Mo, Me and America

I enjoyed this book, since it reminded me of visiting my grandparents and their neighbors. Even though my grandparents and their neighbors are long gone, I am glad to see that the same type of good rural people still exist.

Truly enjoying the trip

I live in a rural community and to me choosing Mo, Me and America cover88681-medium written by Randy Turk and published by Dog Ear Publishing the most natural thing to do.

The most beautiful America, this one, because the most hidden one but at the same time the most genuine one. Sure biggest American cities are dreaming, people can find excitement, theaters, a lot of fun, a good work, but little realities...

Life is laziest sometimes, people more united because they know each others.

Randy Turk decided to start these four trips in 32 States of the USA in 15 months with Mo, his dawg as he loves to call her a beautiful female golden retriever.

He took this decision when also the latest ancestor of his family passed away and a big question tormented him: who would have remembered the old rural world that it is disappearing? Who would have told the past?

Yes because talking of rural America we also talk of farms, people who, in the past worked hardly for going on thanks to the works in mills or fields, and having various animals as well.

This book is not just fascinating, but dreaming.

I guess that it is the desire of everyone one day to pick up the car or the caravan as the author did starting to traveling without a destination in the immense territory of the USA. Sometimes I think just for breathing a sensation of freedom.

And it must be wonderful to stop by in some old-fashioned characteristic cafes where strangers are always seen as a great novelty and curiosity and accepted with enthusiasm.

Looking for people living in little places an amazing experience.

I imagined, while I was reading the book those cafes, restaurants,where Randy stopped by for sometimes a robust breakfast or lunch and where he met people enthusiastic to be interviewed and extra-busy at the same time!

Interesting and fascinating interviews these ones of Randy Turk with the various people he met along his trips although at first he sounded a bit shy and intimidated by this experience.

In this sense Mo, the book is written at four ahem hands/paws ;-) helped a lot, opening a breach in everyone's heart and giving so to the author the possibility of starting to talk to people after the preliminary doggy-breaking-ice-language: "Hi, it's a wonderful day don't you think so?"

The final portrait of this trip?

A confirm: most of the people interviewed, and it's not important if they're from the Profound South or other part of the USA, tend to say that little places are wonderfully great. Good weather, good people, social control so less drugs and violence in comparison with bigger centers. Answers are similar.

Someone added that their centers chosen by retired couple or simply by newcomers because of the tranquility. People thinks that their centers changed once foreigners arrived because although they declared they wanted to stay in peace then they forced the little place at some unwanted changes.

In general past farms were, good Lord, very big, 200-300 acres, but these ones are immense with 3000-4000 acres each.

There were places famous for the pony express and a man with his private airplane every night brought the mails from a place to another for 8 pence a letter.

Some people complain that little centers are more abandoned because children wants to go to college and later in general they remain in biggest cities.

Other ones are rural communities close to the capital of the State so the perfect place where to live.

There is who thinks that young people shouldn't go away, because of course, very useful and joyful in and for a little community.

Someone have wonderful realities with schools in their villages or close to them, libraries, or theaters.

In general in most of these places if in the 1950s there was a lot of population, there has been a massive migration, so a drastic reduction but people remained are in most cases great chaps and affectionate. There are people who, after a while spent to a big city creating an existence return to their little native places once retired.

Some people interviewed complain that yes, people are busiest and there is less time for staying together, for being helped, a word, this one pronounced substantially from everybody.

In a center a man added that they helped a young girl with a fundraising for being operated and another girl killed the night of Halloween always remembered every year the night of Halloween.

Someone else said that newcomers brought more violence and problems.

In general in the past there was a different work ethic, disappeared now.

What can make the difference and what should induce someone to buying a house in a rural place? Of course peace, of course a different tranquility but also the expectations of finding good neighbors, and a different quality of life.

I have had the perception most of the people interviewed tried to let see all the best of their place and so: sun, good weather, great people, many activities.

