Anybody Can Do Anything
Written by Betty MacDonald
Narrated by Heather Henderson
4/5
()
About this audiobook
The Audiobook:
Chronologically, this book takes place after her misadventures on a chicken ranch—the subject of Betty’s first book, The Egg and I—and before her account of a year spent in a tuberculosis sanatorium, recounted in The Plague and I (both of which are also available in audio from Post Hypnotic Press). Despite the hilarity with which she described her time spent chicken farming, she was unhappy in her marriage and terribly lonely.Anybody Can Do Anything opens with her leaving the farm and her husband and making her way with her two children back to Seattle and the bosom of her family, just as the Depression begins. She and her family—a mother, a brother, and three sisters, plus her two young girls—live in a “modest dwelling in a respectable neighborhood, near good schools and adequate for a normal family.” As the Depression goes on, they find much comfort in having that home and in having each other to rely on and commiserate with.
With two children to support, Betty was desperate for work as jobs became more and more scarce. But she also had her sister, Mary, an eccentric and energetic finder of jobs and organizer of people. Since childhood, Mary had been getting Betty in and out of situations. With Mary’s ‘can do’ attitude, Betty was propelled into jobs and sent on dates, regardless of whether she possessed the skills necessary for the job or had anything in common with her date. Betty credits Mary’s positive attitude with getting them through the hard years:
“Mary, one of those fortunate people who are able to bring forth great reserves of strength and fortitude during times of stress, accepted the Depression as a personal challenge. She always had a job, she tried to find jobs for her family and hundreds of friends, and while she was looking propped up everyone’s limp spirits by defying big corporations. When the telephone company threatened to cut off our telephone because the bill hadn’t been paid, Mary marched right down to see the president and told him that if he cut off our phone and left us with no communication with the outside world, she was going to sue him personally.… “I told him a telephone and telegraph company is a public service operating under a special grant from the State. If you cut off my telephone, you will not be performing a public service and I will sue you.”"
While successful with the phone company, this tactic didn’t work when it came to their heat and the electricity, and they find themselves relying on old Christmas candles for light and firewood for heat: “When we ran out of fireplace wood, Mary unearthed a bucksaw and marched us all down to a city park two blocks away, where we took turns sawing up fallen logs.”
Betty’s writing is a testament to the power of humor to help cope with adversity, and her humor also afforded her opportunities to comment on larger issues. As the Depression grinds on, she notes: “Now I grew more and more conscious of the aimlessness and sadness of the people on the streets, of the Space for Rent signs, marking the sudden death of businesses, that had sprung up over the city like white crosses on the battlefield and I lifted myself up each morning timidly and with dread.” She doesn’t desert her boss, Mr. Chalmers, even though his business is clearly failing. She intends to stay until the end. “And I did,” we read, “in spite of Mr. Chalmers’ telling me many times that the Depression was all my fault, the direct result of inferior people like me wearing silk stockings and thinking they were as good as people like him.” And have we not heard this victim blaming rhetoric after every economic crisis, including the crash of 2008?
Betty MacDonald
A longtime resident of Washington State, Betty MacDonald (1908-1958) authored four humorous, autobiographical bestsellers and several children's books, including the popular Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books.
More audiobooks from Betty Mac Donald
The Plague and I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Egg and I: Life on a wilderness chicken ranch told with wit and high humour Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Onions in the Stew: Betty MacDonald's 4th humorous autobiography Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to Anybody Can Do Anything
Related audiobooks
The Escape Artist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Antonia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLooking for Betty Macdonald: The Bog, the Plague, Mrs Piggle Wiggle and I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mailman Tales: A Man of Letters Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJubilee Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLetters of a Woman Homesteader Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Your Oasis on Flame Lake Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Perfect Is That Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Tales and Tails of a Yorkshire Vet: All in a day's work for Peter Wright Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5By Any Name Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSomething Rising (Light and Swift) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fireside Reading of My Man Jeeves Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Homely Heroine: and Other Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5We Learnt About Hitler at the Mickey Mouse Club: A Childhood on the Eve of War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Darling Buds of May: The Larkin Novels, Volume 1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Tomorrow Will Be Better Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Not That It Matters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Coin Street Chronicles: London's Vanished Old South Bank Area Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Brothers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When the Green Woods Laugh Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Oh! To Be in England: The Larkin Novels, Volume 4 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Kitchen Yarns: Notes on Life, Love, and Food Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Slip of a Girl Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cluny Brown: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cinder Pond Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Here Comes the Fun: A Year of Making Merry Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBuddy's Tail Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Steinbeck's Ghost Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Other People's Dirt: A Housecleaner's Curious Adventures Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Personal Memoirs For You
I'm Glad My Mom Died Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Woman in Me Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Roxane Gay & Everand Originals: My Year of Psychedelics: Lessons on Better Living Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Counting the Cost Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5See You on the Way Down: Catch You on the Way Back Up! Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Year of Magical Thinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Night: New translation by Marion Wiesel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Good Girls Don't Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Stay Married Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Stolen Life: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pageboy: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Angela's Ashes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5While Time Remains: A North Korean Girl's Search for Freedom in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Choice: Escaping the Past and Embracing the Possible Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Enough Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Me: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Making It So: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Glass Castle: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Roxane Gay & Everand Originals: Built for This: The Quiet Strength of Powerlifting Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Love, Pamela: A Memoir of Prose, Poetry, and Truth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bad Mormon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for Anybody Can Do Anything
71 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Some great ideas in here. Think about relationships and positive attachment through connection as helping an adolescent grow up in a safe environment. Peer pressure might be positive, but why leave it to chance.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just started it, no surprise here. For years "professionals" have told us how to parent our kids and kids are not better off for it. Glad I didn't listen.Attachment parenting validated, nice for a change.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A fairly common sense approach to parenting. I have reservations as to the underlying theme that Mom should stay at home, but the actual premise is sound. With parents more and more delegating their role due to social pressures (especially in North America), I can see how this would be valid. I think European values still hold strong with an emphasis on family, so this thesis may seem a bit extreme. A little dry, but well explained.