Bea's Books

Have you ever...heard "olly, olly oxen free" on a shadowy twilight summer night?

• been the fox chasing the goose around the circle made in the snow?
• rode on the merry-go-round at the county fair?
• cracked hickory nuts, husked ground cherries, or shucked an ear of corn?
• eaten pancakes with homemade syrup made from maple trees in the grove?

It was a Tuesday. The arrival of a new child, the fifth for Alfred and Josephine in the back bedroom of the farmhouse on Haney Ridge, Crawford County, Wisconsin.

Since the parents hadn't chosen a name, old Doc Hayman wrote on the birth certificate "Baby Girl" Mullikin. For years, she was called "Jo's baby girl" by aunts, uncles, and friends.

The stories in this book were written as gifts to Bea's children. Independent of one another but related, the stories are arranged in five volumes that span Bea's childhood in the 1930s to her adult years in the early 2000s. They recount living a simple, frugal life with few resources but love on the family farm in southern Wisconsin, to the joys and struggles of raising seven children in the 1960s and 1970s, and her husband's illness and death. The stories are of a family over the long decades as lives changed so much. Every person's life story is both small and momentous.

Bea's upbeat, loving family viewpoint chronicles a rich family life and creative fun that are now more pertinent than ever for modern readers.

The stories may revive your memories, and blank pages are included for you to add your own stories.