Possum Living
How to Live Well Without a Job and with (Almost) No Money
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Narrated by:
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Dolly Freed
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Paige Williams
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By:
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Dolly Freed
About this listen
In the 1970s, Dolly Freed lived off the land dirt cheap and plum easy. Living in their own house on a half-acre lot outside of Philadelphia for almost five years, Dolly and her father produced their own food and drink and spent roughly $700 each per year. Thirty years later, Dolly Freed's Possum Living is as fascinating and pertinent as it was in 1978. Tin House is reissuing the survivalist classic with a foreword by David Gates and an afterword by the author.
After discussing reasons why you should or shouldn't give up your job, Possum Living gives you details about the cheapest ways with the best results to buy and maintain your home, dress well, cope with the law, stay healthy, and keep up a middle-class facade whether you live in the city, in the suburbs, or in a small town.
In a delightful, straightforward style, Dolly Freed explains how to be lazy, proud, miserly, and honest, live well and enjoy leisure. She shares her knowledge for what you do need - your own home, for example - and what you don't need, such as doctors, lawyers, and insurance. Through her own example, Dolly hopes to inspire you to do some independent thinking about how economics affect the course of your life now and may do so in the coming "age of shortages". If you ever wondered what it would be like to be in greater control of your own life, Possum Living will show you and help you do it for yourself.
©1978 Dolly Freed (P)2009 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Half memoir, half how-to manual, Possum Living is a quirky, fun book, detailing how Dolly Freed and her father manage to do more than survive after her mother leaves the family with no money, and no source of income. With little more than their home, they have no choice but to adapt to their new circumstances and demonstrate that it’s not only possible to live on very little, but to enjoy doing it.
Although the book was written in the early 1970s, when Freed was just 18 years old, and some of the ideas are a bit outdated (which Freed now admits), it’s still a pleasant journey. The narration, done by the author herself, is spot-on, and fits perfectly with the writing. Her tone is conversational and friendly — Freed is personally telling a great story, rather than reading words from a page. Her emotions, generally positive, flow freely, and give the listener a true sense of Dolly.
Freed and her father quickly accept their new frugal lives because they have to, although she makes it clear on numerous occasions that they prefer “possum living”; it’s simpler and there’s no stress. Although she’s upfront about her mother abandoning them, thus forcing them into this lifestyle, she’s never bitter or angry. It may not have been addressed in her writing, but the glowing style and happiness she uses to describe everything from gutting fish to making moonshine is hard to fake.
The afterword is an important part of the book, giving the listener a peek into Dolly’s life post-possum living. Refreshingly, although she speaks fondly of those times, Freed now professes a love for air conditioning and has no plans to live without it. She admits to being idealistic at a young age, and is not afraid to admit that she disagrees with some of the writings and opinions she expressed when she was younger. —Lesley Grossman
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The Brewer's Tale is a beer-filled journey into the past: the story of brewers gone by and one brave writer's quest to bring them - and their ancient, forgotten beers - back to life, one taste at a time. This is the story of the world according to beer, a toast to flavors born of necessity and place - in Belgian monasteries, rundown farmhouses, and the basement nanobrewery next door. So pull up a barstool and raise a glass to 5,000 years of fermented magic.
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Good insights!
- By Michael on 03-08-16
By: William Bostwick
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Money Secrets of the Amish
- Finding True Abundance in Simplicity, Sharing, and Saving
- By: Lorilee Craker
- Narrated by: Lorilee Craker
- Length: 4 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Take one thoroughly modern gal with a recessionary income problem, mix with the practices of a culture that has proved to be recession-proof, and what have you got? A financial planner in a straw hat. When writer Lorilee Craker learned that the Amish are not just surviving but thriving in the economic downturn, she decided to find out why.
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Pure Listening Pleasure!
