by Ronald Ray Schmeck
Koom Rye! Sit yoahself down an have a cup’a coffee once’t, an a piece a shoofly pie. Meet Arsenic and Peach Schlank and their kids Randy, Ruby, and Rosa and a whole host of endearing “Dutchies.” Get the feel of a Pennsylvania Dutch family farm. Walk around the barn and outbuildings. Tour the big old farmhouse. And ask yourself if perhaps this might be a better way to live.
“Life ain’t so simple foah us nomoah, ain’t?” Thus the Schlank patriarch, Thus the Schlank patriarch, ain’t Arsenic, and his wife, Peach, begin a discussion of new challenges introduced by events in their later years, “on the other side of the middle.” After a bit of thought, Peach responds, “Life ain’t nevah simple . . . vottevah happens is foah da best!!” The story is set in 1983 on the Schlank farm near Reading, Pennsylvania, in Berks County. The context is a typical old-style Dutch family farm decorated with Dutch dialect and rural activities such as animal husbandry, cooking, hay-making, ice skating, fishing, and hunting. It includes interesting descriptions of traditional Dutch customs and farm lay-outs and machinery.
A glorious celebration of Pennsylvania Dutch culture and family life in all of its stages, this is a story about a farm family that meets life’s challenges head on with a sense of responsibility and love. This is a Pennsylvania Dutch tale of family love, and a strong sense of community among friends and neighbors, as life takes its twists and turns within a culture that sticks together. It is presented with a deep reverence for simplicity and nature, and with lots of love.
Ron Schmeck grew up in the Pennsylvania Dutch or German regions of Pennsylvania and currently resides in Makanda, IL. He has written a novel which uses fiction to illustrate the respect for nature and the interest in sustainability that has permeated Pennsylvania Dutch culture since the people from the Rhine first came to the United States in the 1600's and 1700's. Pennsylvania Dutch farmland is richer, both biologically and, economically, than it was when the people from the Rhine first took over stewardship of the land. It is possibly the richest farmland in the United States. This is due to use of organic fertilizers, crop rotation, and nitrogen fixation which the Dutch were using two hundred years before anyone else in the US had even heard of it. In contrast, during the depression, other farmlands of this country were about played out. What a rich legacy, with care and intention, the Pennsylvania Dutch handed down to their children. This book will make you wish you had "grown up Dutch." The values and love portrayed in the book will warm your heart.
