"Two Up, Two Down"—excerpt from OTHERS HAD IT WORSE

The first I can remember as a kid was living in this log cabin 4 rooms 2 up 2 down. The floors had holes in it. You could of throwed a cat through them. And upstairs where I slept with Barbara and Reva when it snowed on the bed we shook the snow off the covers when we got up. But luck was with us. We kids never seemed to be very sick.

Others Had It Worse: Sour Dock, Moonshine, and Hard Times in Davis County, Iowa, by Vetra Melrose Padget Covert and Chris D. Baker

"Roy Vaughn"—excerpt from OTHERS HAD IT WORSE

I remember I would go over to Roy Vaughn's and get baby Pidgeons to bring home and put them on top of the hen house in boxes and dig fish worms for them. Some I had to hold their mouths open while I would feed them but they were pets. I could holler for them and they would fly down on my Shoulder or head. Some drunk said he would give me a dollar for one. I took the dollar but before I caught the bird I give the dollar back. I could not sell my Pidgeon.

Others Had It Worse: Sour Dock, Moonshine, and Hard Times in Davis County, Iowa, by Vetra Melrose Padget Covert and Chris D. Baker

High-Top Shoes

I had to wear a pr of high top shoes one Winter. Oh how I didn't want too but some one gave them to us. They came nearer fitting me than anyone so I wore them. No one else wore them at School.

Others Had It Worse: Sour Dock, Moonshine, & Hard Times in Davis County, Iowa, by Vetra Melrose Padget Covert and Chris D. Baker

"One Dress"—excerpt from OTHERS HAD IT WORSE

We girls had one dress most of the time to wear to School all Winter. Some one would give Mom some things and Mom and Barbara would make it over for the rest. The small boys would get made over too.

Others Had It Worse: Sour Dock, Moonshine, and Hard Times in Davis County, Iowa, by Vetra Melrose Padget Covert and Chris D. Baker

"Two Up, Two Down"—excerpt from OTHERS HAD IT WORSE

The first I can remember as a kid living in this log cabin 4 rooms 2 up and 2 down. The floors had holes in it. You could of throwed a cat through them. And upstairs where I slept with Barbara and Reva when it snowed on the bed we shook the snow off the covers when we got up. But luck was with us. We kids never seemed to be very sick.

Others Had It Worse: Sour Dock, Moonshine, and Hard Times in Davis County, Iowa, by Vetra Melrose Padget Covert and Chris D. Baker

Interview with Chris Baker: part 2

Chris Baker is the editor of Others Had It Worse: Sour Dock, Moonshine, and Hard Times in Davis County, Iowa, with text written by his grandmother, Vetra Covert. The book was released in September and is available now. University of Iowa Press acquisitions editor Holly Carver asked him a few questions about the book.

HC: Given their hardscrabble upbringing, it’s amazing to me that Vetra and her brothers and sisters all survived childhood. I mean, really, cow manure poultices? Were Vetra and her siblings unusually tough or unusually lucky?
CB: Well, I always though they were a tough lot compared to me. But in conversations with family members, it's apparent that they approached their lives with acceptance, not necessarily resignation. If the only available remedy is a cow manure poultice and it works, well, so be it. Of course, a little luck never hurts.

HC: After her impoverished childhood, do you know how Vetra reacted to the telephones, radios, automobiles—to the miracle of electricity and indoor plumbing—of her adult years?

CB: I really don’t have a lot of insight into that. She does write about her excitement the first time she listened to a radio. The neighbors would invite the family over to listen to boxing matches and country music from Nashville. I can say that I never saw her behind the wheel of a car, and I don’t believe that she had the slightest interest in learning how to drive.

HC: Cinnamon rolls are one of the treasures of Iowa baking. What other culinary treats did your grandmother produce?

CB: Oh, beef and noodles, dinner rolls, soup beans and corn bread, fried morel mushrooms. Those were my favorites. She could also make quick work of any wild game brought to her house and fry up a tasty dinner with just a little lard, flour, and salt and pepper. Of course, her cinnamon rolls were the undeniable favorite.

HC: You’ve honored your grandmother’s life; indeed, you’ve extended it into the future. What do you wish you could ask her now?

CB: Of course, the first time I interviewed her, I was around nineteen years old and, frankly, more concerned with all that comes with being twenty. I certainly missed a rare opportunity. After reading and absorbing her journal over the last few years, I do wish I had the opportunity to interview her one last time. At first glance, it is easy to miss the stories hidden between the lines in her journal. I certainly would like to know more about her relationship with her parents, especially her mother. I would also like to ask her about the early years of her marriage and how they managed to get by. At my own peril, I might even ask her to share any thoughts about me. 

Others Had It Worse: Sour Dock, Moonshine, and Hard Times in Davis County, Iowa by Vetra Covert and Chris Baker

Interview with Chris Baker: part 1

Chris Baker is the editor of Others Had It Worse: Sour Dock, Moonshine, and Hard Times in Davis County, Iowa, with text written by his grandmother, Vetra Covert. The book was released in September and is available now. University of Iowa Press acquisitions editor Holly Carver asked him a few questions about the book.

HC: Your grandmother wrote these words when she was over sixty, yet her voice seems so true to the spirit of the young girl she is writing about. How do you explain this?

CB: She was certainly a woman without pretense, and that’s reflected not only in her words but also in how she lived her life. My sense from reading her writing is that, for better or worse, she enjoyed the process of revisiting her childhood.  

HC: You’re a singer-songwriter. How did your love of music influence the chapters you have crafted here?

