"Grandpa Johnny" by Ronald M. Rockenbach, a Written Story of Early Nebraska Farm Life
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
Original Format
Paper Book
Files
Collection
Citation
Ronald M. Rockenbach, “"Grandpa Johnny" by Ronald M. Rockenbach, a Written Story of Early Nebraska Farm Life,” History Harvest, accessed May 9, 2025, https://historyharvest.unl.edu/items/show/1062.