Arnold Bauer grew up on his family's 160-acre farm in Goshen
Township in Clay County, Kansas, amidst a land of prairie grass and
rich creek-bottom soil. His meditative and moving account of those
years depicts a century-long narrative of struggle, survival, and
demise. A coming-of-age memoir set in the 1930s to 50s, it blends
local history with personal reflection to paint a realistic picture
of farm life and families from a now-lost world.
Bauer's was typical of true family farms, where wives
supplemented family income by selling butter and eggs and children
provided unpaid labor. These hardworking farmers were not
particularly heroic or virtuous. They had their debts and doubts;
but at the same time their struggles for a kind of moral economy
offer valuable lessons that merit our attention today.
Among Bauer's vivid recollections: driving a team of huge,
clomping work horses; his father's daybreak call to long days in
the field at age 12; and surviving eight years of education in a
one-room schoolhouse (with one teacher determined to have all her
students learn the harmonica). He shares the trials of Depression
and drought, experiences the coming of electricity-which prompted
his father to take on a sideline as an electrician-and reveals the
vital importance of the local blacksmith. Throughout the book, he
finds wonder in the commonplace, like going to town on a Saturday
night for a black walnut ice cream cone.
Here is a childhood that few in the United States will ever
know. More than that, it is a key to understanding the tragedy that
befell the smaller family farms on the Great Plains as sweeping
changes after the mid-1950s--falling grain and livestock prices,
adverse terms of trade for agricultural products--turned out to be
more devastating than tornados or dust storms.
Gracefully written with a keen eye for the telling detail,
"Time's Shadow" eloquently captures the events of an era and the
meaning it held for one boy and those around him. It is a
refreshingly unsentimental "Little House on the Prairie" that will
resonate not only with older compatriots but with anyone whose
curiosity leads them to wonder about a world we have lost.
General
| Imprint: |
University Press of Kansas
|
| Country of origin: |
United States |
| Release date: |
May 2014 |
| First published: |
May 2014 |
| Authors: |
Arnold J. Bauer
|
| Dimensions: |
216 x 140 x 10mm (L x W x T) |
| Format: |
Paperback
|
| Pages: |
156 |
| ISBN-13: |
978-0-7006-1970-2 |
| Categories: |
Books >
Sport & Leisure >
General
|
| LSN: |
0-7006-1970-4 |
| Barcode: |
9780700619702 |
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