Dancing the Cows Home: A Wisconsin Girlhood Contributor(s): de Luca, Sara (Author) |
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ISBN: 0873513258 ISBN-13: 9780873513258 Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society Press OUR PRICE: $14.36 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: June 1996 Annotation: In 1955, inspired by a televised automobile advertisement, twelve-year-old Sara Hellerud and her twin sister Susie took up dancing. Like the pair of huckstering ballerinas who sailed over the Buick, they vaulted over milk cans and barbed wire. The TV dancers had provided an irresistible contrast to the workaday world of their family's dairy farm in Polk County, Wisconsin. This and other fantasies shared by the twins enabled them to dance through a tense childhood and adolescence. Sara, the cautious, quietly observant twin, narrates this reminiscence of sisters whose dreams were intermittently encouraged or dashed by their ambitious, stout-hearted Norwegian-American mother and their alternately abusive and loving Danish-American father, who felt enslaved by his land and cattle. The twins' emotionally fragile older sister, mischievous younger brother, and sturdy baby sister each found ways to cope. This is a personal portrayal of parents, siblings, family, and neighbors who painted the rural landscape in somber tones of duty and self-sacrifice, yet touched it with hope and grace. From the vantage of middle-age, Sara recalls her early years with pride and humor as well as a deep sense of loss. She also explores the process through which the twins unraveled their symbiotic, almost merged, identity to become independent young women eager to investigate the wider world. |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Biography & Autobiography - History |
Dewey: B |
LCCN: 95-42676 |
Series: Midwest Reflections |
Physical Information: 0.77" H x 5.56" W x 8.05" (0.77 lbs) 242 pages |
Themes: - Chronological Period - 1940's - Chronological Period - 1950's - Cultural Region - Great Lakes - Cultural Region - Midwest - Demographic Orientation - Rural - Geographic Orientation - Minnesota - Sex & Gender - Feminine - Geographic Orientation - Wisconsin - Cultural Region - Upper Midwest |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: In 1955, inspired by a televised automobile advertisement, twelve-year-old Sara Hellerud and her twin sister Susie took up dancing. Like the pair of huckstering ballerinas who sailed over the Buick, they vaulted over milk cans and barbed wire. The TV dancers had provided an irresistible contrast to the workaday world of their family's dairy farm in Polk County, Wisconsin. This and other fantasies shared by the twins enabled them to dance through a tense childhood and adolescence. From the vantage of middle-age, Sara recalls her early years with pride and humor. She also explores the process through which the twins unraveled their symbiotic, almost merged, identity to become independent young women eager to investigate the wider world. |