He was right and it’s why I’m so admiring of an acquaintance of mine, Phyllis Pahl
Mitchell. With the help of my friend and author, Joan Tornow, Phyllis compiled
stories she’d written about growing up in Nebraska in the 1920’s and 30’s. Her paperback
book, Growing Up On Prairie Farms – A Rough
and Tumble Childhood is now available on Amazon.
You can get
a sneak peek at the stories and see this photo of Phyllis on the back cover.
Phyllis, also an accomplished artist, created the artwork. At 93 years young, you
can definitely see the likeness to her father in the beautiful water color. I was
privileged to have taken the photo for the book cover and the other photo of
Phyllis and Joan.
The
compilation of stories in her book was written over a number of years while Phyllis
was a student in Joan’s memoir writing class. She was encouraged to create a
book, but it wasn’t until this fall, with Joan’s editing and design skills,
that Phyllis’ dream became a reality.
Phyllis’
first person account of life on the farm, attending a rural one-room school and
eventually teaching in a rural school herself shows similarities to characters
in my novel, Cat Skinner: A Story of Lust,
Love and Loss in the 1930’s. It also shows stark contrasts. Phyllis' loving
parents provided guidance and support, while my father, Webb, was tossed out of
his home, not once but twice by his parents, before he was fifteen.
While world
events and environmental changes were the same for these families, the experience
of the children was indeed very different.
My hat is
off to Phyllis and Joan and anyone else who writes their first book. If we were
sensible… But we’re not.
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