In A Dime's Worth of Paper Plates, the author calls himself "a typical guy who became a teenager during the Depression years and became a man during World War II." Duke begins with his ancestors' history in Norway and their emigration to Iowa in 1892. His grandfather acquired a number of farms in the Norwegian community in central Iowa, and the author lived on one of these farms as a child. His childhood is idyllic, though the Depression and the Dust Bowl years take their toll on the adults in the community. His stepfather takes a job in Pecos, Texas in 1936 and the family adjusts to a new...
In A Dime's Worth of Paper Plates, the author calls himself "a typical guy who became a teenager during the Depression years and became a man during W...