Four Blue Stars in the Window

One Family's Story of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, and the Duty of a Generation

By: Barbara Eymann Mohrman

Narrated by: Michael Pauley

Fifty years ago, a young girl opened a cardboard box in her basement. Long forgotten, it contained her father's World War II uniform, vintage photos, semaphore flags, and other WWII keepsakes. The box opened up a world of pain and joy to author Barbara Eymann Mohrman as she set out on a personal journey to trace her family history and inadvertently, unspoken Eymann family secrets. This is the story of hard-scrabble life in rural Oakdale, Nebraska (population 851) starting in the heyday of the 1920s. Chriss Eymann, a newly arrived Swiss immigrant and his wife, Hattie Mae, raised 10 children on the Dust Bowl-ravaged plains during the 1930s in the depths of the Great Depression. But their greatest sacrifice was yet to come: when they sent four young sons off to war in the South Pacific and Europe. The mother's flag with its four blue stars proudly displayed the family's precious contribution to the war effort. The story traces in detail, from 1930 to 1947, the anguish, danger, and their everlasting hope with some surprising family secrets that bring the story full circle.

©2016 Barbara Eymann Mohrman (P)2016 Barbara Eymann Mohrman

Loved it!

Almost like an old time radio story. Background music, sound effects, makes it come alive!

Terribly monotone

Terribly monotone. Sounds like a computer is reading.
Story seems like a very good one.