An Author Talk I Didn't Overly Enjoy

When I saw that Bill Stokes was going to be talking about his book that discussed the POW camps in Wisconsin, I was really interested. I knew there was a camp in the Appleton area but I wanted to learn more about it.

Well... I was greatly disappointed. He really didn't talk much about the POW camp. Sure there was some information but nothing I already knew. He did tell about one POW and how he came to meet him. I also learned that these POW weren't really treated as POWs when they went to area farms to help with the harvest. Some farmers' wives would offer the prisoners to eat lunch with the other farmhands.

Bill Stokes was very difficult to hear and maybe I just missed parts of what he was talking about but I left feeling disappointed. He didn't use a microphone and I was only in the three row. I was advised to sit closer but I thought three rows back was close enough. Maybe I should have sat in the front row.

I think being a newspaper man, he was very good at writing but public speaking might not be his forte. I am going to chalk it up to his age (over 80 crowd) that he couldn't elaborate more on his story than the basic information.

I had such high expectations for this talk and left feeling disappointed. I am sure his book Margaret’s War is very good and might even answer some of the questions I that I've been wondering.