CB: Well, that may be an overstatement, but songwriting is certainly my passion, so I tend to view the world in that context. I am always looking for a good story, listening for a good line or a hook. In time, that becomes second nature, sometimes to the point of distraction. Once I began thinking about how to format my grandmother’s journal, it became obvious to me that her prose—simple, honest, and filled with great imagery—reads like verses from an Appalachian folk song. So, certainly, the section of the book with the journal entries has the feel of a song. At least I think it does. I hope it does. One of my favorite lines is, “They passed us like a freight train would a bum.” Lines like that make you reach for your guitar.

HC: You don’t attempt to romanticize Vetra’s childhood. How extreme were her family’s poverty and isolation?

CB: I took that cue from my grandmother. She was obviously forthright in telling her story, so how could I be otherwise? But looking in from the outside, it’s easy to cling to stereotypical perceptions about poverty and isolation. By today’s standards, hers was indeed a hard-knock existence—the reality of living in a log cabin riddled with holes in the roof and the floor, waking up with snow on your blankets, foraging for wild greens just to make a meal. It’s impossible to minimize those conditions. But folks from her generation tend to be rather stoic about those experiences. Sure, there were hard times, but there were good times as well. In the years leading up to the Great Depression, many families struggled to survive. Her family wasn’t alone. That may have lessened any sense of despair. To us, those conditions are unfathomable, but for those who actually lived that life I think it’s a matter of perspective. That is a difficult question to answer.

HC: Vetra’s father was a bootlegger. Was this seen as a shameful way to make a living, such as it was, or as a clever way around Prohibition?

CB: I suppose that’s also a matter of perspective, but I believe both apply. There’s a third consideration, survival, which in my mind is different from merely making a living through criminal activities. It’s not an excuse, but desperation often leads to questionable behaviors. How one reconciles or rationalizes those behaviors probably depends more upon circumstances and choices. But there’s always a price to pay. I think my grandmother felt that her father’s moonshining was, in part, due to his strong desire to drink, which he did to excess and to the detriment of the family’s well-being.

Check back Wednesday to read the conclusion!

Others Had It Worse: Sour Dock, Moonshine, and Hard Times in Davis County, Iowa by Vetra Covert and Chris Baker

UI Press Annual Holiday Sale: WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? and OTHERS HAD IT WORSE

The University of Iowa Press will be kicking off their annual holiday sale tomorrow! Find great books for up to 65% off for all the readers in your life. Don't miss out on these unbeatable prices for two of our newest books:

What Happens Next? Matters of Life and Death
by Douglas Bauer
Iowa and the Midwest Experience

"A literate, thoughtful memoir/essay collection from the heartland."—Kirkus

"This remarkable memoir-in-essays respects time but is not enslaved to it. Bauer moves in circular fashion among incidents that foreshadow later ones and recall earlier. It's not a linear but a spiral history, which touches us and then touches again. As for the language: in each sentence each word seems the only possible choice. How easily the prose lets us read it; what artistic intensity made it that way."—Edith Pearlman, author, Binocular Vision, winner of the 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award

Regular Price: $17.00
Sale Price: $9.00

Others Had It Worse: Sour Dock, Moonshine, and Hard Times in Davis County, Iowa
by Vetra Melrose Padget Covert and Chris D. Baker
Bur Oak Book

"A rare, insightful, and intimate work of history. . . . Like the frames on a zoetrope, these brief snippets run together to create a rich, vivid view of a bygone era."—Publishers Weekly

"Chris Baker has not only preserved the life of one woman but has also given us a way to read a text that follows its own path. By valuing what would typically be overlooked, he has broadened our understanding of life writing and illuminated the daily effects of poverty and isolation, as well as the small joys that arise amid both. It is a song one should not miss hearing."—Jennifer Sinor, author, The Extraordinary Work of Ordinary Writing: Annie Ray's Diary

Regular Price: $17.95
Sale Price: $9.00

Chris Baker Reading: September 19

If you're in the Cedar Rapids area, make sure you see Chris Baker give a reading of his new book, Others Had It Worse: Sour Dock, Moonshine, and Hard Times in Davis County, Iowa. He will be reading at the Barnes & Noble on Collins Rd. at 7:00 PM. We'd love to see you there!

Praise for Others Had It Worse:
“A rare, insightful, and intimate work of history. . . . Like the frames on a zoetrope, these brief snippets run together to create a rich, vivid view of a bygone era.”—Publishers Weekly

Others Had It Worse: Sour Dock, Moonshine, and Hard Times in Davis County, Iowa by Chris Baker

Moonshine Takes Over TV, Liquor Stores, and the UI Press

According to the Associated Press, the new reality TV show, Moonshine, has inspired distillers around the country to brew their own brands to be sold at liquor stores. For more information, check out the article here.

At the Press, moonshine's comeback is getting us excited for different reasons. Next month, we'll be releasing Others Had It Worse: Sour Dock, Moonshine, and Hard Times in Davis County, Iowa. In 1977, Chris D. Baker asked his grandmother, Vetra Covert, to write a notebook of her childhood memories. Grandma Covert wrote about her younger life in rural Iowa between 1920 and 1929. In Others Had It Worse, Chris Baker has compiled her stories and transcribed her words into nine chapters that illuminate home, family, neighbors, school, and social life. He has composed a collection of candid, whimsical, sometimes ornery stories that will resonate with anyone who has ever tried to decipher the lives found in old letters and photos.

Keep coming back to read an interview with Chris Baker and make sure to check out Others Had It Worse when it releases in September!

Others Had It Worse: Sour Dock, Moonshine, and Hard Times in Davis County, Iowa, by Vetra Melrose Padget Covert and Chris D. Baker