I really liked this collection of essays. The essays cover a range of topics, but mostly Sloane is expressing some sort of longing for the values or lifestyle of the past. Besides the content of the essays, I also found the writing style quite engaging. Sloane has a contagious sense of curiosity about the simplest things, and his humorous writing makes essays about seemingly mundane topics quite enjoyable. I love how he always talks about pulling out his old dictionaries and almanacs to try to trace the origin of a word, a custom, or an invention. Sloane says that his research may not have much purpose, but it is all worth it for the thrill of discovery. I like picturing him in an old time farmhouse, surrounded by antique tools, with dozens of books scattered about him, bubbling with excitement as he tries to discover the origin of the dollar sign.

Things I am inspired to do after reading this book, which I will probably never do.

1. Mail someone an iced cake using popcorn as the packaging. Yes, the icing will not look perfect in the end, but hopefully the cake will be intact and the recipient will have delicious icing coated pieces of popcorn to eat with their cake!

2. Revive the tradition of tree planting as a remembrance or a gift. I know this tradition still survives somewhat, but I really liked the essay where Sloane talked about how when a couple got married and moved into a new house, friends would often bring gifts of fruit trees and decorative trees for around the house. They would plant two “man and wife” trees in front of the house on either side of the entrance. Apparently these old houses could be dated by finding the age of these two trees.

3. Find some really well made tools, and have a reason to use them. I don’t really have much use for a wheelbarrow right now, but Sloane’s essay about going 100 miles to find an old fashioned wheelbarrow with a big front wheel that could handle going over rough ground really made sense. There are so many cheaply made, poorly designed tools these days, and the right tool really does make all the difference.

4. Decorate my house with useful things. In one essay talks about how he was looking in his drawer for a pair of scissors, and complaining to his wife how they seem to disappear. His wife responded, “If you look behind you, you will see a collection of early American scissors hanging on the wall as a decoration or ‘utilitarian ornamentation’ by an antiquarian character named Eric Sloane.” He found the scissors cut really well, and decided to start actually using some of the antiques around his house. I was thinking about this the last time I was in a Cracker Barrel restaurant, and saw all these old things hanging on the walls, and how nice it would be to actually use them. I also really like the phrase “utilitarian ornamentation.”

5. Find someone to open the really cool “museum of awareness or concept” to illustrate how much a billion is, or how big an acre is. And to help people comprehend the vastness of space and weather phenomena.

Overall, this book really just made me want to live a simpler lifestyle. I know that it is easy to romanticize the past, and a lot of good has come from modern innovation, but after reading this I can’t help but long for the good old days.

Thanks for the recommendation, Kim! Although in a roundabout way, I guess I recommended it to myself.
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Sloane re-creates the country store in all its delightful moods: as a meetinghouse, a public forum, and entertainment center. Sage opinions on everything from capitalism to "the good old days". 55 illustrations.