Wisconsin’s old barns remain one of the state’s major
attractions. They are photographed,
artists paint them, and historians collect photos of them and make calendars
featuring them (see the West Salem Historical Society’s new 2015 calendar of
the “Barns of La Crosse County.”)
Fourteen
years ago I spoke about barns as part of The Sheboygan County Historical
Research Center’s Second Saturday program—more than 90 people came. This past Saturday I once again talked about Barns for the Second
Saturday Program and 150 people attended.
People like
old barns, want to look at them, and learn more about them. Why do barns attract people? I tried to answer that question with this
paragraph from my book, BARNS OF WISCONSIN (Wisconsin Historical Society
Press).
The barns
of Wisconsin are history books in red paint, sociology with gable roofs,
theology with lightning rods. In many
ways, barns are Wisconsin agriculture nailed together in buildings with cupolas
on the top. Here is where both life and
death on the farm often occurred simultaneously; here is where farm boys and
girls learned about responsibility, where many a farmer began and ended his day
365 days a year for his entire life.
THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Every old barn has a story to tell.
COMING EVENTS:
November
12, Noon. Wisconsin Historical Society Tour, La Crosse, Weber Center for the
Preforming Arts. The Quiet Season stories.
November
14, 6:30 dinner. Port Washington
Library. Meeting at First Congregational
Church, 131 Webster Street, Port Washington.
How I became a writer.
November
15, 4-H Hall of Fame Program, Chula Vista Resort, Wisconsin Dells.
December
3, 7:00 p.m. Live on Milwaukee Public
TV. A Farm Winter.
December
7, 1:00-2:15 and 2:30-3:15 Kalahari Resort, Wisconsin Dells (Two sessions) Wis
Farm Bureau Meeting. Writing From Your Life for Children and Grandchildren.
December
8, 8:00 p. m. Live on Twin Cities Public
TV. A Farm Winter.
December
13, 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Barnes and
Noble, LaCrosse. Book Signing.
January
28, 7:00 p.m. Stoughton Opera House. A
Farm Winter.
Purchase Jerry’s DVDS and his
Books from the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fund
raiser for them): Patterson Memorial Library
The
library now has available both of Jerry’s DVDs, Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps and Jerry Apps A Farm Story.
Also
available are several of Jerry’s book including The Quiet Season (on which the DVD A Farm Winter is based), as well as Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old
Farm, (which are related to the DVD Jerry
Apps a Farm Story). Also Jerry’s new novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County.
Contact
the library for prices and special package deals.
Patterson
Memorial Library
50
Division St.
1 comment:
I learned so much about barns from your book. Knowing more about them has helped me see them in a new way. Thank you.
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