Tales from the Sunday house

the long version

In Tales from the Sunday House, Minetta Altgelt Goyne gives us glimpses into the real lives of this between-the-wars generation. Sometimes incomplete, sometimes apparently pointless, sometimes merely addenda to previously told tales, these eleven stories are the kind of tales family members told other - often younger - members of the family as they sat by thee fireside or on the porches of their "Sunday Houses," structures peculiar to the German Texans, built on lots so that farmers and their families would have a place to rest when conducting business in town, attending to medical needs, or attending church services. Tales from the Sunday House immerses us in the personal, private, and sometimes public lives of the Kreutz and Bracht families, and by the final chapter, these quiet and simple stories have given us an insight into the culture established by the Early German immigrants and altered by the growing Americanness of younger generations.