when he returned to work. Ben could earn $25 a month as a cook's helper. Since he was tired of school, Ben thought working with his dad would be a good idea. He had been staying in town with a Mrs. Wilson while his dad was away at the lumber camp. Now he could see more of his dad than just a short time once a year. Ben's mom had died when he was only two years old.

The trip to Blackwater Camp was 35 miles in a wagon pulled by two horses. The road was bumpy and had tree stumps right in the road. The logging camp itself was still being built. The lumber companies built camps and then tore them down and moved on as the surrounding trees were cut down. The cook hall, or "swamp," was one of the larger buildings, along with the bunkhouse.

On his first morning at the camp, Ben began to question his choice of quitting school to go to work. It was four o'clock in the morning and still dark when he was rousted out of bed. Wood had to be brought in for the fire in the potbellied stove. Morning chores included greasing pans, frying flapjacks, cleaning lamp chimneys, and washing dishes. Everything had to be kept super clean, including a cook's helper's hands. Ben's dad was a fanatic for cleanliness, since sick lumbermen lost money for the company. There was no time for dallying, since the hungry loggers showed up early and ate everything in sight. Their breakfast included stewed prunes, baked beans, baked sowbelly, and sourdough flapjacks, along with maple syrup and lots of hot coffee. And that was just breakfast. Lunch had to be prepared and taken in a wagon out to where the men were cutting trees each day. After the big evening meal, Ben and his Pa had to clean up everything and get ready for the next day's breakfast.

As more and more workers showed up, more meals had to be prepared and more dishes had to be washed. Ben found little time to himself as he worked from early morning to late at night, helping his father keep the camp fed. When night came, he fell exhausted into his bed. Gradually, he found time to get to know the wide range of personalities that made up the crew. Each one of the men had some kind of story to tell. Hard as all the men worked, a cook's helper had to be always on guard for pranks and tricks the men played to help liven things up.

Through the winter, the loggers cut down the trees. Teamster hauled piles of logs to the river bank. Mud was an enemy, but frozen ground made hauling easier. Temperatures of thirty degrees or more below zero were not uncommon. In the spring, after the thaw, the logs would be roped together into rafts and floated down the river to be sawed into boards. Success or failure of the operation was very dependent on the weather.

Ben's story, surprisingly, makes very interesting reading. Through his eyes, a reader gets to know about lumbering and comes to appreciate the type of men who made it all possible.

A young girl in a 1960's small town faces problems
at school and at home

Belle Teal is ten and lives with her Mama and Gran in a small house some distance outside of the town of Coker Creek. The time is the 1960's. Belle's Daddy had died before she was one year old, so it had always been just the three females in her family. Mama worked at whatever jobs she could find in the area - mostly as a waitress or a maid in a motel in town, sometimes two or three jobs at the same time. They lived in Gran's house and Gran did the cooking and baking. She canned lots of things grown in the garden she kept outside in the back. Belle's best friend, Clarice, lived with her family back in town.

The new school year was about to begin. Belle would be in fifth grade. Belle liked school and was ready for it to begin after the summer vacation. She did have a couple of concerns. One was for her Gran. Gran was starting to have trouble remembering things. She might ask the same question over and over or make the same comment several times, since she couldn't remember saying it before. Belle's other concern was how some people in town were reacting to the fact that Negro children would be attending the same school as the white kids for the first time this school year.

Some of the parents objected to Negro children going to the same school as their kids. Belle's mom had been outspoken in arguing with these parents at meetings held in the summer. She thought kids were just kids, and they all had a right to go to school together. Now, the law said they all had to go to the same school, objections or not.

There was a small crowd of parents outside the school on the first day. Some were carrying signs. When the bus arrived and the three Negro children got off, the crowd began to yell and wave their signs. The situation was tense, and Belle felt sorry for the new children. It turned out, one of the new kids, named Darryl Craig, is in Belle's class. In spite of Miss Casey, the teacher, and her warnings, some members of the class start to treat Darryl badly right away. Belle is friendly to Darryl, and is shocked at how prejudiced some of the kids are - kids that she formerly had considered to be her friends.

How Belle copes with Gran's failing memory and the unpleasantness at school makes up the rest of the story. Belle has to grow up fast, because not only can she not depend on Gran as much anymore, but her mom decides to enroll in secretarial school, and she is not available much either. Belle makes good choices, and, happily, everything works out well in the end.

 

A girl, dressed like a boy, helps raft logs
down the Delaware River

Life had turned rough for Hattie Belle Basket on the unexpected death of her mother. Her Pa, who never had been much of a talker, seemed to turn harsh and mean after the death of his wife. He told Hattie, "You'll have to do the cooking and fetching now." She knew that meant she wouldn't be able to go back to school. Even though the kids from town made fun of her for living out in the hills, she did like school. She didn't mind being called "Hill Hawk Hattie," if she could just go back.