Growing Up With The Town

In this unusual blend of chronological and personal history, Dorothy Hubbard Schwieder combines scholarly sources with family memories to create a loving and informed history of Presho, South Dakota, and her family's life there from the time of settlement in 1905 to the mid 1950s. Schwieder tells the story of this small town in the West River country, with its harsh and unpredictable physical environment, through the activities of her father, Walter Hubbard, and his family of ten children. Walter Hubbard’s experiences as a business owner and town builder and his attitudes toward work, education, and family both reflected and shaped the lives of Presho's inhabitants and the town itself. While most histories of the Plains focus on farm life, Schwieder writes entirely about small-town society. She uses newspaper accounts, state and county histories, census data, interviews with residents, and the childhood memories of herself and her nine siblings to create an entwined, first-hand social and economic portrait of life on main street from the perspective of its citizens.

The author was inspired to write these memoirs of the years he spent growing up in the Pennsylvania steel town of Bethlehem before the Second World War by the realization that they were a pivotal time in American history. While Americans were struggling with the economic hardships of the Great Depression, they never gave up and instead made the best of what they had. Out of their triumph over hardship grew the generation that fought and won the Second World War. The society and culture exemplified by the Pennsylvania steel towns has now vanished but it is hard not to think that, while we have gained much as a society, we have also lost far too many things worthy of preservation. One of these was the great Bethlehem Steel plant itself, the ruins of which stretch for miles along the Lehigh River. Dominating the ruins are the ghostly remains of the five great blast furnaces, preserved to remind people of the greatness that was once Bethlehem Steel and the community that lived in its shadows.

He was the neighbor kid the one under foot, the one always asking the questions, the one who listened in on adult conversations. And, he had a good memory. This is Neil Kittelsens memories of what it was like growing up in Frost, Minnesota, in the 1930s and 40s. It is a compelling account of life at a time and in a place where people cared for each other.

Growing up on main street in a small-town is an autobiographical account by Jack Zarling about growing up on Main Street in Gillett, Wisconsin. Take a trip down memory lane to the 1940s of small-town Wisconsin. Life was different back then. Things were a lot slower, but that didn't mean there was a lack of excitement! Adventures abound around every turn on Main Street. This small-town community came together to make a lasting impact on Jack Zarling. Follow young Jack up and down Main Street as we encounter the businesses and people who made this small-town such a special place to grow up in.

As the fight for equal rights continues, Defiant takes a critical look at the strides and struggles of the past in this revelatory and moving memoir about a young Black man growing up in the South during the heart of the Civil Rights Movement. For fans of It's Trevor Noah: Born a Crime, Stamped, and Brown Girl Dreaming. "With his compelling memoir, Hudson will inspire young readers to emulate his ideals and accomplishments.” –Booklist, Starred Review Born in 1946 in Mansfield, Louisiana, Wade Hudson came of age against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement. From their home on Mary Street, his close-knit family watched as the country grappled with desegregation, as the Klan targeted the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and as systemic racism struck across the nation and in their hometown. Amidst it all, Wade was growing up. Getting into scuffles, playing baseball, immersing himself in his church community, and starting to write. Most important, Wade learned how to find his voice and use it. From his family, his community, and his college classmates, Wade learned the importance of fighting for change by confronting the laws and customs that marginalized and demeaned people. This powerful memoir reveals the struggles, joys, love, and ongoing resilience that it took to grow up Black in segregated America, and the lessons that carry over to our fight for a better future.

THIS BOOK DOES not intend to portray the history of the period, but it is only a recollection of the early years of my life, the way I experienced it. I thought that the period I lived during the early years of my life was very unique and interesting from a social and human point of view, since it depicts a kind of lifestyle that many people are not aware of. Also, it shows how people in different part of the world coped with the same difficult problems of making a living, striving to improve living conditions, and secure a better future for their children. In general, it shows that when life and family goals are very clear and strong, people can go through the most difficult hardships and still achieve the desired results regardless of the political regime and the economic conditions that control the daily life.

"Life in the 21st century bears little resemblance to what it was like 60 years ago, a time before we needed electronics to remind us that we have children in the backseat, a time when a computer was the size of a Winnebago not a walnut. And for a couple of ten-year-olds growing up in a quiet Upstate New York town things seemed dead simple. Sometimes downright life-threatening, sometimes inventive, but always amusing, the exploits of these two small-town boys will warm your heart and maybe remind us all of when we were once young." -- page [4] of cover.

The author, who moved from America to Norway over thirty years ago, reminisces about her childhood and growing up in the charming village of Tarrytown, situated on the banks of the beautiful Hudson River in New York State.

We did much of what we wanted to do, and those things we were prevented from doing, weren't really that important to us. We were limited only by the boundaries of imagination and yet there were no boundaries. We shared everything; lived it all together in the best times of our lives; and we did it where we knew the people, the traditions, the places; this little part of creation for us was home. It will always be home. "Home Free" isn't just a catch phrase that was a trigger for trouble, or even a traditional battle cry, so much as it is the mantra that captures our spirits and describes our character like nothing else can.