Nell's Story A Woman from Eagle River by Nell Peters with Robert Peters
The University of Wisconsin Press, 1995.
Paper, $12.95.Reviewed by Sarah Welp
When Nell's brother invited her to write the story of her life, "warts and all," she agreed to accept his invitation. By telling her story, she hopes to inspire some woman as lost as she was, a woman who struggles to put food on the table, finding clothes for her kids, and hoping for some love along the way.Nell writes with naked honesty and colorful speech as she relates what life was like for a poor, uneducated, disadvantaged woman born in the 1930s, living a harsh life in northern Wisconsin. About her dog and six kids, Nell makes such remarks as, "If they don't mind me, I scream," to "They've got bad memories and think you love 'em right after you've beaten 'em," and finally, "I raised them with one hand holding an ice cream bar and the other a belt."
The influence of a caring father shaped Nell's future. Because she preferred cows and chickens, fields and woods to people and stuffy houses, she and her father spent long hours together fixing things from the ever-present junk yard behind their home. Pa's philosophy of life became a part of Nell's life: poor folks have to fix their own things.
Nell became quite good at fixing things and eventually found herself in the garage-sale business. It didn't make her rich, but did, as she tells it, "pay my taxes and help buy the cigarettes I won't stop smoking." Perhaps most rewarding of all, the sales made her feel like she was a contributing member of society.
Pa's philosophy of fixing your own things applied to Nell's personal life as well as the junk piles. One dire consequence followed another desperate act. On the eve of Nell's departure into the Women's Army Corps (WACs) in 1951, she chose a rather unconventional initiation into sex which resulted in pregnancy and the birth of twin sons. Never one to blame someone else for her mistakes and misfortunes, Nell left the WACs and her dream of making a better life for herself and returned home to await the birth of her sons and whatever else followed.
Nell's story is not a happy one, but it is the story of one woman's pain and struggle for survival--determined to make sense out of the chaos that surrounded her. Having soon learned that if you don't ask too much from life you won't get hurt, Nell hung in the background without ever being really happy or really sad, but, by her own admission, "it was a good life in a lot of ways."
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