- By Yaz on 08-04-11
By: Lorilee Craker
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The Kitchen Counter Cooking School
- How A Few Simple Lessons Transformed Nine Culinary Novices into Fearless Home Cooks
- By: Kathleen Flinn
- Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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After graduating from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, writer Kathleen Flinn returned with no idea what to do next, until one day at a supermarket she watched a woman loading her cart with ultraprocessed foods. Flinn's "chefternal" instinct kicked in: she persuaded the stranger to reload with fresh foods, offering her simple recipes for healthy, easy meals.
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Just as much a self-help book as a cookbook.
- By J. Locke on 03-07-13
By: Kathleen Flinn
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The Midwest Survival Guide
- How We Talk, Love, Work, Drink, and Eat... Everything with Ranch
- By: Charlie Berens
- Narrated by: Charlie Berens
- Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Have you ever had a goodbye lasting more than four hours? Do you lack the emotional capacity to say “I love you” so you just tell your loved ones to “watch out for deer”? Have you apologized to a stranger because she stepped on your foot? If you answered yes to any of these questions, there’s a good chance you’re a Midwesterner - or a Midwesterner at heart.
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Perfect for the Long Drive to WI
- By Amazon Customer on 01-24-22
By: Charlie Berens
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Little Heathens
- Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression
- By: Mildred Armstrong Kalish
- Narrated by: Ruth Ann Phimister
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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As foreclosure fragments her family, five-year-old Mildred and her three siblings find refuge with her grandparents enjoying a modest retirement. When the "little heathens" flush the seniors and their child-rearing skills out of retirement, the grandparents deploy tough but loving bedtime schedules, Bible and prayer routines, and plenty of character-building chores. Having no electricity or indoor plumbing and with little heat or money on the farm, Mildred learns to find joy in the priceless blessings of life.
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Makes you appreciate today's living
- By Susan on 03-11-11
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Consider the Fork
- A History of How We Cook and Eat
- By: Bee Wilson
- Narrated by: Alison Larkin
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Since prehistory, humans have braved the business ends of knives, scrapers, and mashers, all in the name of creating something delicious - or at least edible. In Consider the Fork, award-winning food writer and historian Bee Wilson traces the ancient lineage of our modern culinary tools, revealing the startling history of objects we often take for granted. Charting the evolution of technologies from the knife and fork to the gas range and the sous-vide cooker, Wilson offers unprecedented insights.
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For the foodie/science geek/history buff in you
- By Nothing really matters on 08-30-14
By: Bee Wilson
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Milk!
- A 10,000-Year Food Fracas
- By: Mark Kurlansky
- Narrated by: Brian Sutherland
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Mark Kurlansky's first global food history since the best-selling Cod and Salt; the fascinating cultural, economic and culinary story of milk and all things dairy - with recipes throughout. According to the Greek creation myth, we are so much spilt milk; a splatter of the goddess Hera's breast milk became our galaxy, the Milky Way.
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Horrible narration nearly kills Kurlansky
- By Scarlatti's Muse on 05-15-18
By: Mark Kurlansky
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South Toward Home
- Adventures and Misadventures in My Native Land
- By: Julia Reed, Jon Meecham - foreword
- Narrated by: Julia Reed, Dan Bittner - introduction
- Length: 5 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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In thinking about her native land, Julia Reed quotes another Southern writer, Willie Morris, who said, “It’s the juxtapositions that get you down here.” These juxtapositions are, for Julia Reed, the soul of the South and in her warmhearted and funny new audiobook, South Toward Home, she chronicles her adventures through the highs and the lows of Southern life - the Delta hot tamale festival, a masked ball, a rollicking party in a boat on a sand bar, scary Christian billboards, and the southern affection for the lowly possum.
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Julia Reed IS the SOUTH
- By toni on 05-23-20
By: Julia Reed, and others
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Mycophilia
- Revelations From the Weird World of Mushrooms
- By: Eugenia Bone
- Narrated by: Aimee Jolson
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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In Mycophilia, accomplished food writer and cookbook author Eugenia Bone examines the role of fungi as exotic delicacy, curative, poison, and hallucinogen, and ultimately discovers that a greater understanding of fungi is key to facing many challenges of the 21st century.
