Calvin Hiatt: Portland, OR

Folks, I had a wonderful visit with Calvin & Jeanne Hiatt this evening. I know many of you from the Ackworth community will remember Calvin and many of you are also related to Calvin. He is a brother to Willie. Their dad was Amos. Norris Knutson is currently living on their home place. I told Calvin about sending these daily messages, but I did not ask him if they’d like to be included on the daily restitution. I have included them with today’s message though.

Lost folks located with the info from Charlotte Hiatt Lang’s 37, 38 & 39 reunion letter.

Folks, I bumped all the names listed in Charlotte’s reunion news letter posted two days ago with the names I have listed for the classes of 37, 38 & 39. Those I did not have listed were former teachers. Of those I was previously unable to locate that I did not have married names for, I was able to locate and made contact with Irene Damstom Seda from the class of 1939.

Irene Damstrom Seda is living in Lincoln, NE. She is 89 years old and sharp as a tack. She has quick recall of those that were in her class. She still has her HS year book within easy reach. I think I understood her to say she has not been back to Dunseith since shortly after she gradated in 1939. That will 70 years next month. Art Rude Jr., she remembers your dad well. They were in the same class. She was unaware that he was even a teacher let alone the principle at Dunseith for years. She also asked about Otis Rude. While I was talking to her I pulled out her class composite picture for 1939 and noticed that she was the Valedictorian. When I mentioned this to her she said and “Clayton Kjos was the Salutatorian”. I said, “that’s right”. She asked me if he is still living in Spokane, of which he still is. She told me she has not seen Clayton since they graduated 70 years ago. Irene does not have email, but her daughter does. She gave me her daughters phone number, but requested I wait a day before calling, so she could forewarn her who I am. She said her daughter really has no recollection of Dunseith. I will call her tonight. Irene was really friendly to talk to and she told me she was really glad I called. Gary

Address/Phone update from Connie Peterson Lagerquist (74): Head Gardener at Peace Garden

Hi Gary,
I will give you the update for my address. It’s 10811 29th Ave. Dunseith, ND 58329 Phone: 263-4774. Thanks Gary.
Connie

Folks, Connie’s parents are Duane & Lorraine Peterson. Connie is the Head Gardener at the Peace Garden. She has had that job a number of years now. The Head Gardeners I remember are Pete Vogels & Orvin Hagen. When I was talking to Orvin a while back I asked him who currently had his old job and he said “You know”, and I said “no I don’t” and he said, “It’s Connie Peterson Lagerquist.” From the news coverage I’ve seen, Connie is doing and excellent job. She has sure had her challenges with the floods and the deer.

Story from Dick Johnson (68): Dunseith, ND

Gary and Friends,

A while ago Diane Larson Sjol wrote about Jack Hosmer having one of the
first pontoons on Lake Metigoshe. In the late 50’s Dad gave some of the
Fassett girls and me a boat ride around the lake one day. We were across
the lake near the south shore when we spotted Jack’s pontoon and Jack
taking a swim. Dad pulled up and Jack took a hold of the side of the
boat and stayed in the water, talking for a while. I noticed Jack was
shivering as we talked. The water wasn’t that warm yet that spring. Dad
asked him if he wanted to get out of the water, but Jack said he was
fine. We were there for quite a while before we fired up and headed on
our way. The next time Dad ran into Jack back in town, Jack said, ” Holy
_____ Don, I damn near froze to death talking with you at the lake the
other day!” He told Dad he really hadn’t planned to take a swim when he
left the cabin but the water looked so good he just went for a quick
skinny dip and we showed up! He couldn’t get out of the water with all
the girls in the boat and we wouldn’t leave! They had a good laugh over
it anyway! Thanks Gary!

Dick

Reply & Story From Larry Hackman (66): Bismarck, ND

Gary

Glad to here that old man (Bill Grimme) down in Alabama is doing fine.

