House of Fields: Memories of a Rural Education PDF
Preview House of Fields: Memories of a Rural Education
house of fields GREAT LAKES BOOKS A complete listing of the books in this series can be found online at http://wsupress.wayne.edu Editors Philip P. Mason Wayne State University Charles K. Hyde Wayne State University Advisory Editors Jeffrey Abt Susan Higman Larsen Wayne State University Detroit Institute of Arts Sidney Bolkosky Norman McRae University of Michigan–Dearborn Detroit, Michigan Sandra Sageser Clark William H. Mulligan, Jr. Michigan Historical Center Murray State University John C. Dann Erik C. Nordberg University of Michigan Michigan Technological University De Witt Dykes Gordon L. Olson Oakland University Grand Rapids, Michigan Joe Grimm Michael D. Stafford Detroit Free Press Milwaukee Public Museum David Halkola John Van Hecke Hancock, Michigan Wayne State University Richard H. Harms Arthur M. Woodford Calvin College Harsen’s Island, Michigan Laurie Harris Pleasant Ridge, Michigan house of fields memories of a rural education ANNE-MARIE OOMEN Wayne State University Press Detroit © 2006 by Wayne State University Press, Detroit, Michigan 48201. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without formal permission. Manufactured in the United States of America. 10 09 08 07 06 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Oomen, Anne-Marie. House of fields : memories of a rural education / Anne-Marie Oomen. p. cm. — (Great Lakes books) ISBN 0-8143-3285-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Oomen, Anne-Marie—Childhood and youth. 2. Oomen, Anne-Marie—Family. 3. Country life—Michigan—Oceana County—History—20th century. 4. Farm life— Michigan—Oceana County—History—20th century. 5. Education, Rural—Michigan—Oceana County—History—20th century. 6. Oceana County (Mich.)—Social life and customs— 20th century. 7. Oceana County (Mich.)—Biography. 8. Girls—Michigan—Oceana County— Biography. 9. Farmers—Michigan—Oceana County—Biography. I. Title. F572.O3O57 2006 977.4’59043092—dc22 [B] 2006021648 Except for the author’s immediate family and general references to families in the region, the names of all individuals in this book have been changed. ∞ Designed and typeset by Maya Rhodes Composed in Bembo To my father and mother, who believed so passionately in the value of education, but particularly my mother, who, more than anyone else, put up with the child who was always running heedlessly forward, if not in body, in mind. This page intentionally left blank I have been permanently shaped—and am still held fast—by landscapes that exist in memory alone, though this makes them no less real when they come to me in dreams, when fragments are triggered by a random fact. . . . It doesn’t take much—a look, a phrase—and suddenly I’m a child once more, running hard and fast down a narrow dirt road. . . . Yet there’s no sense, as I run, that I’m recreating something, repainting this landscape as if by numbers, filling in color and sound. I’m simply here, I’m home, and any return to the present will be informed by what I’ve seen. —A. Manette Ansay, Limbo: A Memoir This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments xi Prologue: The House 1 Uncle John 9 Dynamite 13 House of School 19 Big Words, Little Words 24 Saved 33 Picnic 40 The Ledger 46 What I Know 53 Summer 55 First Scar 59 Picture Girl 61 Miracle 67 The Sacred 76 Pearls 80 The House of Memory 90 Snap, Snap 96 ix
The list of books you might like
