A week and a half ago, I participated in a regional author fair at the Nobles County Library in Worthington Minnesota.
My table was beside CK Van Dam, who writes historical fiction focused on women homesteaders. She was spurred to write her books after seeing an exhibit, learning about women homesteaders, and learning a statistic.
We know that by law, women could only take a homestead if they were single, head-of-household, or widowed. Men of course could take a homestead whether married or single, and if married had the extra help of his spouse. Yet, it turns out that a higher percentage of women successfully proved up on their claims compared to men.
That isn’t a statistic usually taught as we learn about our history.
My own great-grandmother homesteaded alone near the Missouri river in North Dakota, and the land remains in the extended family. I’ve stood where her house was, and looked across the beautiful landscape, wondering if she had time or energy to appreciate the beauty around her, or if it was all work work work. Eventually, she married a nearby homesteader, had three children, one of those children had my dad, and here we are.
But back to the author fair.
When people complain about the current youngest generation, I tend to roll my eyes. Every generation since the dawn of time has wrung their hands about their own version of the young ones. I think our oldest written version of this lament comes from a Greek philosopher, though I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that an Egyption obelisk hosts a similar complaint. It’s nothing new. And it’s never accurate. (Though it is amusing to imagine the hieroglyphics that would represent an perturbed adult railing at what is perceived as a lazy youth.)
The culture and place in time we all live changes, but the people stay the same. The same wide range of people have always existed. Motivations change. Methods change. But the range of people stays the same.
And at this author fair, I had the chance to see a number of our current youngest generation, students who came through after school.
These kids were interested in reading, and they had great questions for the authors. While the fair focused on adult-reading-level books, some were manageable by younger readers as well.
I was particularly intrigued by two brothers, one high school, one late elementary. The younger one liked mystery books, and he was asking each author good questions about the their books, why they wrote, if more were coming, etc. Guided by his older brother, he looked at each offering, considered his options, went away for a bit to analyze, then came back with decisions and excitedly purchased his choices.
It was pure joy on his face as he left the room with his new books, and I was particularly impressed with how confidently he had interviewed the authors, and the thoughtfulness of his questions. I had been such a shy child, never ever would I have been able to do what he did. That kid is going to do alright.
And those are the types of things I take away from events like this one. Mostly it is sitting in a large room, chatting with fellow authors and chatting with visitors. There are also those extra wonderful moments when, despite the chaos in the world, you see that the kids are going to be alright 🙂