Nothing Gold Can Stay is a richly described reminiscence of childhood on an extended family farm in the late 1940s and in the 1950s. It is written in a beautifully lyrical style and told with disarming honesty. A unique history of one unforgettable place in time, it details a distinct way of life in an America that no longer exists. Thanks to author Gloria June Reed's clarity of memory to the smallest of details, Nothing Gold Can Stay will gift you with accounts of:
- the fortitude and hardships of immigration as both sets of Reed's grandparents leave the Volga Valley in Russia and emigrate to America;
- family strength and courage during World War II;
- surviving the Great Blizzard of 1949;
- the freedom to be a child and explore the wonder and fascination of the natural world;
- the adventures and pranks of farm children in the long, golden summer days;
- memories of a unique country school;
- the significance of both past and place in forging a life.
The stories within Nothing Gold Can Stay are of America's golden age, when family and faith were strong, Judeo-Christian values and patriotism flourished, and America was both a manufacturing capital and a beacon of freedom for the world. It was a refreshingly innocent time. But nothing ever stays the same, and eventually the farm and its way of life are destroyed by affluence, greed, demographics, changing values, and the resultant assault of swift changes in the world.
This history of a bygone era and the people in it will engage and delight you. The richness of life on this farm will endure in your memory. You'll finish the book with the satisfaction of having read something of value that needed to be told.
