Once upon a Farm: Tales of Discovery

In this amusing collection of tales Ellis Worth reminisces about not only his childhood on a Minnesota farm but also many other episodes in his life. These are not sentimental recollections; nor is this an anthology of first-person memoirs. The reminiscences are embedded within enjoyable stories about fictitious characters in equally fictitious settings. But in accordance with Mark Twains assertion Write what you know Ellis Worth wrote what he knew. In this fictitious context he relates his own experiences personal discoveries and outlook on social mores of the time the mid-twentieth century.Ellis Worth tales are unique. They are usually quite short and compact offering an amusing and occasionally ribald narrative of some incident in its characters lives-that is presumably in his life. Worth seeks to entertain through his use of colloquial everyday vernacular bringing his principal characters personality traits humorously to the forefront. He also seeks to provoke thought sometimes leaving it up to the reader to join him in imagining the end of the story or to ascertain the symbolic meaning of some passage. In that way these stories deliver subtle alternatives to prevailing wisdom.As a lawyer Worth featured the legal profession in one way or another in many of his stories: a practicing lawyer a judge a courtroom trial. Usually satirical they narrate Worths disenchantment with the law and his failed private practice. After closing his law office he was unemployed for two years. During that time Worth often wrote about characters he met recounting their tales while sitting on a park bench enjoying the sun or in a tavern. Out of financial necessity he returned to the law but from a different angle taking a routine editorial job at a company that produced law reference books. That menial workplace became the setting for several other amusing stories rife with satire. Throughout Worth extols his sense of place the Minnesota farmland of his youth and the Colorado Rocky Mountains of his middle-aged adult life when he wrote most of these stories. Indeed the Midwestern fields of grain the lakes the mountains the sunsets the cool high-altitude breezes are as much protagonists as the characters themselves. Equally noticeable is the historical time frame of these stories. Worth wrote them in the mid-twentieth century. Accordingly they refer to people and events of that era. In that regard these stories chronicle interesting tidbits of the history of that time period. Likewise Worth used terminology of that era leaving it as part of the historical record.