Memories of Childhood Written and illustrated by Theodore Waddell

Ted Waddell was born and raised in Laurel, Montana, a small railroad community west of Billings. His new book, Memories of Childhood, tells of an idyllic rural childhood with caring parents, close friends, farm animals, and numerous boyhood adventures.

Before cell phones and video games, growing up in the west required exploration fueled by imagination. Nature played a major role as a fertile playground and a stern teacher.  The humble stories relate lessons learned in the joys and heartaches of growing up in a rural environment. Waddell recalls a simpler life, although not necessarily an easier one, as young boy he worked many colorful jobs for low wages.

The fourteen playful illustrations in the book are splendidly populated with chickens and cows, boys and dogs, threshing machines and tractors. Readers will find a common thread in these Montana memories of hunting and fishing, farm choirs and fall harvest.

Parents, and particularly grandparents, will enjoy reading these stories to young people. Memories of Childhood is a book of memories worth sharing. Collectors of Ted Waddell’s paintings, prints and other books will enjoy this addition if this thoughtful boyhood memoir.

Waddell has three other children’s books based on his beloved Bernese Mountain Dogs, Tucker Tees Off (2016), Tucker’s Seasonal Words of Wisdom (2015), and Tucker Gets Tuckered (2006).

Theodore Waddell: My Montana—Paintings and Sculpture, 1959–2016, by Rick Newby was published in 2017. Richly illustrated with the artist’s work, as well as images from his personal archive, My Montana, traces Waddell’s early influences and the development of a career that lead to becoming one the West’s most recognized and celebrated contemporary artist. My Montana is published by Drumlummon Institute of Helena, MT, and is distributed by the University of Oklahoma Press.

Waddell divides his time between a studio in Sheridan, Montana, and a home in Hailey, Idaho, he shares with wife, writer and photographer Lynn Champion. In 2015, Theodore Waddell was honored with the Montana Governor’s Award for the Arts.