Sundown on the Sun-Up
Margaret Jane Jones
Paperback
(CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, March 29, 2018)
Sundown on the Sun-Up is a window to another place and time. Spend time with the Eatons on their cattle ranch known as the Sun-Up in Klickitat Valley in the State of Washington. It is 1945. Eleven-year-old-Jane Eaton's greatest wish is that World War II will end. She is not alone. The entire Eaton family, cousin Scott, her fifth grade classmates, and Americans in general yearn for the war to end. Hearts are set on it.Meanwhile, ranch work on the Sun-Up goes on. At school, bubblegum trouble erupts and turns into worse trouble at home. For breaking school rules, Jane and her sister, Ann, must clear rocks from a seven-acre field—a dreadful punishment. Five-year-old Tom tags along with Jane and learns how to find, round-up, and bring the milk cows home from far pastures. In a name-this-pony contest, Jane hopes to win the pony of her dreams.President Roosevelt dies, a set-back for the country. Now who will lead America to victory?In May, the war is over in Europe.On the 4th of July at a work-party-picnic, the Eaton clan including aunts, uncles, and cousins work to fix-up and clean-up Uncle Pops' Little Klickitat River Ranch. When Scott's father Pops comes home from the war in the Pacific, they want the river ranch to be in working order, the house clean, the barn roof patched, and the old windmill pumping water.In August, the war is over in the Pacific. Now the question is : When will the the men come home? Will sixteen-year-old Scott get to meet this father's ship when it docks in Seattle after the war? When Uncle Robbie comes home from the war, will he keep his promise to take the children fishing?In October, to celebrate the homecoming of the family's war heroes, Grandpa throws one of his famous Doughnuts Parties. He hints that the secret ingredient of his doughnuts is found in the honey made by bees in his own beehives. At that grand Doughnut Party, the secret of the bees never tasted better. In the west, past the far mountains, the sun slowly slips below the horizon. It is the end of the day and of a way of life. SUNDOWN ON THE SUN-UP