It's Not the End of the Earth, but You Can See It from Here [Paperback]

Roger L. Welsch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1999

Roger Welsch did what many Americans only dream of doing. While still in his professional prime, the folklorist and humorist quit a tenured professorship and headed toward the hinterland. Resettled in the open heart of Nebraska with his wife, Welsch proceeded to learn how to live. It’s Not the End of the Earth, but You Can See It from Here is, in his own words, "a celebration" of his "rural education."

 

These twenty-eight tales of the Great Plains convey in familiar Welschian style "the importance, charm, beauty, and value of the typical." They describe the wisdom that Welsch’s new-found teachers share with him. From everyday country people, he learns the fine arts of relaxing, using his noggin, trusting his instincts, and laughing a lot more, while Omaha Indian friends teach him the most profound lessons of all.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this rather slight collection of monologues, stories and essays, Welsch--a regular on CBS's Charles Kuralt show, a columnist and collector of Great Plains lore--celebrates small-town America's leisurely pace, human scale and the ordinary man or woman who "moves mankind and shapes destiny." Among these folk are CeCe, the irreverent waitress; a slowpoke auto-body repairman named Lunchbox; old-timers; hard drinkers; the banjo- and fiddle-playing Pankras family. There's a scathing sketch of a white supremacist proud of "his right as a modern American not to know." Other pieces deal with Amerindian wisdom, Gypsies, ice fishing, Welsch's German-Czech wedding. In one story, a geezer with a suspended driver's license drives a tractor, then a mule to a tavern. Such skits, while mildly amusing, seem closer to overheard bar conversations than to "folk literature," as Welsch ( Catfish at the Pump ) claims this olio to be. Author tour.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Roger Welsch is America’s premier storyteller. From his lips, small-town life takes on the dignity of history and the currency of the evening news. . . . These are America’s stories."—Charles Kuralt

(Charles Kuralt )

"Roger Welsch is an old plains possum who can nose out a good tale in your backyard."—William Least Heat Moon, author of Blue Highways

(William Least Heat Moon )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 228 pages
• Publisher: Bison Books (May 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803298080
• ISBN-13: 978-0803298088
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #471,306 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars CUDOS from a once Small Town Boy, August 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: It's Not the End of the Earth, but You Can See It from Here (Paperback)

In "It's Not the End of the Earth,..", Roger Welsch does an excellent job bringing out the humor of small town life by simply telling stories about his friends in Centralia, NE. He has a witty way of giving value to each of the members of this rural community bringing to light the peculiar habits and expressions that make them all unique, interesting, and memorable. I applaud Prof. Welsch's folkloric expose' of the kinds of everyday things that I used to laugh about with my dad - some of my favorite things.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mark Twain meets Garrison Keillor, April 30, 2003

By 

Ronald Scheer "rockysquirrel" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: It's Not the End of the Earth, but You Can See It from Here (Paperback)

Writing from a narrative center somewhere between Mark Twain and Garrison Keillor, author Roger Welsch memorializes the town and inhabitants of Centralia (aka Dannebrog, pop. 356), Nebraska, in what he calls "Bleaker County." Centralia itself is either the center of this windswept prairie state or the center of the universe, depending on who you ask in this small town. It's located not far north of the Platte River and its farmlands, and not far south of the Sandhills, with its population of cattle and cowboys. Life in Centralia gravitates toward the Town Tavern, where many of these story-essays take place, and we meet Welsch's fictionalized friends and neighbors: Lunchbox, Goose, Slick, Woodrow, and Cece -- the regulars. There are also his wife Lily, daughter Jenny, an Indian friend Cal, a kind-hearted bachelor uncle named Grover Bass, a film crew from public television in Lincoln, a mean cuss named Royal Cupp, a rip-tearing adventurer, Luke Bigelow, and many others.

Welsch has an appreciation for the quirky, cock-eyed, and audacious. Like an endlessly curious anthropologist, he's equally fascinated by the everyday and the out-of-the-ordinary. He's a humanist, romanticizing his characters even while he's treating them with tongue-in-cheek irony. He's also willing to show that they can stoop to the unforgivable, or that they do not share his appreciation for people from other ethnic backgrounds. There is a range of tones and sentiments in the book, from comic farce to tenderness and awe. My favorite essay, "Racing Horses at the Centralia Fourth of July," ranges across all three, as his young teenage daughter teams up with a burly cowboy to take second place in a relay race. I laughed and had tears in my eyes by the end.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and happily recommend it to anyone with an interest in small town life on the Plains. As a companion volume, I'd suggest the short stories of life in a rural Minnesota community in Kent Meyers' "Light in the Crossing."

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vintage Rog!!!

, November 4, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: It's Not the End of the Earth, but You Can See It from Here: Tales of the Great Plains (Hardcover)

If you come from a farm or a small town, you will find yourself wondering how Ol' Rog got to know all of your neighbors so well. I sure was.

This book is a collection of short stories and anecdotes about the characters and events in and around Centralia, Nebraska. Some of them are true, some just *slightly* embellished, and some of them are almost beyond belief, but they sure are funny.

Rog spins his yarns with a style that's all his own; witty, down to earth, and never pretentious. His descriptions and accounts made me feel like I'd known these folks all of my life, and left me with a smile on my face. Good stuff!