Atomic Farmgirl: Growing Up Right in the Wrong Place – An Irreverent Coming-of-Age Memoir from Cold War Rural Washington

by Teri Hein

Atomic Farmgirl is a wise, irreverent, deeply personal story of growing up right in the wrong place. The granddaughter of German Lutheran homesteaders, Teri Hein was raised in the 1950s and 1960s in rural eastern Washington. This starkly elegant landscape serves as the poignant backdrop to her story, for one hundred miles to the south of this idyllic, all-American setting lay the toxins — both mental and physical — of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. From horseback riding to haying, Flag Day parades to Cold War duck-and-cover drills, Atomic Farmgirl chronicles a peculiar coming of age for a young girl and her community of hardworking, patriotic folk, whose way of life — and livelihood — are gradually threatened by the poisons of progress.
Combining a profoundly tender story of youth with politics and an unmistakable sense of place, Teri Hein has written a memoir that is part Terry Tempest Williams, part Erin Brockovich, part Garrison Keillor. In the end, she offers a rich and ribald journey into the universal mysteries of childhood, love, community, and home, a journey that confirms humankind’s infinite capacity for hope.

Genres: Nonfiction, Book Club, Memoir, Biography Memoir, Read For School, Biography

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I volunteer for Teri's writing center, 826 Seattle, so this review is not completely unbiased.

This is more a story about growing up in the 50's and 60's than it is a polemic against the damage inflicted upon a significant chunk of southeast WA residents by the Hanford Nuclear Plant. There's nothing really heavy-handed about how Teri describes the effects of radioactive iodine on the mortality rates in her small town; it just neatly fits into the story of her life.

A recommended read for anyone interested in Washington State history or the Cold War.

[Sherry (sethurner) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gypsy, our Welch mare, seemed as tall as a house and as wild as the stallion she wasn't when she remembered the clover on the north side of the house and took off.

Remembering is something that Teri Hein does well. I picked up the memoir on a trip to Portland. The book caught me eye because my grandmother was a child in Washington. She crossed the Columbia River to go to school in Hanford, a place that no longer exists as a town because the US government took it over and constructed a plant to manufacture plutonium for the Manhattan Project. My grandma's father was raised in nearby Fairfield, the hometown of this writer. Teri Hein writes about the experience of growing up on a Fairfield farm in the 1950s, and of the strange cluster of illnesses that killed friends and family after the Hanford Nuclear Reservation began releasing radioactive material. I liked the book on two levels, for the humor and love with which she describes her girlhood experiences, and also for the way she shows the harm the nuclear poisons caused for the people unlucky enough to live nearby.
Added May 2009 - I reread the book after traveling to Washington state, to both Fairfield and the Tri-Cities area where the Hanford Nuclear Reservation is. I was surprised to discover that I am related (distant cousins) to one family described in the book as having lost three members to cancer. Meeting these people and seeing the places made the book much more significant for me.

[Nonie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read about a familiar place...the Palouse wheat country of eastern Washington. While it's non-fiction, it reads like a well crafted novel. But I know that the special charm of this book for me comes because Fairfield Washington is just 35 miles from my early Spokane home; my husband grew up in Hanford/Richland WA & we both attended WSU in the heart of Palouse country in the early 60's. It's a downwinder story presented w/o acrimony. Thanks ME for the recommend.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read after _My Year of Meats_ (a novel). In _Meats_ there's a reference to the Hanford nuclear center in S.E. Washington. Hanford make the plutonium for "Fat Man," the bomb dropped on Nagaski, Japan. This is the real life of account of the people who lived downwind from Hanford, raised wheat, built community, and started dying from cancers (thyroid, brain) and lupus. Also they had a high rate of MS. It's a funny book--Hein is a funny narrator--but under the surface is a dark story.

[Stephanie Pieck · Rating 3 out of 5]

This autobiographical novel chronicles the rise and fall of a family farm in Washington state from the first German homesteaders of the late 1800s to the garown daughters of the 2000s who want to keep the land in the family but know that farming is not the lifestyle they want for themselves or their children. The book streams past like fields along an open road, beautiful, mesmerizing, and somehow bittersweet, especially to any reader who has lived on a farm. The book also touches on the health problems aof people who are caught between the natural world of soil and rivers and the governments and industries who use the same soil and rivers because they are plentiful and sparsely populated. Agriculture has become as dependent on chemicals as every other aspect of modern life, and often the consequences of all those chemicals are only apparent after many years.

