Published Apr 24, 2010, 3:07pm - (Updated Jan 25, 2013, 2:36pm)
Wisdom – Humor – The Great Depression
by Bob Lamb
With Author Bob Lamb’s newly released “LONE TREE” collection of stories, readers now get a peek inside the landscape and lifestyles of American pioneers surviving The Great Depression deep within America’s heartlands. Through Lamb’s wry written sagas, truths are revealed that may not make TV news, but contain priceless gems of life and give us pearls of wisdom relevant to every generation.
In The Great Depression of the 1930′s, the simple farm folks of Lone Tree, Indiana, like Thadius Spice and Widow Swaby, faced each challenging day with homegrown humor, compassion and self taught survival skills .
For writer Bob Lamb, a native of Lone Tree, this unique community would live forever in his heart. “I now realize the lessons of life are concealed by a code that takes a lifetime to decipher,” Lamb says. “The folks in Lone Tree were developing wisdom so basic it had a universal appeal that lives on in memory and humor.”
After years of sharing stories of these colorful survivors in writers circles from Chicago to Santa Fe to Puerto Vallarta, Lamb has compiled an engaging collection of stories in “LONE TREE, Wisdom, Humor, The Great Depression, ” published by Book Surge in August , 2008.
After a high profile career with the Air Force Academy, President Nixon’s Administration, and Bechtel Corporation, Lamb looks back on growing up in this remote pocket of America and remembers the colorful characters who turned hardships into hilarity every day.
In a tone reminiscent of Will Rogers and Garrison Keillor in “Lake Wobegon”, Lamb takes the reader on a poignant journey of mating, dating, dancing and working. In “Happiness is Five Nickels in Your Overalls,” Lamb shares his memories of his first job as a water boy in his Granddad’ s hayfields where he requested his twenty five cents a day wage be paid in nickels. “I would never be able to explain how carrying one quiet quarter in your overalls couldn’t compete with five noisy nickels,” Lamb recalls.
In hilarious and heartwarming vignettes, we learn that in Lone Tree the process of discovering romance was a slow and lengthy one and was often dependent on how much attention was paid to the behavior of farm animals during mating season.
In “Sweet Romance” Lamb writes: “Hay rides were an important part of the dating ritual in Lone Tree. Nothing could be more romantic than sitting next to a girl on a bale of fragrant hay while listening to the sputter of a John Deere tractor.”
In another nostalgic snapshot, we learn about Widow Swaby’s courting of Charlie Waggoner which “was so subtle he never knew it was happening,” Lamb writes. “Twice a week, the Widow Swaby would show up at Charlie’s house with a freshly baked pie. The ritual continued for almost a year, but ended tragically when Charlie gained twenty pounds and succumbed to a heart attack.”
Lamb lives in Puerto Vallarta Mexico with his wife, Carolyn , and travels extensively sharing his passionate stories of Lone Tree, Indiana. Lamb is available for book readings and signings, special events, and media interviews.