Reluctant Farm Girl

1952. Carolyn, a thirteen-year-old eager for adventure, prepares to travel by train from Los Angeles to Iowa. She looks forward to four weeks on an Iowa farm helping her oldest sister, who is now pregnant. She boards the train at Union Station, waves goodbye to her father and younger sisters, then settles in to watch the scenery. Four weeks. What fun! And what a story she’ll have to share! Salt Lake City proves a challenge when she barely re-boards on time. In Omaha she has to ask Travelers Aid for help in finding the bus to northwest Iowa. Nonetheless, she arrives safely in Storm Lake—only to find there’s no one waiting for her! And, she’s hungry. Once on the farm, she quickly learns that it is not as she expected. Instead, Carolyn finds—to her dismay—that she is expected to bring in cows all by herself, carry bushel baskets of corn to the hogs, pitch hay onto a wagon, and perform other, equally formidable chores—in addition to helping in the house. Suddenly, her four weeks can’t end soon enough! She just wants to be home. That, however, is not what her sister and brother-in-law want . . .