My Latest Read
by Jim Potter
Having just completed reading Laurence Kruckman’s Driftless Anthology: Coming of Age in Western Wisconsin (Little Creek Press, Mineral Point, WI, 2026), I’m highly recommending it to readers and writers. If you’re a reader, you can meet magnificent people without leaving home. If you’re a writer, you’ll see how a sense of place is a requirement in great writing and the setting allows for your creative characters to interact.
Author Kruckman is a masterful storyteller, recalling his coming-of-age training ground in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, and sharing the help he received from community members. When readers meet his mentors, they also watch Kid Kruckman navigating his identity, being responsible, and growing toward emotional maturity.
Imagine growing up in a small town from the age of ten to eighteen, leaving for nearly forty years, and returning to live in your childhood home. You walk familiar—though different—streets and country trails, run into old friends, and recall vivid memories.
In your youth, you were a non-stop adventurer, working part-time jobs that included paper boy, drugstore gofer, theater marquee guy, bowling alley pin setter, baker’s assistant, and cave guide. For good reason, one local referred to you as “lightning in a bottle.”
Upon your return, you reconnect with old friends, acquaintances, and places. You’re flooded with memories, especially your family members and pillars of the community who were milkmen, architects, inventors, teachers, chiropractors, coaches, conservationists, jewelers, geologists, pharmacists, restaurateurs, rock stars, welders, and war heroes. These local champions help anchor your sense of place.
One of the author’s thirty-one essays, describes a town “wizard” as “a very clever or skillful person with abilities way beyond the norm.” A wizard is the person you call when no one else can fix your problem. Kruckman advises: “If you are lucky enough to be friends with a wizard, keep that friend close.”
In the final essay of Driftless Anthology, Kruckman recalls how he was contacted by historical society members to help them expand their museum, and the assistance given in fundraising. He describes the help of “silent angels,” the “people found in every small town who are dedicated to improving the quality of life.” Because of Kruckman’s fond childhood memories, he gives back, a member of a team of go-getters, wizards, and angels.
Are you in touch with any wizards or silent angels? Can you recall a favorite friend, teacher, or coach who helped you in your youth? What makes a place feel like home?
Now that Hutchinson no longer has a bookstore (sigh), I purchased my copy of Driftless Anthology at Amazon.com for $13.95 plus S/H. See link below.
Breaking news! In response to this blog post book review, I’ve just learned from the author that the Driftless Museum is having a book signing on September 29th at 6 p.m. If you live in the area, consider the drive. Here’s the press release:
Join Laurence Kruckman at Mount Horeb’s downtown Driftless Historium (100 S 2nd St) on Tuesday, September 29 at 6:00 p.m. for the official launch of his new book, Driftless Anthology: Coming of Age in Western Wisconsin. At this family-friendly, free event, Kruckman will share his rediscovery of the hills, valleys, and small towns in the Driftless Region where he spent his youth.
Until next time, happy reading and writing,
Thank you for the recommendation. Will contact the library in St. John to see if they have it or can get it for me.
Sounds like a plan, Bee!
So it sounds like you can go home again….
Yes, you can go home again, but is it the same home?
I thought long and hard on your reply and I’m still not sure of the answer. I grew up in a beach community in San Diego, the neighborhood then comprised of working middleclass families who formed close bonds with one another. Forty years later the houses are priced in the millions, occupied by a whole different level of owners. Perhaps the answer lies in how much work you are willing to do to make it the community you remember..
Phil, great to hear from you! Everything is always changing. You can physically go back to your house, your family, your community, but they are never the same. Your memories may be able to freeze the moment in time, but everything else is different, including you. If you visited your old beach community in San Diego, you would be overwhelmed with the differences. I have little interest in visiting Skokie, Illinois. The biggest reason is that I’m not in contact with any of my childhood friends who may still live there. Change is a deep subject.
Sounds like a good read. I just finished a new memoir by Ken Goetz , retired dr in Overland Park. A Streak of Dakota Dust is about his growing up years in poverty during the 30s and 40s. It’s a delightful read. Ken just joined KAC after I told him about it and encouraged him to join. He is 94 and writes beautifully.
Nancy, thanks for the recommendation! I’m always pleased to learn of authors sharing their historical memories AND that the memoir is a delightful read.