Of a Boy and His Valley
by Arnold W. Cook
Published 1991
My mom grew up in a very small town, not in such a different time frame from Arnold Cook's, and not too very distant from his little village in the Brooklyn Valley. I was somewhat amused that, in all my visits to the corners of southwestern New York, I had never heard the name "Brooklyn Valley." Great Valley, Little Valley, Zoar Valley, West Valley - the country in this area is a feast of mountains, valleys, small lakes, streams, farms.
And while our family's areas of concentration - Little Valley, Ellicottville, Salamanca and Gowanda - weren't exactly the same as Cook's, and his time frame was a bit earlier, I could "see" exactly what he was talking about, and imagine the life of a young boy growing up in hard times.
The book was in a box of my mom's book collection, including her bookmark, an ad for the 1992 Hallmark production of "Oh Pioneers." And, given that I was planning a trip to visit nearby Lily Dale - and dig up some family history - it all seemed just the right time to read this little volume of stories.
While each story is part of Cook's own history - from his being born with his feet attached backwards and learning to walk after having them reset - to the thrill of finally leaving the valley for broader vistas - each story is also a short story, complete with a challenge or a puzzle, a lesson to be learned, a discovery, and a conclusion. As such, you can sit and read the book all at once, or sample it a story or two at a time.
One story is simply about the games children play; another the joys - and dangers - of sledding. In one of my favorites, two young boys are set free on a Saturday, after chores, to explore the nearby waters - to fish and fry, build rafts, make popguns and pick elderberries.
The son of a preacher, during the Depression, Cook's family has to make do on very little money, much ingenuity, and a lot of hard work. Most kids today would be amazed and amused at the sheer number and variety of chores a 10 year old kid had to do, in addition to attending school and Sunday School, and doing homework. Milking cows, cleaning and haying them, making butter, feeding chickens and gathering eggs, spreading manure, harvesting wheat - and none of it, at least initially, with the benefit of electricity, phones, or mechanization.
When it comes time to harvest , the family join in on diving into the prickly bushes of raspberries; digging horseradish, washing and grating it; cracking wheat for morning cereal; or picking and canning the summer supply of fruit and vegetables. And a child of the era was expected to manage all sorts of responsibilities: keeping the wood pile replenished; filling the water bucket from the pump; fill the oil lamps and trim the wicks.
Fires, wolves, illness, friends, teachers, seasons, the cold snowy days and the hot shimmering ones - Cook manages to relate his stories with the wisdom of a man removed from those days and times, yet at the same time, with the amazed innocence of a young boy who works like a man when asked, and plays like a child when allowed. I never finished a story but I'd drop the book down, and imagine the world as it must have been in those beautiful hollows and along the creeksides and woods paths, when life was precarious but full, challenging but simple.
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