Told in three parts, a Southern family and their friends grapple with the joys and disappointments of life as a direct result of being raised in a home with strong Christian values.

How did lay people in old China save their lives when dealing with acute or chronic health issues? Conventional medicine was costly and might not have been an option for many. Instead, people in villages and towns relied on remedies drawn from a woodblock-printed illustrated booklet called the Seventy-Two Therapies, first published in 1847. The goal of this book is to foster an appreciation of China’s long tradition of folk remedies. Each folk remedy is illustrated by a page from the circa 1860s woodblock edition of the Seventy-Two Therapieswhich the author used for translation. He also added a historical and interpretive analysis to expand on each therapy and to place it in the context of contemporary thinking, aiming at academics and readers interested in the everyday lives of common people in pre-1950 China, and in the folk medicine wisdom inherited from the past. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “The 72 specific diseases identified intimate a vast, unexplored world. Professor Suleski’s translation and commentary calls our attention to a work that now compels us to expand our horizons.” —Shigehisa Kuriyama (Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University) “This book captures the fascinating depth and ingenuity in Chinese folk medicine that should still resonate with many readers today. Professor Suleski shows us how empathy and rigor, neither condescending nor mystifying, can shed so much light on the resourceful remedies and arresting imageries employed by past healers to make sense of human suffering and dignity.” —He Bian (Department of History, Princeton University) “In this riveting book, Suleski presents us with a rare glimpse of the kaleidoscopic and curious world of folk remedies in traditional China that has been hitherto overlooked by historians of medicine. Written with enthusiasm and accessible to a general audience, 72 Ways of Saving Lives offers valuable insight into healing practice among ordinary people that is both unconventional in history and rlevant to us today.” —Yan Liu (Department of History, University at Buffalo, SUNY)

The Country Almanac of Housekeeping Techniques That Save You Money teaches readers the creative housekeeping secrets of our fore-mothers for maintaining homey houses without modern day expenses.

"I was born in Chickashaw County, Mississippi. Ely Abbott and Maggie Abbott was our owners. They had three girls and two boys—Eddie and Johnny. We played together till I was grown. I loved em like if they was brothers. Papa and Mos Ely went to war together in a two-horse top buggy. They both come back when they got through. "There was eight of us children and none was sold, none give way. My parents name Peter and Mahaley Abbott. My father never was sold but my mother was sold into this Abbott family for a house girl. She cooked and washed and ironed. No'm, she wasn't a wet nurse, but she tended to Eddie and Johnny and me all alike. She whoop them when they needed, and Miss Maggie whoop me. That the way we grow'd up. Mos Ely was 'ceptionly good I recken. No'm, I never heard of him drinkin' whiskey. They made cider and 'simmon beer every year. "Grandpa was a soldier in the war. He fought in a battle. I don't know the battle. He wasn't hurt. He come home and told us how awful it was. "My parents stayed on at Mos Ely's and my uncle's family stayed on. He give my uncle a home and twenty acres of ground and my parents same mount to run a gin. I drove two mules, my brother drove two and we drove two more between us and run the gin. My auntie seen somebody go in the gin one night but didn't think bout them settin' it on fire. They had a torch, I recken, in there. All I knowed, it burned up and Mos Ely had to take our land back and sell it to pay for four or five hundred bales of cotton got burned up that time. We stayed on and sharecropped with him. We lived between Egypt and Okolona, Mississippi. Aberdeen was our tradin' point.

Articles appear frequently about individuals whose age is noted as a feature of their activism, but the activism of seniors as a growing and influential part of the population is often otherwise overlooked. The speed of change, the expansion of the senior demographic, the growth of citizen participation, and the constant visual images reminding us of these factors, tell us that it is time to look to seniors who are putting their time and energies into helping others and helping the world. Whatever one’s political view, there is consensus in recognizing that we are living in a time of tremendous change, when traditionally trusted institutions and cultural mores are questioned and seriously challenged. It is a time when more and more individuals feel a need to do something, something about issues that concern them, something that makes them aware of the need for a sense of control in a world in chaos, something that makes them aware of their own strength, power, and the value of the wisdom that comes with age. In a time when social media make shallow “clicktivists” of so many, the people profiled here are true activists. Their dedication crosses all societal lines—ethnic, political, religious, and socio-economic. Some have always considered themselves activists. Some find that this stage of life brings a new perspective that results in the need to do more than say. They tell us, in their own words the what, why, and meaning of their specific activism and show others how to do it. Their stories are inspiring for people of all ages.

Includes summaries of proceedings and addresses of annual meetings of various gas associations.