Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Retrospective Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 1995 Alan and me: a memoir of the depression years Leroy Kenneth Berryhill Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd Part of the Creative Writing Commons, and the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Berryhill, Leroy Kenneth, "Alan and me: a memoir of the depression years " (1995). Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 7074. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/7074 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Retrospective Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Alan and me: A memoir of the depression years by Leroy Kenneth Berryhill A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS Department: English Major: English (Creative Writing) Signatures have been redacted for privacy Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 1995 / 11 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 THE MORTGAGE 4 BLOODY BUTCHERS 21 FIRST SCHOOLDAYS 32 PAPA'S MISTAKE 46 INITIATION 53 ALAN'S REBELLION BOYD AND MARIAN 76 MISS SERHAGL 85 MOLESTATION 95 CONFLICT AND CONVERSION 106 ALAN ENLISTS 113 FRESHMAN 121 FURLOUGH 132 1944 - '45 WAR'S END 140 JUNIOR YEAR 149 THE HEALING 159 1 INTRODUCTION This memoir covers my years as a farm boy in the Great Depression, from 1933 when I was four years old to 1947 when I turned eighteen.