Outskirts Press, INC.

A Multigenerational Story of Survival on the Plains of Western Kansas

In this moving memoir, the author chronicles his childhood in Western Kansas, starting with his grandparents, who suffered the terrible loss of their first seven children, with additional losses caused by the stock market crash, the Dust Bowl, and the Depression. Tony Leiker, one of ten children, grew up listening to tales of survival by his grandparents, who served under Tzar Alexander III in Russia before escaping to Germany and then to the U.S. His grandmother would talk of eating boiled grass, grasshoppers, mice, and other small animals to ward off starvation. She told of raids of the villages when the Kazaki nomads attacked and abducted people, and of a cousin whose chest was torn open by a wolf.

While Tony’s own life was free of starvation and wolves and nomads, it was far from easy. His memoir takes us from his childhood to the U.S. Navy, to marriage and children and the death of his wife—an incredible life filled with love, tragedy, hope, and triumph.