Possum Living

[mickj]

Dolly Freed is back on the web. Very interesting read...

Possum Living

 

[Sarah in SC]

Wow, thanks so much! I love my copy of the book and am so pleased to see this!

Also cool is her link to the documentary filmed way back when:

 

[haha]

Does anyone know about her current life? I think I first read this many years ago- maybe 30 years. She must by now be a middle-aged woman. I read a few blog pieces, but they sound not unlike those from years ago.

Is this original Dolly's daughter?

She has a very appealing personality and character; her Dad should give thanks for hitting the offspring jackpot.

Sarah, super video!

Ha

 

[Martha]

Does anyone know about her current life? I think I first read this many years ago- maybe 30 years. She must by now be a middle-aged woman. I read a few blog pieces, but they sound not unlike those from years ago.

Is this original Dolly's daughter?

She has a very appealing personality and character; her Dad should give thanks for hitting the offspring jackpot.

Sarah, super video!

Ha

Following her success as an author, Dolly Freed grew up to become a NASA aerospace engineer. She aced the SATs with an education she received from the public library and put herself through college. She’s been an environmental educator, business owner, and college professor. She now lives in Texas with her husband and two children. Possum Living

 

[Sarah in SC]

Ha, on her blog you can see pictures of her and her family. She's quite pretty with what looks to be a son at college and a daughter that is a teenager.

She turned out pretty well, I'd say. The video is really cool and I love to see her showing off their lifestyle. There are three videos in all and I think it is awesome that they reprinted her book. I love my original 1970s copy, though!

 

[walkinwood]

I had not heard about this book or Dolly Freed before. I enjoyed the documentary and am heading for the web-site. Thank you for sharing.

 

[Sarah in SC]

Walkin, the book is an old topic of interest on the forum and there used to be an online complete copy available, but that is probably no more, now that it has been reissued. It is a charming story, albeit a bit baldly told (I really didn't need to know how to kill and dress a rabbit, but the homemade still sketches might come in handy one day).

I am so delighted to know that "Dolly" made such a great life for herself in the intervening years. I hope you enjoy the website and her blog. For a very long time, possum living was what we called what we were doing while paying off the mortgage. To this day, there are several color possum photos on my refrigerator to remind us of the value of living like a possum!

Another story, with photos, from January last year: http://www.paige-williams.com/
Finding Dolly Freed

 

[haha]

Walkin, the book is an old topic of interest on the forum and there used to be an online complete copy available, but that is probably no more, now that it has been reissued. It is a charming story, albeit a bit baldly told (I really didn't need to know how to kill and dress a rabbit, but the homemade still sketches might come in handy one day).

I am so delighted to know that "Dolly" made such a great life for herself in the intervening years. I hope you enjoy the website and her blog. For a very long time, possum living was what we called what we were doing while paying off the mortgage. To this day, there are several color possum photos on my refrigerator to remind us of the value of living like a possum!

Another story, with photos, from January last year: Paige Williams – Journalism, etc. - Finding Dolly Freed - Possum Living
Finding Dolly Freed

OK, I guess she is the one on the left with the magenta blouse.

I couldn't figure this out, I thought that person was her mother. I was a generation off.

I wonder what became of her Dad? I thought the video when Dolly's mother came over for dinner was funny. It reminded me of country families in the old days- a little skinny man and a great big woman. I guess that nursery rhyme should have been "Jack Farb could eat no carb, and his wife could eat nothing else". And it didn't do him any harm to walk all day behind a mule either.

Ha

 

[Martha]

I think her father is dead.

(edit: Car accident at age 61, after not seeing Dolly for years).

 

[CCdaCE]

And Frank (her dad) ? His drinking worsened. He developed diabetes. The government took the house when he failed to pay taxes. He wound up in and out of halfway houses (at one, he routinely presented the cook with the quite legal gift of roadkill deer). Even as he deteriorated, he found a way to get by. When he had no money to pay for electricity, he knew how to get locked up for the entirety of the coldest months, to guarantee three hots and a cot. That was the last Dolly knew of him.
A few years ago, she got a call that some part of her had expected all her adult life. Frank had crashed his car into a tree while not wearing a seatbelt and was dead at sixty-one. He and Dolly hadn’t spoken in fourteen years.

From towards the bottom of the Paige Williams link. Italics mine.

Thanks for posting this topic. I read the digital version of the original book 5+ years ago.

-CC

 

[haha]

Wow. Like Paul Harvey used to say ..."and now, the rest of the story." I'm thinking that over and over we are shown that what sounds great (maybe) just might not be so great in the fullness of time. Things are not always, or perhaps not even often, what they seem or are made to seem.

Ha

 

[dex]

It would be interesting to know her investing style and performance.

 

[Badger]

First time I have heard this and will soon be getting a few copies of the book (one for myself and some for friends who will greatly appreciate it). I almost cried while watching the video and hearing her speak. Just when you think the whole world has one foot in the toilet there emerges a spark of sanity.

Thank you for the post and the links.

Cheers!

 

[haha]

It would be interesting to know her investing style and performance.

Why?

 

[dex]

Why?

To see how her Possum Living extended to (or not) or was affected by (or not) her investment style.