Growing Up is about the formative years of four children who grew up on a dairy and tobacco farm in southwest Wisconsin in the 1930s and 1940s. They took their first innocent childhood steps in the security of a loving family. As they grew toward adolescence, the world was no longer a storybook land, as they had imagined in grade school, but a whole new world of different people and strange surroundings. It always seemed, though, as they grew from puberty to young adulthood, that what they learned in Sunday school and from their parents came to the surface when they were faced with making hard decisions in an adult world. The difference between right and wrong, instilled in them from earliest childhood, stayed with them all their lives. All parents want their children to have a better life than their own, and their parents did everything they could to convince them to get a more complete education. Tom did not go to college like his sister and brothers, but attended a vocational school in La Crosse, Wisconsin, where he learned auto mechanics and welding. After one year, he was drafted into the Army and served in Korea. The war had just ended, so he did not see battle. Come join this wonderful family on a trip down memory lane.

When his father retires early, young Fred is forced to leave the ice cream shops, elevated trains, and bustling streets of suburban Chicago and move to a small farm in southwest Wisconsin. It is the beginning of a new life filled with fun and adventure. There is a snake den under the back porch and the kitchen floor is covered with dead insects. There are snapping turtles to catch and farm animals to play with. But there is also work to be done. The old farmhouse has to be completely rebuilt. Dad's vision of being a gentleman farmer involves having his two sons help with milking the cows, taking care of the chickens, fixing fences, and shoveling snow off the driveway in addition to attending school. And the Wisconsin summers are hot and humid, the winters long and bitterly cold. This is the story of how one family of four manages the transition from Chicago to rural Wisconsin in the late 1950s to 1960s. The story unfolds in a series of vignettes seen through Fred's eyes, which describe how they renovate the old farmhouse, get an inactive dairy farm up and running, learn how to plant and harvest crops, overcome hardships, and adapt to the personalities and customs of a traditional farming community. The experiences will leave a permanent impression on Fred. Listening to the colorful characters in Richland Center and Yuba, exploring the farm on horseback, rounding up stray cows and sheep, cooling off at the swimming hole on the Pine River, catching fireflies, and stargazing on clear summer nights-these are memories that will last a lifetime. Dr. Fred G. Baker is a hydrologist, historian, and author living in Colorado. He is the author of The Life and Times of Con James Baker and The Light from a Thousand Campfires (with Hannah Pavlik).

Dace Chamberlain was a man of the river. He taught his family how to survive and thrive on the river by learning its ways and respecting its power. These are the stories of the Chamberlain family who grew up on the lower Wisconsin River in the 1950s and 1960s.

As a young boy, Dave Crehore moved with his parents from northern Ohio to the shipbuilding town of Manitowoc on the shores of Wisconsin’s Lake Michigan, where the Germanic inhabitants punctuate their conversations with “enso,” the local radio station interrupts Beethoven for commercials, and the outdoors are a wellspring of enlightenment. Crehore’s stories of his youth in 1950s Wisconsin are peppered with engaging characters and a quiet wit. A grouse-hunting expedition goes awry when an eccentric British businessman bags an escaped bantam rooster with a landing net. Crehore's great-grandfather gets in trouble one Christmas when he sneaks a whoopee-cushion under a guest’s seat. The elderly Frau Blau gets trapped in an outhouse by a shady auctioneer during a farm sale. Through all the adventures—and misadventures—in a small town and in the great outdoors of Wisconsin, family is always at the center. This gently humorous look back at a baby-boomer’s awakening to adulthood will be appreciated by members of any generation. Honorable Mention, Kingery/Derleth Book Length Nonfiction, Council for Wisconsin Writers Finalist, Humor, Midwest Book Awards

Carol was born to Polish-Americans in a small blue-collar town south of Milwaukee. The book spans three generations: her immigrant grandparents at the turn of the century, her parents who grew up immersed in the Polish culture, and their three daughters who enjoyed the "happy days" of the 1940's and 50's. Nostalgic, funny, insightful, the book is lightly seasoned with Polish words, recipes, and wisdom, but you don't have to be Polish to enjoy this well-written memoir.

On a Wisconsin Family Farm flings the barn doors wide open to a cast of characters that built America's Dairyland. A maternal maverick, Anna Satorie, went against cultural-norms and became the sole owner of her family's homestead in 1905. The next year, Anna married John Burich, and the couple went about building a thrifty family farm. Pioneer life was fraught with trials and tribulations as polio and tuberculosis claimed loved ones and the fabricated death of a bootlegging brother turned gangsters away from the farm. Neighbors pitched in as members of the immigrant class aided one another to construct farmsteads and support one another through unsanctioned bank loans, daring dynamite work and barn raisings. Leasing work aside, this community also threw parties met by the rooster's early-dawn crow. Corey Geiger, international agricultural journalist, pairs his rural roots and lively storytelling talents to capture six generations of local tales. Book jacket.

Remembering Rosie is about Block's childhood on a Wisconsin dairy farm in the mid-twentieth century. Growing up on the homestead with her parents and siblings was often idyllic. Still, it never stopped Block from dreaming of making a different life for herself despite many obstacles she'd face in trying to leave the land her German great-grandparents settled in the 1880s.Block and her siblings experienced long hours of tedious and dangerous work. Educational opportunities were limited, and the Ludwig children's one-room school had poorly trained teachers and few books. There was no expectation of girls going on to higher education. Block's observations of her depressive mother, the drudgery of farm life, and the short, cruel lives of farm animals were driving forces that made her take a path less followed. During a time when going against the grain was difficult, Block's restlessness and desire to see a world outside her sheltered community catapulted her into a life that the blue-eyed, blond-haired farm girl never could have imagined.