About the Book

This is a memoir about growing up in a town of 5,000 people in the 1950’s. People who grew up during that decade will recognize much of the nostalgia: playing outdoors all day and evening, making their own fun; wringer washing machines and hanging clothes on outdoor clotheslines during the summer; playing fox and geese in the snow; party telephone lines and outhouses; electric fans and black and white television; hula hoops; stilts; barn swings and friends. It was a simpler, more innocent time in the history of our country. Family and friends were everything. If I could choose one song that sums up the way I felt growing up in the 1950’s, it would be: “It’s a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong.

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About the Author

Cindy Wiren Bartlett grew up in the small Iowa town of Chariton, during the 1950’s and 1960’s, but her favorite and the most carefree decade was the 1950’s. Chariton had 5,000 residents then, with four elementary schools, one junior high and one senior high school. Chariton was the original home of Hy-Vee Food Stores, and housed the warehouse and distribution center in the two decades when Cindy was growing up. Because of Hy-Vee employing several people, this was one of Chariton’s times of highest population and economic growth. In 1972, Cindy earned her B.A. Degree in Elementary Education from the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa. She earned her Master’s of Education Degree in 1978 from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, Nebraska. She has been an educator for 46 years.