Nell's Story: A Woman from Eagle River

In this candid memoir written with her brother Robert, author of Crunching Gravel: A Wisconsin Boyhood in the Thirties, Nell Peters looks back on her life with an irreverent humor that has clearly brought her through some tough times. Born in 1932, she grew up with five siblings on a small farm in northern Wisconsin, where she enjoyed a tomboy existence. Early on, she felt sexually attracted to both males and females but initiated her first sexual experience with a boy just before she jonied the WACs after high school. She left the service when she discovered she was pregnant with twins, and she returned to her family, barely supporting herself and her two sons by working at a series of menial jobs. She admits that, during this stressful time, she abused her sons physically and emotionally. She later married and bore four more children, before embarking on several relationships with women. (Apr.)