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Absolutely awful, insufferable, racist author
- By Rs 🦇 on 11-25-19
By: Eugenia Bone
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Eight Flavors
- The Untold Story of American Cuisine
- By: Sarah Lohman
- Narrated by: Sarah Lohman
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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The United States boasts a culturally and ethnically diverse population which makes for a continually changing culinary landscape. But a young historical gastronomist named Sarah Lohman discovered that American food is united by eight flavors: black pepper, vanilla, curry powder, chili powder, soy sauce, garlic, MSG, and Sriracha. In Eight Flavors, Lohman sets out to explore how these influential ingredients made their way to the American table.
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Great read... Terrible accents
- By S. Macklin on 12-14-18
By: Sarah Lohman
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Short Course in Beer
- An Introduction to Tasting and Talking About the World's Most Civilized Beverage
- By: Lynn Hoffman
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Straightforward and opinionated, Short Course in Beer is designed to turn the novice beer lover into an expert imbiber and the casual drinker into an enthusiast. Readers will come to understand the beauty of beer and the sources of its flavor, as well as learn which beers are worth our time and which are not. With tongue in cheek, the author examines beer's historical connections to the Crusades, the Hundred Years' War, and modern-day soccer riots. He talks frankly (and joyfully) about the effects of alcohol on the body and brain, he defends beer from its enemies, and ushers it out of the frat house and into the dining room.
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An Ok Beer Book
- By AppleCedAR on 10-21-13
By: Lynn Hoffman
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A Square Meal
- A Culinary History of the Great Depression
- By: Jane Ziegelman, Andrew Coe
- Narrated by: Susan Ericksen
- Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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The decade-long Great Depression, a period of shifts in the country's political and social landscape, forever changed the way America eats. Before 1929, America's relationship with food was defined by abundance. But the collapse of the economy, in both urban and rural America, left a quarter of all Americans out of work and undernourished - shattering long-held assumptions about the limitlessness of the national larder.
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Not entirely accurate title
- By Robert on 06-07-17
By: Jane Ziegelman, and others
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The Bucolic Plague
- How Two Manhattanites Became Gentlemen Farmers: An Unconventional Memoir
- By: Josh Kilmer-Purcell
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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A happy series of accidents and a doughnut-laden escape upstate take Josh Kilmer-Purcell and his partner, Brent Ridge, to the doorstep of the magnificent (and fabulously for sale) Beekman Mansion. And so begins their transformation from uptight urbanites into the 200-year-old-mansion-owning Beekman Boys. Suddenly Josh---a full-time New Yorker with a successful advertising career---and Brent find themselves weekend farmers, surrounded by nature's bounty and an eclectic cast.
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Selling your dream and name dropping
- By Mark on 09-13-12
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Vodka is Vegan
- A Manifesto for Better Living and Not Being an A**hole
- By: Matt Letten, Phil Letten
- Narrated by: Phil Letten, Matt Letten
- Length: 4 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Meet the bros who are making vegan sexy (and making eating animals weird). Think you could never go vegan? Think again. As this smart, funny and persuasive manifesto makes clear, you're already 90 percent vegan anyway. That's right - you already love animals and are slowly but surely eating less meat than you used to. With the insider tips and inspiring stories in this book, you'll be ready to go whole hog (see what we did there?) and eat vegan for good.
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Honest review from a fellow vodka drinking vegan..
- By AmazonAddict on 06-28-18
By: Matt Letten, and others
What listeners say about Possum Living
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Ed
- 06-01-10
Full of personality
Other than listening to the recipes (which got a bit tedious - would be better in printed form) i thoroughly enjoyed this book. I am so grateful to the author for coming back to read her own book. some of the best parts came in the afterward - listen to the end!
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3 people found this helpful
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- Anon
- 05-22-10
Thought I was frugal until I read this...
A possum (and Dolly) can live anywhere, hence the title of the book. She and her father managed to live an entirely self-sufficient life without employment or welfare. Of course you can't live independently if you have a "normal" outlook, which is the crux of the matter. The book is a fascinating account, written when Dolly was 18, of how she and her father spent their days. She shares her can-do attitude as well as practical details and recipes. Her straightforward enthusiasm makes the book easy listening, regardless of whether she is talking about how to catch, kill, and prepare a turtle for cooking or how to work up to running miles at full speed. She freely acknowledges that we might not all want to do these things. It's understood that she is just letting us know we can have choices.
