The Editors write: “These stories are brought from the past and lain out on this book’s pages potluck-style. Each writer brings something and invites readers to partake. There’s no first or last in line. Each one is a dessert, or a full meal (meat and potatoes; wurst and dumplings), or a glass of water or a shot of schnapps in itself. Eat, drink the words and enjoy.”
From the back cover: "Where is home when you’ve traveled halfway around the world? Where is home when memories are all you have? Where is home when you find a new path? The Germans from Russia have been redefining the idea of home for over 200 years. They made home where they found themselves – among family, church, community, school and friends, whether they stayed in their small communities or ventured to cities across the globe."
The members of the North Star Chapter of Minnesota Germans from Russia explore these themes and more in their second anthology of essays reflecting on being children of three homelands in two centuries. Their respect for the past and hopes for the future are ever-constant, and these glimpses into the spaces they call home will recall memories we all hold dear. North Star Chapter members who contributed stories include: Bernelda Kallenberger Becker, William Bosch, Allyn Brosz, Sharon Chmielarz, David Delzer, James Gessele, Carol Just, Larry Kleingartner, Matt Klee, Charles Kurle, Vicki Lynn Kempf Kurle, Kristine Lamp, Duane Maas, Mel Meier, Cynthia Miller, Merv Rennich, Ron Scherbenski, Lillian Kleingartner Ward, Henrietta Weigel, Kathy Weigel and Louise Wiens.
Among the 36 stories in this anthology are these titles: “Prairie Memories”; “Are You German?”; “Draft Notice”; “Found! My Forty-Year Search for my Great-Great-Grandmother”; “Grandmas Make Good Friends’; “A Farm School Education”; “Radio: Bringing the World to the Prairie”; “Wash Day on the Farm’; “The Prairie Blacksmith”; “One-Room Schoolhouse”; “The Art of Thumping Watermelon”; “What We Choose to Remember”.
“I laughed a little. I cried a little. I reminisced, thinking, “I remember my mom talking about that!” This collection made daily life in the German-Russian triangle of the Dakotas come alive for me. Spanning the years from when church and community were our families’ whole world to the time when radio, TV, and war brought the outside world closer, these stories are delightful (and often poignant) reminders of our heritage.” – from Carolyn Schott, founder of the Black Sea Germans Research Community, and author of Visiting Your Ancestral Town.
“The essays collected in this volume attest a life now name “heritage.” Here are lessons to be learned, traditions to be held, and customs to be cherished. Threads of family, friends, and foes embellish the failure and achievements of the colorful folk of these pages. Real people become words. Read, and discover a voice echoing three centuries of history on three continents. Open the past with these authors and allow them to lure you into their vision of life lived in a place and time as remote now as those of your own youth.” – from Dona Reeves-Marquardt, PhD, Professor Emeritus, Texas State University at San Marcos.
Book review by Dr. Tom Isern, University Distinguished Professor of History, North Dakota State University, Fargo.
Watermelons and Thistles Where is home when you've traveled halfway around the world? Where is home when memories are all you have? Where is home when you find a new path? The Germans from Russia have been redefining the idea of home for over 200 years. They made home where they found themselves - among family, church, community, school and friends, whether they stayed in their small communities or ventured to cities across the globe. The members of the North Star Chapter of Minnesota Germans from Russia explore these themes and more in their second anthology of essays reflecting on being children of three homelands in two centuries. Their respect for the past and hopes for the future are ever-constant, and these glimpses into the spaces they call home will recall memories we all hold dear.