[Patti Victorson · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author gives a good feel to the culture of Eastern Washington, the Palouse area, and growing up wheat farming in the 1950s and 1960s. The author sounds an alarm how the atomic plant in Hanford, Wa, and its air, water, and underground waste run-off probably brought about the cancers and thyroid maladies that her family and neighbors have experienced. The effects have been gradual and will continue to affect life in this area. I believe the author spends a lot of time giving a genealogy account of family, friends, and neighbors in this story.

[Emilyk · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. The author just went on and on and on about the minuscule details of her life, her grandparents life, her great grandparents life, but somehow not about what was happening at Hanford and how it affected the folks of that area. At least on in the first half of the book, or the beginnings of the rest of the chapters I skimmed. Also filled with casual racism and a bit of sexism. No thanks.

[Schuyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very well-written nonfiction that interest you and immerses you in Hein's world growing up. The subtle effects of the war, and its atomic bombs, are displayed in a small, country town.

[Allison]

Both nostalgic and acerbic about a bygone way of life.

[Kim · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nothing to say. Not even 1 star

[E · Rating 5 out of 5]

Charlie bell was part of dedicated people!
Love Teri’s writing wow

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I flew through this book & read it in only a few hours. Hein's narration has a hypnotic, regular cadence that I couldn't seem to tear myself away from. I could also identify with Hein's place as a young girl growing up in a rural setting, and I was hungry to find out how her life out in Washington state could be paralleled to life in rural upstate New York.

Hein does such a good job of reminiscing about the setting and good times with the neighbors that I nearly forgot the book's main focus. The town of Fairfield, WA, where Hein grew up, is within a few hundred miles of a nuclear plant that released iodine-131 several times over the course of 30 years. It is believed that the plant is responsible for several cancer cases throughout WA state. Hein's stories about the neighbors are infused with descriptions of how many of them became sick and how some died.

I did feel like the book was sort of glued-together. Chapters weren't necessarily always ordered in chronological order and this may be why I flew through the book very quickly. I could skim through some parts that were repetivie. Hein does state in the Preface that she wrote different chapters at different times, and this is evident. As a result, a reader could read some chapters alone and not need to read prior chapters.

To get a sense of what the book is about in a nutshell, read pages 212-225. Overall, it was a great read & it's made me curious to see if other memoirs follow a similar organizational pattern.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a memoir about growing up on the Palouse in Eastern Washington in the 1950’s-1960’s. I lived on the Palouse (in Moscow, Idaho from 1984-1987) for three years and liked her descriptions of the farmlands and hills. I also have an interest in the Hanford Plant and liked hearing her views on the cancers and other conditions that seemed to plague her family and neighbors who were downwind of the nuclear facility. I enjoyed her descriptions of farm life and expectations – there was never any thought that a daughter would inherit and work the farm. I wonder if those expectations have ever changed. I liked that she highlighted both the best and worst aspects of small town and farm life.

At times she is a bit too jocular but overall it is a pleasant reminder of past days with ominous questions about the US responsibilities relating to nuclear sites. She frankly discusses the findings that there was no increase in cancer and disease rates in the areas downwind of Hanford, but quotes a poster that she saw in an public health clinic: “The greatest enemy of public health is definitive science.” Waiting for Round 3?

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very enjoyable memoir of a girl growing up in rural eastern Washington state (the nearest small town, Fairfield), and how its proximity to the Hanford Nuclear power plant is alleged to have caused a disproportionate amount of cancer in these rural farm areas. The author's father, an entire family living nearby, and a number of other friends and neighbors all developed various forms of cancer, mostly at young ages. I had never heard of Fairfield, but it is south of Spokane (in "Palouse country") and is near another small community, Spangle, which is turn was near my college town, Cheney.

In recent years there have been stories about how the underground nuclear waste tanks, installed during the 1940s, have been leaking into the groundwater for some years, admitted only in recent years by Hanford.

The book is also enjoyable as a memoir of life on a one-family wheat farm in the 1950s and 1960s, of more interest to me since I live only a few hours west of this area. Highly recommended.

**#27 of 120 books pledged to read/review during 2016**

[Rrshively · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of a few nonfiction books that I have really loved. After getting into it, I had to keep reading and reading. It is so reminiscent of the time and place that one feels as if they are there. I was 13 year older than Teri and in the city of Omaha, but I, too, had to "duck and cover." I am now living on the eastern edge of the Palouse and find the country as beautiful as Teri describes. I have lived for many years in parts of the country that are known as wheat country, and my husband was a wheat-farm boy. Many of the descriptions of farm life rang so true. I also appreciated the fact that the people described come across as real people with strengths and weaknesses that make them enjoyable human beings. The author does not spare herself in this respect. I leave it to the future reader to find out more about what this is about on the book cover and in other reviews.