But there's more. I couldn't help wondering what kind of adult Dolly would grow into - would she live with her father forever? So for me, the most interesting part was at the end. Dolly gives her perspective on the book 30 years on, and tells us what happened to her between then and now. Listen to the very end. There is also an interesting article about her by journalist Paige Williams, and a commentary by novelist David Gates, who based a character on Dolly but clearly doesn't "get" possum living. Neither will all listeners, but that doesn't mean they won't find the book thought-provoking.
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10 people found this helpful
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- Jan L
- 03-26-16
What a treat!
Would you consider the audio edition of Possum Living to be better than the print version?
I do! The audio version of Possum Living gives you a one on one (though one-sided) conversation with an extremely wise, capable, fearless, and young, woman at the start of a remarkable life.
What other book might you compare Possum Living to and why?
The Foxfire publications are the closest comparison I can think of.
What does Dolly Freed and Paige Williams bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
Dolly's voice provides just the right touch of region; her accent is transporting. The afterward sums up a life intentionally lived and lived well.
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- Miss Peggy
- 10-22-24
Just Boring
Just boring.Some fairly good information. However, nothing explained very well. Not enough details..Not very exciting or entertaining. Just boring...I want a refund or exchange for a more interesting book
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- Anthony
- 07-25-12
Living like a possum
I enjoyed this book. It just goes to show that by changing how necessities are viewed can change your life. It also underscores a the point that if your home is paid-off, you really don't need that much money.
With no rent and no mortgage it is possible to have a lot of free time to do and learn the things that interest you. One question, that came to me was: Why am I working so hard? For money? And, would it be better to have less money and more free time?
I do wonder if possum living is possible today. In southern California where I life, I'm not sure. In other areas of the USA, I think it might be possible.
When reading a book, I try to take the good and apply what I can to my own life. I remember being on a farm as a child, and the book brought back some of those memories.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Becky Miller
- 07-26-11
RedNeck how to book.
I loved it. She has a way of bringing words to life especially being the nearator of the book as well as it's aurthor. I don't agree with all over her previous morals, but got a good laugh at some of her descriptions in her "Law" chapter. The moonshine chapter could be utitlized also as an alternative energy source.
I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 01-28-20
Horrible.
This book is all about how to rip people off by squatting on property that isn’t theirs, not pay taxes but still utilize the things our taxes pay for—in example the post office and library, etc., and threaten lawyers and realtors with bodily harm so they don’t have to pay them what is owed. It’s not really about living a sustainable lifestyle like it implies.
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- Lori
- 05-26-10
Frugality by breaking the law, poisoning animals
Really, really awful. There are better books on the market that advocate legal means to save money. Someone owes you money? Is suing you? Just call and threaten them or poison their dog. I don't care if her 2010 self says she does not agree with doing this anymore, it should never had been said, let alone reprinted. Don't want to pay taxes? Don't. She does not mention how much money or jail time it will cost you when you are caught. Too many baby bunnies? Just drown a few, "it's not as cruel as it sounds." Oh? I grew up on a farm, and though we were poor, we never drowned our baby rabbits. We DID hand raise the extras and gave them away as pets. Much of what Freed says is just not legal, moral, or practical. Those things that ARE of interest and worth can be found in other, better books. The Tightwad Gazette comes to mind, but there are others. Pass on this one.
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12 people found this helpful
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- Avril
- 02-10-16
Really really bad
Some pretty scary and small minded views disguised as a bushcraft and number 8 wire type book. It's a shame because some of the ideas of lite living were appealing.
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- Julie
- 03-14-19
Awful
Just don't.
I was expecting a story of people minimizing their lifestyles realistically. Instead I got suggestions to eat "long pig" - or human flesh to stay alive in an emergency. Don't waste your time.
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