Robert Gard

Last Friday I had the opportunity to participate in the dedication of the Robert E. Gard Memorial Storyteller’s Circle at Muir Knoll on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, a quiet place on a high hill that looks out over Lake Mendota.

Bob was a storyteller, a historian, a folklorist, an author of more than 30 books, and many other things. He worked for the University of Wisconsin’s extension program when I first met him. I always enjoyed his folksy way of writing and his concern for the land. He helped me publish my first book, THE LAND STILL LIVES, and assisted me with several other writing projects. He had a gentle way of encouraging people to do their best, demanding but in a quiet, friendly way.

Bob was a Kansas farm boy, a lover of the prairie. In a newspaper piece published in 1986, he wrote, “[T]he roots of man and the roots of grass were much the same. Both must have the land to nourish them . . .”

Bob Gard died in 1992; I miss him.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Quoting from THE TRAVELS OF INCREASE JOSEPH: “It’s the land. I’m talking about the land and how we must take care of it or we shall all perish.”

CHECK THIS OUT: CRANBERRY RED book launch:

--Patterson Memorial Library, Wild Rose, Sunday October 24, 1:00 p.m.

Learn all about cranberry growing, county agent work, and what happens when research goes amuck. UW Press is the publisher of this, my fourth novel, in the Ames County series.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

September 29, 5:30 p.m. Wisconsin Book Festival. Quivey’s Grove (between Madison and Verona). Barns of Wisconsin and Cranberry Red.

October 1-2, Midwest Booksellers, St. Paul. Barns of Wisconsin, Cranberry Red

October 7, 7:00 p.m. Next Chapter Bookstore, Mequon. Horse Drawn Days

October 9-10 Old World Wisconsin, 2:30 each day. On Saturday , Horse Drawn Days and on Sunday, Barns of Wisconsin.

October 12, 5:30-8:00 Apple Blossom Books, Oshkosh.

October 15, Local History Conference. Lake Geneva, WI

October 16, 12:00 noon, Muskego Library, Muskego. Horse Drawn Days

October 19, 6:30 p.m. Rhinelander Public Library

October 23, 6:00 p.m. Oregon Public Library. Living a Country Year.

October 24, 1:00 p.m. Patterson Memorial Library, Wild Rose. Cranberry Red

October 28, 7:00 p.m. Oconto Falls Library.

November 3, 3:15 p.m. Wisconsin Library Association, Wisconsin Dells

November 5-7, National Farm Toy Show, Dyersville, Iowa.

November 13, 9:30 a.m. Sheboygan Falls Library, Horse Drawn Days.