Ten Minutes to Rake the Carpet: An Unexpected Life of Hosting, Travel, Painting, and Politics

While growing up in the Midwest, author Shirley Hansen Acker could never have imagined the experiences she’d be exposed to in her adult life. In Ten Minutes to Rake the Carpet, she offers a memoir describing a host of interesting events spanning nearly eight decades. Acker shares stories about hosting comedian Red Skelton in her living room, walking a college campus with Shirley Temple Black, furnishing and decorating a 5,500-square-foot home, preparing for and hosting 200 people with only a student helper, and snorkeling and swimming at the university natatorium. She tells what it was like to attend a one-room country school, to tour China with a People to People group, to stand in line to buy bread and visit a private farmer in the Republic of Belarus, and to watch gazelles, zebras, and wildebeest on Kenya’s Serengeti Plain. Ten Minutes to Rake the Carpet narrates the stories of a wide range of Acker’s experiences, communicating the message that there’s much to be gained by reaching out, entering new territory, and adjusting to the challenges and surprises life presents.

Shirley Hansen Acker worked as a dental assistant and in an animal feed company office after completing her education. When she married, she focused on her family and supported her husband's academic career, hosting students, faculty, and university friends. Her work climaxed as first lady at Kansas State University for eleven years followed by six years in the White House Volunteer Office. Acker spends summers on their farm in Iowa and winters in Florida.