Remembering
Rosie: Memories of a Wisconsin Farm Girl
Nadine R Block
Biography, Memoir
About the BookMost of the time, our dairy farm was an idyllic place to
grow up. Everything revolved around school, church, and community. Yet, my four
siblings and I yearned to leave the farm that had been in our family for four
generations. We hoped to escape the long tedious hours of dangerous work, the
short, cruel lives of farm animals, and the limited educational opportunities
in our one-room school with 40-50 children in eight grades and poorly trained
teachers. Family farms in Wisconsin have almost disappeared and have been
replaced by factory farms. I look back with nostalgia to a place I could not
wait to leave.
My Review
Block’s charming and authentic memoir of growing up on a
farm in rural Wisconsin is quickly becoming part of a lost era. Few family
farms can exist; even fewer multi-generational farms still sustain a family or
are expected to maintain future generations of those who want to make a living
as farmers.
The author has done her research of her German immigrant
family, coming to Wisconsin in the 1880s, a little later than early settlers
who arrived between 1830 and 1850 and became part of the USA in 1848. They
settled in Taylor County, northern Wisconsin, where they carved out a home from
forty-acres of rock-filled cut-over, tree stumps left by get-rich lumber
barons. Often poignant and told with just enough detail to create vivid images,
Block also uses family photos to enhance the script. Reading the book is like
sitting down with a friend and paging through the family scrapbook. She shares
the story of what it’s like to lose her favorite farm animal, the first time
their home was “electrified” when she was four, and memories of her
grandparents and their often gruesome morality tales which frightened her.
One of my favorite parts was when Block enticed her mother
to share some family history. “When she was in her eighties, I elicited Mom’s
childhood memories by giving her a Brandy Old Fashioned. Once the lubricating
spirits loosened her tongue, I captured a family secret on my tape recorder. I
learned that my quiet, shy, and reclusive Grandma Barbara who seldom
spoke English was a bootlegger.”
Life was what it was—sufficient as in making one’s own soap
and laundry detergent—and communal in 4H, neighborhood games, movie nights, and
church. Block’s parents were progressives, and fought with the powerful
farmer’s lobby to protect Wisconsin dairy products. Portraits of siblings and
family members’ struggles with marriage, divorce, social issues, and isolation
make the book particularly poignant. “My two older siblings and I, who are
closest in age,” Block writes, “lived in a different world than the last two,
Lynda and Lin. The oldest children grew up in the fifties, which were
comfortable, hopeful, and secure. We were the tail end of the Silent
Generation.” The family farm was sold in 1978 and none of the siblings remained
in Wisconsin. Nevertheless, they have fond memories of the place that taught
them time management, hard work, the value of money, and about death.
Block’s story is told in a folksy way, fairly linear with
healthy critical look-backs, interpretations, and occasional outside resources
to remember the cost of items or general history.
Remembering Rosie is a
wonderful, intimate look at the changing landscape of rural family life and
highly recommended for families, especially as an encouragement to capture your
own family memories—the positive and not-so-happy—before they’re lost forever.
A Brief Interview with the Author
What I love about my book:I love my book because it provided a wonderful bonding
project for my family, Over five years, my four aging siblings and I, scattered
all over the country, met occasionally and emailed often about our memories of
growing up on our Wisconsin dairy farm in the l950s. While we sometimes
disagreed on descriptions of specific events in our childhood, we did it with
humor. We laughed often and sometimes cried.
I still shed tears over Rosie, my favorite cow who was sent
to slaughter when I was ten years old, a victim of dairy farm economics. Her
milk production fell with age making her unprofitable to keep. But it was more
than Rosie's death that made me sad, it was the short and brutal lives of farm
animals, something I could see all around me.
A sad scene:Dad told me Rosie was going to be picked up that day. I
shuddered. He meant she was going to the glue factory or a slaughterhouse where
she would be butchered for hamburger or pet food. The glue factory was a place
where animal hooves were made into glue. I did not want to know where Rosie was
going. I was ten years old, and Rosie was my favorite cow. I balefully watched
as Dad prodded her onto the ramp of the truck and as the driver, standing in
the truck, pulled her up the ramp with a rope around her neck. She looked
anxious and fearful. Her head jerked up and down as she struggled against the
rope. Her tongue was hanging out, and saliva dripped from her mouth. She looked
at me and mooed mournfully as she stumbled up the incline. She was begging not
to be sent to her death. Desperately, I looked away. I could not save her. The
driver slammed the truck’s back door, and Rosie disappeared. I watched him
drive down our driveway and broke into tears. I ran into the house, crawled
under my bed, and sobbed.
Most of my book is light with entertaining descriptions of
everyday lives of children on a mid-twentieth Wisconsin dairy farm.
What I hope readers will tell others:
I hope readers say that they were touched by the childhood
farm life memories in my book and that they share similar memories about
growing up on a farm, visiting a farm, or that they just enjoyed
Remembering
Rosie as a mood boosting, hopeful and relaxing read during a challenging
time.
What am I reading now?
I belong to two book clubs. In the non-fiction book club, we
are reading
21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari. In my
fiction book club, we are reading
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and
Sweet by Jamie Ford.
What’s next for me?
When I retired, I planned to make the rest of my life about
writing and art. In writing, I plan to start a blog, NOT IN THE SLOW LANE,
about aging with fun, joy, and productivity. In art, I am studying portraiture
and taking Zoom classes from the New York Academy of Art.
About the AuthorNADINE BLOCK has worked as a teacher, school psychologist
and consultant to education and mental health organizations. She founded a
non-profit organization, the Center for Effective Discipline, in l987 and
served as its executive director until she retired in 2010. The organization
was taken on at that time by the National Child Protection Training Center at
Winona State University.
The Center for Effective Discipline was dedicated to ending
corporal punishment of children through education and legal reform. Nadine
developed policies and fought for legislation banning corporal punishment of
children in schools at state and national levels.
In her retirement, she has continued to support ending
corporal punishment of children though writing and personal contacts. She has
since published books, This Hurts Me More Than It Hurts You: In Words and
Pictures Children Share How Spanking Hurts and What to Do Instead (2011)
and Breaking the Paddle: Ending School Corporal Punishment (2013). Remembering
Rosie, a memoir of growing up on a Wisconsin dairy farm, is a current
writing project. Nadine also began studying painting in her retirement and has
exhibited her acrylic and oil paintings in Central Ohio. Visit www.nadineblock.com.
