I Will Fly to Woodstock

 Sally Cissna does it again!

Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2021

This is the 3rd volume in Sally Cissna's The Woodstock Tales series which follows the lives of John and Ida (Doering) Wienke (the author's maternal grandparents) and their siblings as they navigate life in Woodstock, IL in the early years of the 20th century. This volume covers the years 1908 to 1911. The Wienkes are not extraordinary people; they are not famous nor did they accomplish great things. What they did was live. Live in a world few of us can imagine today. A world where flight was new; where most now had telephones, but communication was still mainly by letter; a world where the automobile was relatively new but becoming more common; a world where movies were in their infancy, where there was no radio much less TV, cable TV, internet or cell phones. Entertainment was centered around family and church. Interspersed in the narrative are "clippings" from various local newspapers that give insight as to what was going on at the time & what people were interested in.

It is the very ordinariness of these people that makes them so interesting, especially as Sally is very talented in bringing them to life. These are people I wish I'd known and people I want to know more about. I am looking forward to the next installment of their lives!

Tom Cannon

Author of Shattered