[Pegi Hover · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am sure this book has some hidden, left wing political agenda, but, I was not dissuaded from the giggles, even in the midst of some awful events. I particularly loved the images and dialogue of the parade. Yes, I was appalled by the ever present lack of concern for the smalls, by the bigs, but what really snagged me was the humor that this family displayed when they experienced what they had no control over. I had no idea the fine people of the state of Washington would have ever allowed a nuclear power plant in their state. I guess it just goes to show, you don't know what you don't know.

[heidi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good book. I did enjoy it, but if the description doesn't interest you, don't read it.

I enjoyed Hein's description of her family's Eastern Washington farm in the 50's and 60's. It was an idyllic childhood in a lot of ways, but the neighboring nuclear plant cast a pall over her neighborhood that resulted in many occurrences of cancer, lupus, and other health issues.

Through it all her writing makes me long for a simpler time in American history. I also enjoyed her personal link to the land through her grandparents (on both sides) being homesteaders in the great west of yesteryear.

[Valerie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book tried to be too many things at once: was it a kitschy memoir dripping with mid-century Americana, a brief history of white settlers displacing the native inhabitants of the Palouse, or an exposé covering the health impacts of radiation from Hanford on Eastern Washington residents? I can't say, as it didn't particularly succeed at any of the above. Going in I'd hoped to read stories that focused on the latter, but the bulk of the book comprised rambling family anecdotes that failed to hold my attention.

[Gillian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great book. It was a very quick read. I enjoyed it because it is local history and I was able to see in my mind all the places she was going. I lived in Rockford, too, and could really understand her way of thinking and a little bit about her life. I used to drive all the back roads that she travelled on between Rockford and Cheney and I couldn't help but wonder if I ever say her farmhouse on those drives.

[Rebecca Dartnall · Rating 3 out of 5]

One chapter at a time - Teri Hein provides the human story to her part of the 1950s-1960s eastern Washington corner of the world. It's a memoir whose individual chapters can be read as short narratives, but all are voiced by the same character, Teri herself - as her child self and as an adult. Definitely an honest depiction told with a lot of affection for the rural heartbeat of southeastern Washington and the wheat farmers who "toughed it out" to make a living and a community.

[LPK · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like history, and this pertained specifically to an area of Eastern Washington called the Palouse. The book was an easy read, full of amusing incidences in her life. Although it had a somber tone and overall emphasis on government secrets and the dangers of nuclear power, it didn't make you feel terrible by reading it.

[Ker · Rating 3 out of 5]

A wake up call on many levels... In a region w/ lots of land and few people, why is everyone getting cancer? It has nothing to do with diet. Air and water move and circulate not just in one area, but around the globe... the toxins and heavy chemicals produced in one place do not stay put. We all share them. There's no place to hide.

[Chana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This a story about growing up on a wheat farm in eastern Washington. It is also about the suspected (and I'm only saying "suspected" because it hasn't been proven in a court of law and may never be) effects of radiation pollution from Hanford on the people in towns downwind from Hanford. Cancer is a recurrent theme. Even so, it is a mostly happy and touching story she tells.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, I finished this book at home and I'm not going to give away what happens to my client while I read to her at work. This was a great book and I'm going to lend it to my cousins husband since she said she already read it. I know he'll enjoy it because it has some history on the local natives in our area.

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Learned a lot about the place I have lived for the last 6 years and about the family of my friend (the author's sister). Everyone in the greater rural areas around Spokane and the Tri Cities of Washington should read this book.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It reminded me of my rural upbringing and takes place near where I live now. I am anxious to read more about Hanford and the downwinders. Humorous and sad at the same time...

[Janet · Rating 2 out of 5]

although this book has an attractive cover and seems like it would be really interesting according to the blurb on the back, it's really just okay. i mean, i finished it.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

this one is a little depressing, but its very good. i really like memoirs. and i kind of want to be a cowgirl...

[Allison Beall · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book because it takes place on the Palouse, mentioning countless familiar places. I found it thought-provoking.

[Emma · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tried to read this when I was about 15. I never made it beyond the halfway mark. Perhaps because I was too young, but perhaps as a result of other reasons as well . . .