Duluth's Donna Schilling has pulled quite a feat with her new memoir, "Slices of Life." She has managed to take what is essentially a gift to her family, a collection of stories chronicling their life and times in Minnesota, and transform it into something appealing to the unrelated.
But this is nothing new for Schilling, a member of the Lake Superior Writers. As one of the authors who contributed to "Growing Up on Memory Lane," an anthology of pieces targeted to those who are keen on nostalgia, she made her memories spark with "Vacation Bible School."
Released through X-Presso, X-Communication's self-publishing arm, though, "Slices of Life" is all-Schilling.
And, aside from a turn toward scrapbook leanings near the very end, it really works for all who pick it up.
Accompanied by a slightly fuzzy, slightly scratchy quilt and a steaming mug of apple cider, you'll be transported to some of Minnesota's bygone eras.
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The memoir begins with the author's birth in her family's rural home near Osakis, but the real magic doesn't begin until we're transported to Long Prairie and, eventually, Duluth's Lakeside community.
One of Schilling's most vivid (and entertaining) misadventures from her youth involved a lot of snow, a big hill in Todd County and a younger sibling's broken bones.
Told by an amateur, a simple childhood mishap such as this really wouldn't be that captivating, but it's this book's fine attention to detail that makes it more than a simple memoir.
One day ("on a bitter January day in 1939," to be exact), a neighborhood playmate arrived at the house and wanted to go sledding.
The author's younger sister, Vonnie, heard this and begged to be taken along.
Donna protested this notion to her mother: "She'll just cry because it's too cold."
Nonetheless, her mother allowed Vonnie to tag along anyway.
"So," as Schilling writes, recalling the day, "with a sign of resignation, I stuffed her into her furry brown coat and pulled on her boots."
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After a quick march to the hill, they're barreling down the hill on a "crude, heavy sled with no turning capacity" when the sisters meet their match on a curving roadside snowbank.
After they brushed themselves off, they headed home because Vonnie was complaining that her arm hurt: "Suddenly mother stopped scolding (for taking the dangerous homemade sled) as she took off the furry coat to discover one chubby arm hanging limp and useless with a lump appearing on the forearm."
From Long Prairie, the family packed up and headed to the Twin Ports circa World War II.
Of particular interest to Duluthians is Schilling's memories of a wartime Zenith City. She said that life didn't change drastically, but she goes into detail about the sacrifices area families had to make regarding food and gas rations.
Another interesting tale describes her husband's involvement with the introduction to underwater diving to the area. As a founding member of the Frigid Frogs SCUBA Diving Club, Hartley Schilling scared his wife and two young children during a public exhibition after he took a little too long to rise to the surface in the harbor.
The appropriately titled chapter "Watching for Bubbles" explains that those observing early divers would use the bubbles produced by the equipment as a sign of life.
Hartley, at the depths of the harbor, was breathing fine with his equipment, but the bubbles weren't reaching the top.
She employs a quote from a sharp announcer trying to quell the uneasy crowd to maximum effect: "Hartley must have found something interesting down there to stay under so long."
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Again, it's Schilling's attention to detail that makes this tale (and all that bump up against it) really work.
So, for those who aren't afraid to embrace a little warmhearted humor and some inoffensive "back in my day" nostalgia piled high, "Slices of Life" is an enjoyable and relatively quick read.
For more information on "Slices of Life," visit www.x-communication .org/xpresso.
