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Blue Skies, No Fences: A Memoir of Childhood and Family
by Lynne Cheney
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Synopses & Reviews In Blue Skies, No Fences: A Memoir of Childhood and Family, Lynne Cheney re-creates the years after World War II in a small town on the high plains of the West.
Portraying an era that started with the Ink Spots on the Zenith Radio in her family's living room and ended with Elvis on the jukebox at the local canteen, she tells of coming of age in a time when the country seemed in control of its destiny and individual Americans in charge of theirs. She describes Casper, Wyoming, where she met a young man named Dick Cheney, and remembers her hometown as a place where the future seemed as bright as the blue sky and life's possibilities as boundless as the prairie. It was also a place where a pioneer heritage prevailed, and Cheney traces the paths of forebears who journeyed westward, strengthened against adversity by a bedrock belief that they would find a better life.
An uplifting exploration of a special time and place in American history, Blue Skies, No Fences is also a heartfelt tribute to those optimistic souls who, in Lynne Cheney's words, "pinned their hopes on America and kept heading west." Review: "Lynne Cheney's credentials are, as far as I can tell, unprecedented among vice-presidents' wives: a doctorate in English, author of numerous books, Lockheed Martin Corp. director, chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Now a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, she is known for her combative conservatism, yet there is almost nothing about partisan politics in this nostalgic ... Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review) memoir. On the other hand, there is a great deal about achievement. At first, the lightning-rod Lynne Cheney of today seems light years away from the champion baton twirler whose early life in Wyoming she describes. Indeed, many of her small-town experiences during the 1940s and "50s sound pretty similar to mine, nearly 2,000 miles away in Brooklyn: 'Your Hit Parade' and Elvis, playing jacks and fearing polio, Girl Scouts and girdles, Sputnik and sororities. Who realized how generic those coming-of-age years were? The daughter of a hot-tempered father who worked for the federal Bureau of Reclamation and an accommodating mother who worked as a soda jerk, Lynne Vincent grew up not way out on the prairie but in Casper, then as now an oil boom-and-bust town. The Wild West? Cowgirl outfits were reserved for county fairs and rodeos. Indians? There was a reservation 150 miles from Casper, but 'it might as well have been a thousand miles, for all I knew of their lives.' Her ancestors were pioneers, some of German heritage who started out in Pennsylvania, others who came west with the Mormons, a religion that her father later rejected. Cheney's account of her family history and her husband's Puritan forebears is full of archetypal American sagas. Still, the book grows more engaging once she gets more personal. What is striking is her unconventional side. Picture Lynne Cheney hiding a copy of James Joyce's 'Ulysses' from her parents when she wasn't skimming it 'looking for the good parts.' Imagine her bored with 'Leave It to Beaver' and 'Father Knows Best,' preferring Brooklyn's own Ralph and Alice Kramden. (Jackie Gleason reminded her of her dad.) One key childhood idol was — hold on to your Bella Abzug hats, ladies — Wonder Woman. She read every Wonder Woman comic she could get her hands on, knew the back story, deflected bullets with imaginary magic bracelets. She writes: 'In 1972 when (Gloria) Steinem and (Letty) Pogrebin put Wonder Woman on the cover of the first issue of Ms. magazine, I had a moment of complete empathy with the feminist movement.' OK, so it might have been the first, last and only such moment, but Cheney's actions speak for themselves. (Her famously suppressed novel about strong women, 'Sisters,' came later.) This memoir is forthright about double standards of the "50s. Although the rules were 'no drugs, no sex, and plenty of kissing,' a quote she attributes to a friend, some classmates did wind up pregnant. Cheney is outraged that these young women were pressured to drop out of high school. And, however 'good' most of the rules were, she notes, they were 'hard on ... kids who were gay.' Nevertheless, in these 'enlightened times,' Cheney admits she had a conformist side, too. She is 'embarrassed to acknowledge that being high school homecoming queen was fun, but it was, all of it' — including being crowned with a rhinestone tiara by Dick Cheney, the football team co-captain. One anecdote illuminates both their quintessentially "50s romance and Lynne's steely determination. She and Dick were going steady — she wore his gold football ornament on her necklace. Then one day Dick suggested that it was time to 'play the field.' 