Gravedigger's Daughter: Growing Up Rural

Gravedigger's Daughter - Growing up Rural is a collection of short stories and essays based on actual events in the 1950-1970s in northern west-central Wisconsin. Little Elk Creek is a tightly knit community of Norwegian immigrant farm families who assist one another at harvest time and share their skills so all could succeed.

Debra Raye King shares her remembrances from an era when her father was the local gravedigger at the local church cemetery and it wasn't unusual for a daughter to help shovel. Moms were mostly homemakers, dads wage earners, and the children attended Farmers Union Camp, 4H, and the Luther League when not in school or helping with chores. In this small community, Debbi and her twin Sue were the only students in first grade at the one-room eight-grade schoolhouse two miles away from home. Shopping was done in Menomonie where highlights of the trip included a visit to the Farmers Store, a meal out at the Dew Drop Inn, and guessing in winter when the clunker would fall through the ice.

Relish the aroma of fresh baked bread and pies, share giggles and games with the cousins and neighborhood kids, and feel the wind in your hair at the top of the windmil.

Experience the grit, heartache, joy, and innocence of growing up rural with these tales of one family farm in Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin Writers Association is proud to help keep these memories alive as part of our mission to provide a structured fellowship of amateur and professional writers who support and assist fellow writers with all phases, types, and categories of writing. We strongly encourage documentation of personal, family, regional, and cultural stories both fiction and nonfiction, and offer informational educational services to writers and to the general public. Find more at www.WiWrite.org.