A delightful and interesting story of a well-to-do family that suddenly, due to the husband's unwise decisions, became completely insolvent and lost everything they had except for one old automobile that had been paid off years earlier.
What to do? How do you exist as a family and where do you turn? Meg and James Hobart, along with their three children, Lizzie, Will, and Sam had to face this reality shortly before Thanksgiving when a very irritated James turned on all of his family with a distinct attitude problem noticed by all.
The family had always had a huge Thanksgiving dinner attended by many friends and Meg was busily preparing her plans for what, who, and exactly when the dinner would be served.
For some time James had been bitterly complaining about any purchases the family made telling them the family could not afford all those unnecessary things they purchased.
Just before the big dinner he broke down and told Meg that he had been "fired" in August and had not been able to tell her.
He had invested all their money after his firing in some dismal investment company without telling Meg and they had lost everything.
Everything was gone including the house, the savings, the investments, and their leased cars.
The dinner went on but with a far different feeling by Meg and James.
Corners were cut everywhere possible.
The next few weeks they disposed of everything, canceled all insurance policies, as well as anything due in the present or future.
They packed and shipped all personal items to Meg's parents where they would travel to as soon as possible and live with them until they became able to go on their own once again.
They squeezed into the old car and took off carrying only very personal items that they each wanted to still be in their lives.
While traveling through Pennsylvania they had an accident with an Amish horse-drawn buggy forcing the car into a pole.
As a result an Amish family involved in the accident came and helped all involved and made sure they were not hurt and took them to their home to get warmed up and relax from the accident.
The car was towed to a garage in a nearby small city and the Amish family invited the Hobart's to stay with them until the car could be repaired and then get on their way once again.
Needless to say, the Amish life was far different from the life that the Hobart's had been used to all their lives-until the loss of all their possessions and finances.
You never heard such belly aching from the kids.
Lizzie, Will, and Sam couldn't put up with these people or the way they lived.
No computers, no television, no-anything they were used to.
The stay was extended because it was taking the repair shop a long time to get the parts and get that old car ready.
This story is a good old-fashioned story that fits in with Christmas time perfect and gives all of us that are spoiled having all the modern communication and living devices in our lives a lot of reflection.
You will meet the Amish families and live with them and adjust to their style of living-or not! The Amish live a very simple family oriented life and are not afraid of manual labor.
An excellent read for all ages.