Memory Stories: Audio Cassette Book

with rural midwestern Dakota roots

By Edward F. Keller

Read by Earl Ackerman, KRRB-FM, Dickinson, North Dakota, 90 minutes

ODIN (Online Dakota Information Network)
Central North Dakota Library Network

In 33 stories, some from his book, Memory Stories, and some written since, Keller tells of rural life in the 1930's, at his now famous Emmons County, North Dakota town of Strasburg, home of bandleader Lawrence Welk. Stories like "My Mother's Apron", "Welk Is Here", "Horse Power", "First Grade, 1932", and the rest, reveal the joys and trials of prairie life during the drought and depression. Detailed recollections tell of the honorable use of what nature provided, hard work ethic and faith of Keller's German Russian ancestors.

Side one contains: 1) My Mother's Apron; 2) Daily Mass; 3) Flour Power; 4) My First Grade, 1932; 5) Welk is Here; 6) Horsepower; 7) J.C. Penney Store; 8) Tri-lingual; 9) Headering 10); The Watkins Man; 11) An Early Tragedy; 12) Prairie Humor; 13) The Guitar Man; 14) Farming Emmons County 1897-1997; 15) Trix, Bessie, Penny and Lady; 16) Schmaltz Meats; and 17) Prairie Miracle.

Side Two contains: 18) My Earliest Musical Sounds 19) Fences 20) Motivation; 21) Mother's War Anxieties; 22) Why I Write; 23) My Land; 24) Religion...1930's; 25) Ewigkeit (eternity); 26) Dearest Adrianna Kathleen; 27) Sundays; 28) Uncle Frank Joseph Hagel; 29) Baking; Cookies 1997; 130) Christmas, 1930's; 31) The GI bill 32); Shaf Dich Naus (get out); and 33) My Rockpile Playground.

Books by Keller My First World published in 1995, $20 telling of 28 families (including Keller's family) living in a seven square mile area, inclosed by Strasburg, Linton and Rosenthal Church, in the 1930s. Tells about their church, school, funerals, threshing, butchering, house dances and all. All 28 families are on a area map. Keller chronicles their migration from Germany to Russia to Strasburg, North Dakota.

Memory Stories contains 95 stories about Keller's growing up in the rural midwest of Emmons County, North Dakota, Strasburg farm. All people with rural backgrounds identify with these stories.

About the author:

The author, Edward F. Keller, was born in Strasburg, North Dakota in 1927. In 1941 he left for Canton, Ohio to attend Brummerdale Seminary High School. He later served in the military as a dental technician, attended st. Thomas College, St. Paul, Minnesota and graduated from Marquette University School of Dentistry, Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1955. He is now retired after practicing dentistry in Dickinson, North Dakota for 42 years. He continues to reside in Dickinson with his wife Shirley.