David and the Old Man is a true life story about a father and his oldest son. The father a rugged, independent, stubborn and selfserving man who grew up on a farm where growing food became the only way to survive. He carries this farm mentality into his own family situation and has an enormous garden which primarily provides for his wife and four children. He grows and stores enough food for his family, all the neighbors and friends. Beyond his own belief, the Old Man's first son is not the rugged individualist he pictured his first son to be. David, as a youth, appears to have all the normal tendecies of any other kid, but does not fully develop physically and has a dislike of certain foods. The psychological battle between father and son is further nututred by the Old Man's dislike for David's passive and unfatherlike personality. David develops anorexia nervosa patterns in the earl 1960's and becomes a full blown anorexic case by his late teens. What is unusual about this-- David is a male, completely rare for this disease and exceptionally rare for tha time period in which it occrred. The family battles the Old Man's will and lives with a son or brother who displays no regard for himself or those close to him.
