Mark J. Curran

The Farm: Growing Up in Abilene, Kansas, in the 1940s and 1950s Mark J. Curran

Mark Curran grew up on a family farm near Abilene, Kansas, in the 1940s and 1950s. Abilene, aside from being a beautiful small town with many historic buildings and Victorian style homes on shaded streets, is famous for its role in the early cattle drives from Texas and as a railroad shipping center for livestock to the East, cowboy days, and being the childhood home of Dwight D. Eisenhower, head of the Allied Forces in WWII and later president of the United States. The farm was on a half-section of land, producing wheat, alfalfa and corn and was nearly self-sufficient in providing food for the family. Curran believes his experience growing up was typical of the times in the United States and represents a way of liiving which has nearly vanished. He also believes his experience is shared by many people who now live in urban areas but share many of his memories. The author is a retired university professor and taught Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese and their respective cultures at Arizona State Univerisity, full-time from 1968 to 2002 and part-time to the present. He has published nine books on his teaching speciality, Brazil's folk-popular poetry, in Brazil, Spain, and the U. S. This book represents a change of pace, an autobiography expressing a desire to relive and cherish memories of growing up on the Kansas plains.