Union Stockyards (Omaha)

Former stockyards in South Omaha, Nebraska, once among the largest in the world. In The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid Bryson’s mother grew up poor in a shack at their edge.

At a glance

Source	Author	Role	In one line
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid	Bill Bryson	setting	His mother’s childhood shack above the stockyards: the dreaded family stop on every trip west.

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid — Bill Bryson (2006)

Source: The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid · Original · Readwise highlight

My mother grew up remarkably poor, in a tiny house that was really a shack, on the edge of Omaha’s vast and famous stockyards.

• Role: setting
• In the book: The family stops in Omaha on the way home from western holidays to visit his mother’s three inert brothers in her childhood shack, which backs onto a cliff above the stockyards; Bryson describes their smell and noise. There is nothing to do, and the uncles seem keen for them to leave.
• Why it matters: It explains his mother’s origins and her climb to Drake University and Des Moines, and why Omaha is the dreaded stop of every trip.