Table of Contents

• Foreword by Michael Perry xi
• Preface xiii
• Introduction: From the Garden State to the Garden of Eden 3
• Part 1: The Accidental Agriculturalist 16
• Of Poetry and Planting: Farmers in Springtime 19
• The Farm That Love Built: Helen and Paul Lute 23
• I’d Know That Face Anywhere: Cliff and Shelly Keepers 29
• I’ve Always Been Lucky: The Ballad of Herman Tronrud 35
• My Apologies, Mr. President: Wherein Our Hero Fails to Outsmart Jerry Ford 41
• The World by the Tail with a Downhill Pull: Katie and Erhardt Schultz 47
• Part 2: Ageless 62
• Try Not to Be Boring: Emma Washa 65
• Love Is Still Love, Even When It’s Frozen: Edna Koenig 73
• Beautiful Ballerinas, Heavenly Holsteins: The Life and Loves of Schomer Lichtner 79
• Larger Than Life, Suddenly Small: Eric Lloyd Wright 85
• Part 3: The Dark Side of Paradise 92
• Tragedy without Reason: The Eerie Calm of John Norton 97
• The Pain of Never Knowing: Mary Wegner 105
• Living with the “Enemy”: Bill Fero 113
• The Truth Will Out: The Short, Unhappy Life of Emmanuel Dannan 118
• The Banality of Evil: Jerry Boyle and the Defense of Jeffrey Dahmer 124
• Part 4: Not Quite Plumb 136
• “I’m So Happy It’s Just Terrible!”: Woodrow Wilson Roberts 139
• The Frogman Cometh: Art Gering and the Astounding Amphibian Invasion 145
• Big Brats, Tiny Trophies: Dennis Leffin and the Wondrous White Sausage 150
• Dignity in Motion: Jim Herther and the World’s Greatest Car Wash 155
• Nearly Naked, Seeking Snow: In Wisconsin, That’s Amore 160
• Farewell, My Doboy: Kissing Alex P. Dobish Good-Bye 164
• Part 5: Animals? Yes!! People? Not So Much. 172
• The Elephant in the Room 175
• Bo Knows 180
• Oh, Deer: The Anna Mae Bauer Story 183
• Part 6: Your Lucky Day 190
• Poems from the Edge: Ellen Kort 193
• Short in Stature, Long on Courage: Joe Bee Xiong 199
• Making Beautiful Music: Steve O’Donnell 205
• A Naturalist’s Journey: Ken Lange 210
• Running for Help: Sue Birschbach and Barb Klinner 216
• You Can’ t Tattoo a Soap Bubble: Evelyn Ann Fefer 223
• The Road to Redemption: Ed Thompson 229
• A Million Miles to Go: Don and Cathryn Tredinnick 235
• Postscript 243
• Acknowledgments 245

About the Author

Steve Hannah is a former managing editor of the Milwaukee Journal and was a longtime CEO of The Onion.

Reviews

"Hannah has woven together an honest and humorous self-portrait and a fascinating collection of stories about an array of Wisconsinites. It's clear that a deep love for Wisconsin's people and its landscapes runs through these stories."--Lynne Diebel, author of Crossing the Driftless

"While his four decades of residence [in the Midwest] are manifested in his writing through veracity of voice, tone, and fact, it is [Steve Hannah's] status as perpetual 'newcomer' . . . that infuses these tales with a palpable sense of discovery, marvel, and wonder."--from the foreword by Michael Perry, author of Population 485