CIDER WITH ROSIE

Laurie Lee grew up in a rural part of England during the
time just after the Great War. His father abandoned his mother with
eight children to raise. Lee was almost always hungry and cold. But
life never seemed hard; somehow it seemed joyous and delightful.

I was especially taken with the chapter about the devilments children
and young people got into during Lee's time. Back in Lee's day, as
today, terrible things happened. But somehow the village and its
people just seemed to deal with them, not making them into events of
enormous evil as we seem to do today.

I loved reading about the day to day living of Lee during his
childhood. Everything seemed so much more alive then, with things to
taste and touch and smell. Lee revels in his life. The stories he
tells makes the time seem glorious.