'I did not respond positively,' Lynne Cheney writes. She hurled the gold football at him. Accepting a ride from a great-looking guy who drove the most glamorous gold Pontiac Catalina convertible in town, she showed off her new catch on a cruise to the local drive-in. She went to the senior dance in a black sheath with another guy. Carol Lynley, the blonde Seventeen magazine cover girl who was another of Lynne's role models, could not have played the scene better. By the time the dance ended, a chastened Dick drove her home. Their split had lasted 11 days. That's about as dishy as 'Blue Skies, No Fences' gets. It ends as Lynne and Dick, not yet engaged, head for separate colleges. There are few clues about how the cute tow-headed tyke pictured on the dust jacket grew into the formidable female half of a premier Washington power couple. Cheney emphasizes that she 'needed to see the elephant,' as westward travelers used to say, to 'explore possibilities' far beyond Wyoming. In the eighth grade, she wanted so much to be named Outstanding Girl of the Year, an American Legion prize, that she wrote 'OGY' all over her notebooks and 'even on the soles of my shoes.' She got the prize. In the "50s, girls were not typically encouraged to express aspirations beyond home, hearth and helpmate. Young Lynne Vincent did. I am intrigued enough to hope for a sequel that reveals more about her blonde ambition. Grace Lichtenstein covered the Rocky Mountain states for the New York Times as its Denver Bureau chief." Reviewed by Grace Lichtenstein, Washington Post Book World (Copyright 2006 Washington Post Book World Service/Washington Post Writers Group)
(hide most of this review)Review: "Cheney's measured, rose-colored prose is anchored with generous pages of photographs...and though this idyllic upbringing is portrayed in touching and deft language, the relevance of this mawkish valentine to her hometown remains questionable. Why, and why now?" Kirkus Reviews Review: "Cheney's memoir of her childhood in Casper, Wyoming, is a captivating amalgam of genealogy and gems of 1950s memorabilia that will bring smiles of recognition to readers of her generation." Booklist Synopsis: In this fascinating and inspiring true story, Cheney traces her ancestry and that of her husband, Vice President Dick Cheney, from 17th-century America to 1950s Wyoming, where she and her husband grew up, fell in love, and started their own family. Photos throughout. About the Author Lynne Cheney's most recent book is the New York Times bestseller, We the People: The Story of Our Constitution, illustrated by Greg Harlin. She is also the author of the New York Times bestsellers America: A Patriotic Primer, A is for Abigail: An Almanac of Amazing American Women, When Washington Crossed the Delaware: A Wintertime Story for Young Patriots, A Time for Freedom: What Happened When in America, and Our 50 States: A Family Adventure Across America, and has written a memoir, Blue Skies, No Fences. Mrs. Cheney is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and former chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband, Vice President Richard B. Cheney.
Product Details
- ISBN:
- 9781416532880
- Subtitle:
- A Memoir of Childhood and Family
- Author:
- Cheney, Lynne
- Publisher:
- Threshold Editions
- Subject:
- United states
- Subject:
- United States - General
- Subject:
- Genealogy
- Subject:
- Vice-presidents
- Subject:
- Personal Memoirs
- Subject:
- Women
- Subject:
- Political
- Subject:
- Wyoming
- Subject:
- Vice-Presidents -- United States
- Edition Description:
- Thresholdtions
- Publication Date:
- October 2007
- Binding:
- Hardcover
- Grade Level:
- General/trade
- Language:
- English
- Illustrations:
- Y
- Pages:
- 305
- Dimensions:
- 8.4375 x 5.5 in
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