Walking the Rails

<p>For Ethel Erickson Radmer a child of the 1930s life in Wisconsin was an adventure filled with imagination fun and curiosity. Hers was a simple life without computers and cell phones. It was a time when people in a small town dropped in on each other to visit and paid their bills in person. It was a time when folks honored courtesy and neighborly affection. If you knew someone was in the hospital you brought them flowers-from your own garden.</p><p>Ethel grew up in a railroad town that bustled with supplies and troops for World War II. To a small girl from a small town a Green Bay & Western Railroad passenger car represented nothing short of freedom. But Ethel found joy in the simple things-a playground for roller skating ... a golf course made just for picnics and sled-ding (and swinging clubs) ... nearby farmland and barns to explore ... and a meandering river to quiet her heart.</p><p>It was a simpler time but Ethel Erickson Radmer was no simple girl. </p><p><i>Walking the Rails</i> is everything a good memoir should be-generously detailed disarmingly frank and emotionally moving. With wit irony and generosity of spirit Ethel Radmer has woven a heartwarming and lush tapestry of growing up in a loving American family during the difficult days of the Great Depression World War II and its aftermath.<br>-Dave Wood past vice-president of the National Book Critics Circle former book review editor of the Minneapolis Star Tribune and memoirist</p>