Once There Was a Farm... A Country Childhood Remembered

by Virginia Bell Dabney

Nearly fifty years after she left the family farm of her childhood, Virginia Bell Dabney was compelled to write a memoir. She and her two sisters were raised on a Virginia farm during the hardscrabble years of the 1920s and 1930s. Her determined, independent mother managed to make a life for her family, despite hardships such as the Depression and a fire that destroyed their home.

Although raised in a spare environment where leaky ceilings and cold winter nights were the norm, Dabney finds much to love, and to rejoice over, in her country upbringing: the wonder of hens laying eggs, the sensations associated with milking a cow, her warm friendship with her mother's black maid. The remarkable clarity of her half-century-old memories and her simple, unaffected tone bring this country childhood unforgettably to life.

Genres: Memoir, Biography, Biography Memoir, Nonfiction

273 pages, Hardcover

First published March 24, 1990

Reviews

[Robynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ms.Dabnay wrote this memoir in her 70's about the years she grew up on a working farm during the Great Depression. An exquisite book I lived in her world for the time I was reading it. When I went to return it to the library I found that I was carrying around with me while I browsed the shelves. I did not want to give it up. Update: I now own my own copy, a discarded library copy, that I purchased at a Friends of the Library book sale. Just catching a glimpse of it on my book shelf makes me happy.

[Desi A · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a beautiful, poetic, and flowing memoir. I can't really do it justice in a review. This has been sitting on my shelf for at least 10 years and I finally picked it up before relocating, temporarily to a remote farmhouse. I'll want to find more to say about it soon.....

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I originally read this book over twenty years ago, and just recently reread it to see if I would enjoy it as much as I did then. This is a beautifully written gem. The author writes of times growing up in the Virginia countryside during the Depression, when her independent mother decided to move from Chicago to Virginia. While her family was not dirt-poor, they did have to struggle at times. I wish that this one was made available as an e-book.

[Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a simply but memorably written account of a country childhood in Virginia, not the usual life on a farm memoir. Her unsentimental account of life during the depression, a wildfire that burned down their home & the complexities of family relationships was well done.

[Tammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anyone who loves quintessential farm life will be taken by this book from the very first chapter. I found myself admiring the descriptions of basic farm life written with a clarity that evolves from encountering this life first person. The convolution of the plot lies within the fact that during a period of history when women were defined by the men to whom they were married, the author's mother moved away from her city dwelling husband who wanted nothing to do with farming to follow her personal dreams, while raising three daughters, whom she indulged in her own way. While much of the story is what one would expect of a memoir set mostly before and during the Great Depression and World War II, this is not your typical story of life on the farm. The more I read, the more I felt the depth of the author's personal journey, and how her early years shaped who she became as an adult. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

[Shirley Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a memory Dabney has! At age 70 she writes with detail about her childhood on her mother’s farm in Virginia in the 1920s and 30s. Alongside the descriptions of agricultural production now practically extinct, she builds a picture of her own high spirited girlhood persona and her mother’s exceptionalism. It’s not a nostalgia-soaked indulgence as both characters emerge with faults and virtues.

[Jami Gomez · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Nostalgia, thy sound is moo."

[Karyl · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made me want to rush out and buy myself a farm in the mountains of Virginia. Virginia Bell Dabney, called Vallie because she doesn't like her real name, is an irrepressible tomboy of a girl, reminiscent of Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables, who finds joy in the scent of the mountains, the feel of fresh air on her skin, the hard-packed dirt under her feet as she flies around the farm her mother owns. Growing up in an all-female world, with just her mother and her two much older sisters, she relishes the simpler things in life, long before such things as television and computers and the internet, let alone electricity, came to her small part of the world.

Mrs Dabney is incredibly honest. She paints her father as a man used to his own solitude, a man impatient with her never-ending childhood prattle, but admits she did not work hard enough, even as she grew older, to become closer to him, that she was as impatient with his need for solitude and silence as he was with her. She mentions her own husband in passing several times, and the fact that they eventually divorced, but never once drags his name through the mud and discusses why they split up -- because even though she has allowed us this intimate glimpse into her life, it is really none of our business. I think part of the reason she is so very honest is she really only delves deeply into relationships with people who are now dead.

But the reader cannot help but fall in love with Vallie and her sisters Allison and Daphne, with the life they lead on the farm, with her mother who brings them small animals in her fur-lined hat that's never worse for wear and who believes a clean house is a waste of time. You want to go back in time to attend Daphne's parties, to the opening of the tennis court that she and her friends lovingly built in the front yard. You can almost hear the laughter of the young men and women, and the roar of the 1920s vehicles as they cruise off into the night after yet another tennis party.

It's a world one so desperately wants to join, but alas, no longer exists anywhere in this nation. And it makes one wistful and nostalgic for a world she's never known, which is almost an unsettling feeling to have.

[Julie Barrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once there was a farm, a country childhood remembered by Dabney_ Virginia Bell
Stories of life in 1900's from a rural farm with no electricity.
Told from a child's point of view and the struggles they went through.
Good memories and tragedies also.
I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed it. I only have a few stories about the farm my grandparents had the years before...and during the Depression, and this book painted a simple yet detailed picture of what the "simple" life was like back in those times. We grow nostalgic for the "good old days" but never doubt for a second that it was hard work to simply survive.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. The only thing that I would change was how they placed the chapters. It started off at the beginning of the author's life then fast forwarded to present then back, but not in a good transitional way. Other than that, I would recommend!

[E · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written, this is a story about strong women, a fascinating portrait of the past, and a touching personal memoir. Dabney's story is full of fascinating characters and achingly honest portrayals of complex family relationships. I could not put this lovely book down.