While I was reading the book I thought at the book written by Fannie Flagg: A Redbird Christmas. A man from Chicago in the profound South of the USA where he fell in love for people, community, weather, friendship and love.

At the end of the book, Randy Turk imagines his dad back to this world, after 100 years, a man who had known other kind of stores, (the old stores replaced by new ones), other kind of life, other... breakfasts, and another system of work. Now it's a luxury to be a peasant or have a farm thanks to the help of every kind of machines. In the past as also remembered by an elderly couple work was harder in the rural USA.

After all Turk's dad thinks that it would be wonderful to live this adventure as well.

Beautiful book cover88681-medium lived in many diversified States of the USA for History and culture.

I strongly suggest this book to you if you want to pass some relaxing hours dreaming of a long trip in caravan stopping by in suggestive tiny realities and lands of the USA always able to speak at the heart of the people.

It can be a very good gift for your children and for remembering them how in a few decades world changed abruptly. It can be a great gift for let them discover part of the USA that maybe they don't know.

Mo and Randy will conquer everyone!

Anna Maria Polidori

Mo, Me and America: The Vanishing Rural Community – Randy Turk,PHD This is primarily a book about ‘people, community and change’ in rural America. The author Randy and his ‘dawg’ Mo spent 16 months and travelled 32 states asking people about their experiences of life in rural areas. Randy’s interest in this topic sprang out of stories told by his extended family from their own lives and also his own experiences of life on a rural farm.
I liked the way Randy’s experiences in the places he visited were peppered with the interviewee’s experiences as well as stories from his dawg, Mo. I found it interesting that the age of the participants was so varied as was their experience but despite this there were common threads throughout all the tales.
As someone who is not a dog owner I expected the bits written from the perspective of Mo to be of little interest to me. However, I liked that he had his own distinctive almost human-like voice that told his tale in a distinctive and entertaining way.
The participant interviews spoke of general themes of community spirit, support for each other in times of need and affection for their neighbours. However, they also spoke about the impact of a decline in farming, the effect of young people moving in large groups from rural to urban areas for better employment opportunities and the closure of areas of social gathering. I enjoyed the way the first interview was a self-interview to introduce us to him and his experiences as well as his motivation for writing this book. The stories in this book seem almost idyllic: with comments about adults in the community looking out for all children in their town not just their own, a sense that everyone knows each other’s business and are willing to help at any time. Gilbert was my favourite interviewee mostly because of his optimistic comment that “life is what you make of it. Everywhere you go you get good people.”
Having recently been to America for the first time I was fascinated by Randy’s description of the places he visited and now have a pretty large list of places I want to visit.

Mo, Me, and America is the true account of the author and his dog touring rural, primarily Midwest America, meeting townspeople and sharing their stories. It is partly written by the dog and by the human, which really improves the book. Unfortunately the human narrative can be a little dry and repetitive, but this is redeemed by the very charming dog counterpoint. It is a very nostalgic look at a time when many Americans farmed and lived in small towns. It does offer a decent balance of presenting the hardships of farming and especially what some of these people and their families lived through. A very pleasant read.

Turk offers up some enjoyable anecdotes as he visits with diverse individuals from small communities in 32 states. I can see this as a beach read or travel take- along. It will likely hold special appeal for folks nearby the areas author and companion visited.

Turk and his dog Mo (Molly), a golden retriever travel across the continental United States looking for the rural America that so many of us grew up in and remember fondly, but which seems to have disappeared. First, let me say that this is a Christian publishing company, and there are references to religion, but they are not overt or offensive. I was also won over right away by the fact that Mo introduces herself (what can I say, I’m a sucker for animals). I loved reading the stories pf the people Turk and Mo encountered, people from all walks of life, ethnic backgrounds, religions and economic means. He asked people about their little towns, why they liked living there and what they had seen change. It brought me back to my own childhood in a small town in the 1970’s and how much has changed since then. Some of this book is bittersweet, as the best memories always are, but Turk proves that rural America still exists, it may have morphed a little (or a lot), but it’s still out there.