*My Brush with Life and Art by Kate Pedigo with Ernie Loewy, $25

In her autobiography, "My Brush with Life and Art," nonagenarian Kate Pedigo of Long Beach, California, depicts life in a simpler, more innocent age. An artist, Kate started painting twenty years ago, in a primitive style compared to that of Grandma Moses; and she has amassed a number of awards. Many of her paintings and drawings, as well as numerous photographs, grace the pages of this book.

Kate's writing style is as unsophisticated as her painting technique. My Brush with Life and Art is not great literature. It doesn't pretend to be. Rather, it is a mirror to the past, reflecting what was there, without artifice or embellishment. Younger people who read the book will marvel at how different life was then, while older readers will nostalgically recall days they thought they had forgotten.

Reading the book is like stepping into a time machine. In her matter-of-fact manner, Kate transports us back to the early 1900s when trains were powered by coal shoveled into a fire box behind the engine, when the iceman delivered a block of ice for the family's wooden ice box and the milkman delivered milk to the doorstep, when newspapers printed Extra editions to announce late-breaking events, when a father supported a family of six on a salary of $60 per month, and when gasoline cost seven cents a gallon.

The book also details Kate's life-long travels, beginning with local jaunts with her family and then branching out to encompass the world. When she was in her mid 20s, Kate left her Indiana home to vacation in California. While there, within three days of meeting Tex Pedigo, a cab driver/tour director many years her senior, they became engaged. She returned home at the end of her vacation, expecting Tex to follow so they could be married in Indiana. Instead, he sent her train fare to California where they were wed without any of Kate's family in attendance—very unconventional back in 1937.

Tex shared Kate's love of travel, and together they journeyed throughout the United States and Canada, and took eighteen trips to Alaska. However, it wasn't all roses. Tex was "selfish, demanding and unbearable," says Kate—so much so that at one point she pulled his gun from a drawer, pointed it at her own chest and pulled the trigger. The bullet did some damage, of course, but missed her heart. She recovered, and apparently so did their marriage.

After Tex's death, Kate continued to travel the world, meeting many attentive men on her trips. However, as I said earlier, that was a much more innocent age; so the relationships were strictly platonic. Those who may be hoping for some salacious details won't find them here. She never remarried, but to this day, Kate does not lack for male companionship or dance partners.

In fact, when her publisher Sunny Nash of Belmont Media asked Kate to make a pre-publication publicity appearance at the Long Beach Barnes & Noble on a Saturday evening, the 90-year-old author replied, "No, I can't do it on Saturday; I always go dancing on Saturday night." A feisty survivor, Kate's activities and involvements would tire most women half her age. Her secret to longevity: "I wear comfortable shoes. I have lived my entire life strictly on a cash basis. And I eat lots of ice cream."

Sounds good to me!

— Rose Mula

*The book will be available soon at Amazon; we'll keep you updated, if you wish, as to when it will appear.

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