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Jailhouse Stories Memories of a Small-Town Sheriff Neil Haugerud |
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$51.00 cloth/jacket |
The unforgettable stories of a county sheriff. In the 1950s and 1960s, Neil Haugerud served as sheriff of Fillmore County in southeastern Minnesota. In Jailhouse Stories, Haugerud describes what it was like to live next to a prison, where jailbirds and jailbreaks were part of family life. We meet colorful people on both sides of the law, whose problems range from the ordinary to the offbeat to the downright bizarre. In the end, Haugerud emerges with his faith in human nature intact. "Haugerud is Minnesota's Andy Taylor—his chapters are populated with small-town eccentrics: The drunk who rode a horse into a bar. The woman who broke into the German Lutheran church to play the pipe organ for hours on end." —Minneapolis Star Tribune "Funny and sad, heartwarming, and humane. Here is an unforgettable compendium of the trials, tribulations, and pleasures of rural law enforcement in a time now gone." —Midwest Book Review “Sheriff Haugerud takes us on a ride-along to meet the misfits, drunks, and poverty-stricken families who populate the rural Midwest. Surprisingly, he emerges with his faith in human nature intact. ‘People make a lot of mistakes,’ he writes. ‘But in my view there are very few bad people.’” —Minnesota Monthly “At times humorous and nostalgic, at other times touching and sad Jailhouse Stories reads like timeless postcards from another era.” —Rochester Post Bulletin “In an era of quick-fixes and a pervasive attitude of ‘lock ‘em up and throw away the key’, Neil shows us with humor, tolerance and compassion that people are human and that they do make mistakes. His stories tend to remind us that we’re only her once, so let’s give each other a second chance.” —Fillmore County Journal “Jailhouse Stories is a charming yarn about the nine years Haugerud served as sheriff of Minnesota’s Fillmore County, living with his wife and four small children in the sheriff’s residence/jailhouse. It is an odd experience, told gently, with the lighter stories (the chronic drunk-tank visitor who helps with yard work; the batty old woman who breaks into churches to play the pipe organ) interspersed with the dark (murder, suicide, incest).” —City Pages "This work has two virtues: it is a hodgepodge collection of thirty-eight stories that will enthrall readers, and it is a catalogue of incidents in the lives of police officers that will become part of the debate of the pros and cons of American law enforcement. For those who make and carry out social policy, this book is a mine of information." —South Dakota History “If what resonates with you is the quirkiness of small-town life, try Jailhouse Stories.” —Eden Prairie News "If Chekhov had been sheriff of Fillmore County, he would have written it all down too, like this." —Garrison Keillor Neil Haugerud was sheriff of Fillmore County from 1959 to 1967 and a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives from 1969 to 1977. He now resides in Preston, Minnesota. 240 pages | 16 halftones | 5 1/4 x 8 3/8 | cloth: 1999, paper: 2002 |
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$16.95 paper