Keeping Hearth & Home in Old Colorado
a practical Primer for Daily Living
compiled and edited by Carol Padgett, Ph.D.
Book review by Nancy J. Reid

  For just a glimpse and feel of what it was like to live in the mid to late nineteenth century, a copy of Keeping Hearth & Home in Old Colorado will give you an insight to the day to day quandaries of the housewife at that time. In this computerized world, it is nice to read something that will bring the essence of that era to life. What we find humorous today, was valuable advice "back then". Funny enough, a lot of the advice still stands--at the same time, a lot of the advice is downright dangerous.
  Keeping Hearth & Home in Old Colorado covers personal grooming, courting, motherhood, nursing, setting up your first household, cooking with recipes, entertaining, and mourning. It is a guide to being a successful and accomplished woman in a time when women knew they were the glue that kept a family together--but the man was considered the leader in the family.
  It is fun to just leaf through, pick a page and read an excerpt. You can laugh at it, but it shows just how far we have come--some of it good, some of it not so good. A fun read, nicely organized and entertaining whether on your own or with a group. It does make you reflect.

For book orders or more information contact Menasha Ridge Press at (205) 322-0439