Thanks, Tax-chick.
Cather’s stories set in Nebraska resonate for me because that was where my mother was born and raised in the early 20th century. Throughout my life, my mother regaled me with anecdotes of farm life, of being a country girl. She wrang the necks of the chicken for dinner and she chopped wood. She learned how to cook, mostly Pennsylvania Dutch style, from watching her grandmother. I wish I had written more down more of what she told me.
I heard similar stories from my grandmother and her sisters when I was a little girl in Missouri. It’s not as flat as Nebraska, though!