Rural Roots: Growing Up in Southern Illinois - Wilma Niekamp - August 1983

Wilma Niekamp

As farm kids become a smaller and smaller minority, I'm more than happy to say I grew up on a farm! What's it like to live on a farm and come from a small town in the middle of America's breadbasket? It's worlds apart from the big city. Our family farm is 3 miles south of Carmi, Ill., a town of about 6,000 people and five stoplights. Since this is a farming community, it's not a strange sight to see tractors or farm trucks loaded with grain going down the middle of the main street. A lot of men drive around in four-wheel drive pickup trucks and listen to the grain market reports every day. Carmi has one junior high and one high school, and these are where I spent my secondary school days. Before that I attended a country school until seventh grade. - Information Supplied By: Herbert W Armstrong Library