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The Farm and Beyond: Memoirs of a Pennsylvania Farm Boy
222 pages, Paperback
Published June 22, 2025
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December 30, 2025
I selected this book last week from the "new acquisitions" shelves at my local library due to the title alone, and was pleasantly surprised that it is by an individual who grew up not far from where I live, and the author's tales contain details and other hints of his background in and near the villages of Keeneyville, Middlebury Center, and Little Marsh, including a note of a 'big creek' with a swimming hole near an aunt's house 'near Wellsboro' (which I assume is Marsh Creek).
The author attended “Mansfield State College” (which became Mansfield University, now the Mansfield campus of Commonwealth University), and did his student teaching placement at Cowanesque Valley High School, the school at which my father-in-law taught and that my wife and children attended.
I found it interesting his recall of introducing his future wife to his parents in 1968 who were still farming in the Keeneyville-area farm with horses. There were also several names that I recognize, one of which was a teen-ager hired hand when the author was at Mansfield...I recall that man's name as one that my father worked with at the foundry in Blossburg.
On to his few years in the Peace Corps assigned to Venezuela and learning Spanish and the social/political environment of that nation in the mid-1960s, and then to his doctoral studies and career in agricultural economics, with research and consulting endeavors in India, Africa, eastern Europe, and China.
It would be interesting to sit with this gentleman for a few hours and listen to his reminiscences.
The author attended “Mansfield State College” (which became Mansfield University, now the Mansfield campus of Commonwealth University), and did his student teaching placement at Cowanesque Valley High School, the school at which my father-in-law taught and that my wife and children attended.
I found it interesting his recall of introducing his future wife to his parents in 1968 who were still farming in the Keeneyville-area farm with horses. There were also several names that I recognize, one of which was a teen-ager hired hand when the author was at Mansfield...I recall that man's name as one that my father worked with at the foundry in Blossburg.
On to his few years in the Peace Corps assigned to Venezuela and learning Spanish and the social/political environment of that nation in the mid-1960s, and then to his doctoral studies and career in agricultural economics, with research and consulting endeavors in India, Africa, eastern Europe, and China.
It would be interesting to sit with this gentleman for a few hours and listen to his reminiscences.
Displaying 1 of 1 review