"Grandpa Johnny" by Ronald M. Rockenbach, a Written Story of Early Nebraska Farm Life
Item
Dublin Core
Title
"Grandpa Johnny" by Ronald M. Rockenbach, a Written Story of Early Nebraska Farm Life
Subject
Written History of Early Nebraska
Description
Book titled "A Flowering: A Festival: Writing and Storytelling Festival for Older Nebraskans. The story, "Grandpa Johnny" (p. 54-59), was written by Ronald M. Rockenbach in the 1970s and published on May 23, 1981 within this collection of works sponsored by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Division of Continuing Studies in Cooperation with the Nebraska Commission on Aging. About the story, Rockenbach said:
"This is a story of rural life on my grandfather's farm. I first wrote this for an assignment for Paul Olson's 'Plains Literature' class in the late 1970s. A couple of years later I submitted this story for a workshop for older Nebraskans, either written or about them. The original assignment was to pick your most favorite grandparent and tell about them. It was a labor of love as his far was sanctuary from an absent, workaholic father and a physically, mentally, suesally [illegible, possibly sexually] and emotionally abusive mother that never wanted to be a suburban housewife in Papillion, for the next 33 years.
It was a stout story to me and I asked my Shakespeare instructor, Robert Knoll to read it. I knew the descriptions exercised too many run-on sentences and alliteration that became more a test of tongue-twisters. Prof. Knoll said I had written a reminiscence, not a short story because my story lacked conflict. I simply did not include the abuse by my parents or the destruction of rural community I saw every waking day in suburban Papillion, or East Lincoln toward Eagle-Watton-Waverly. My style was influenced by Willa Cather's "My Antonia" about the richness of the prairie and the alternate time paragraphs by Faulkner's stream of conscienceness (sic). Conflict and turmoil has a sequal witing from family and unfulfilled liberal issues awareness that never landed me work or a life."
"This is a story of rural life on my grandfather's farm. I first wrote this for an assignment for Paul Olson's 'Plains Literature' class in the late 1970s. A couple of years later I submitted this story for a workshop for older Nebraskans, either written or about them. The original assignment was to pick your most favorite grandparent and tell about them. It was a labor of love as his far was sanctuary from an absent, workaholic father and a physically, mentally, suesally [illegible, possibly sexually] and emotionally abusive mother that never wanted to be a suburban housewife in Papillion, for the next 33 years.
It was a stout story to me and I asked my Shakespeare instructor, Robert Knoll to read it. I knew the descriptions exercised too many run-on sentences and alliteration that became more a test of tongue-twisters. Prof. Knoll said I had written a reminiscence, not a short story because my story lacked conflict. I simply did not include the abuse by my parents or the destruction of rural community I saw every waking day in suburban Papillion, or East Lincoln toward Eagle-Watton-Waverly. My style was influenced by Willa Cather's "My Antonia" about the richness of the prairie and the alternate time paragraphs by Faulkner's stream of conscienceness (sic). Conflict and turmoil has a sequal witing from family and unfulfilled liberal issues awareness that never landed me work or a life."
Creator
Ronald M. Rockenbach
Source
Ronald M. Rockenbach
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Division of Continuing Studies
Nebraska Commission on Aging
Publisher
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Date
May 23, 1981
1970s
06/20/2015
Contributor
April White
Dr. Jinny Turman
Rights
Ronald M. Rockenbach
University of Nebraska at Kearney (Images)
Relation
http://enoa.org/
http://www.dailynebraskan.com/division-of-continuing-studies-officially-cut/article_8cd193e3-0dd7-5e86-97e1-106b1b5b80c0.html
http://www.unomaha.edu/college-of-public-affairs-and-community-service/division-of-continuing-studies/
Format
JPEG
Paper Book
Language
English
Coverage
Lincoln, Nebraska
Papillion, Nebraska
Kearney, Nebraska
Still Image Item Type Metadata
Original Format
Paper Book
Collection
Citation
Ronald M. Rockenbach, “"Grandpa Johnny" by Ronald M. Rockenbach, a Written Story of Early Nebraska Farm Life,” History Harvest, accessed March 23, 2023, https://historyharvest.unl.edu/items/show/1062.