Bob Bancks - Edie

Edie Book by Bob Bancks

In the early part of the twentieth century little girls were to play with dolls. Edie would rather play baseball and walk the creek banks looking for arrowheads with Pete, her one classmate at the one room Patterson School. She is tomboy and playing with Pete, even though he is the boss’ son, it didn’t matter. Friends were scarce in rural Iowa. One September, a red-headed Irish boy named Sean transferred to the one room school. To Edie, Sean was a nice six grader and nothing special. Sean endured Edie as a pesky third grader. In time, their fathers changed jobs. Sean moved to town and worked in a button factory. Edie’s family rented her grandmother’s farm and Edie moved to another rural school and left Pete.

When Edie is seventeen, she meets Sean again at a dance. They immediately fell in love. Their romance ebbed and flowed because of the prejudices of the time. The Great War tears them apart. Edie helps her father on the farm and tackles many jobs considered not proper for a woman in the early 20th Century. Because of her work ethic, Edie becomes a champion for women’s rights.

Sean comes home a war hero, but in Edie’s father’s eyes he is still a Catholic and Irish. Will fate intervene again?

Pete becomes involved with criminal activities and brings the Chicago mob to rural Iowa. Edie is hired by her old friend as a chef to provide many sumptuous meals for his clients. One of these meetings turns ugly and puts everyone including Edie in danger.

Will Edie survive to be the mother, wife, farmer, and friend of many in her neighborhood?