I think we are going to finally come out of hibernation here in the Dakotas. It is starting to warm up a little around here. But, I’m not getting too excited yet. We still have the rest of April and of course May to get through. Then we will find out if we are going to have summer or fall. I hope that warm day we had about three weeks ago was not summer. We will have to wait and see.

You take care, Gary

Larry

A DOGGIE-DOO STORY

What is doggie-doo?Doggie-Doo is what the dog do in your yard and not their masters yard.Unless they have a fence or the dog tied up, then the doggie do it where he should do it.In his masters yard.

Speaking of dogs, did anyone else notice the large dogs being kept in some of the yards of the Dunseith residents when you were back there in 2007? The weather was great wasn’t it.One nice evening the wife and I took a walk around town.I was telling her where everyone lived at the time when I grew up there, where the best strawberry and raspberry patches were, and yes, about the apple tree that was located about a block west of the Commercial Hotel.You could not walk by that place in the evening without that woman coming out and telling you to stay away from her apple tree.Thinking about it!Wasn’t that kind of like a invitation?Most of the dogs were huge, rottweilers I think.I remember telling the wife that if one them dogs gets loose and comes for us, that she was suppose to choose and offer up a arm that she could learn to live without. No, I didn’t get asked to go for another walk.

Back to the story.

We finally had a few nice warm sunny days here in the Dakota’s and I made a trip around my yard through the 2 feet or more, of the nice white stuff and around the 6 ft. high piles that had accumulated over the winter from all the shoveling.I’m writting to inform everyone that the nice white stuff was not so nice and white.Thatdoggie-doo does not melt, and as you can tell, it inspired me to vent.

I don’t keep a dog of my own.Anyway, the dogs running loose reminded me, that in Dunseith in the spring of the year, the police chief would have the job of dispatching some of the dogs that were roaming the streets and making a mess wherever they pleased.He was to dispatch these dogs by dropping some lead into the left ear of the dog.I really don’t think it really mattered which ear he dropped it into, since he was going to drop it in with a .22 caliber rifle.He would walk through the neighborhoods shooting the dogs without collars and tags.This method appeared to be acceptable at the time as there was no public outcry against what was being done, and something had to be done. Now, I know them old timers sitting around in the shade sharpening their jack-knives would have handled the problem if they would have had television and Bob Barker on The Price is Right telling them to spade or neuter them pets. But, most did not have TV’s and they didn’t know then, that it would have been OK to use them sharp knives.I also remember a couple of cowboys who would drive around at night with their pistols at the ready, apparently taking care of the dogs, that the police chief missed.Maybe some day, they will tell us their story?

This year (late 1950’s) in particular there seemed to be dogs running loose everywhere.I think the farmers would haul any extra dogs to town that they had, thinking that they would find some nice town family that would take care of them.This also worked in reverse, some town people who got tired of their dog, would haul them out into the country and dump the dog off near some farm, thinking that the dog would be better off on a farm where he would be well taken care of by the farmer and the dog would be at a place where he could run free.I think most of the time these dogs would end up either back in town or dead, as a farmer did not want any dog around that could not earn its keep.

The dogs all seemed to live very well in Dunseith.People and businesses in them days had burn barrels in the alleys and the rest of the garbage was stacked around or near the barrels.This material in some cases stayed piled in these locations all winter as it was tough to get through alleys and up to the dump with all the snow.In the summer, people were able to drive in the alleys and up to the dump grounds without problems.Besides, the garbage had a tendency to get a little ripe when it was warm out and gave people a little more incentive to haul it off. The dogs in both cases, had easy access to food, both in the alleys and up at the dump ground, winter and summer.They multiplied and prospered.

The multiplying part, is probably the part, that got them into the most trouble, which usually occured with the warming up of the weather in the spring.Yes, with mating season in full force, eventually a couple of them dogs would try to do it in the middle of main street.Someone would honk and and try to scare them apart and instead of parting they became stuck together and sometimes each trying to go in a different direction.Must of been a nervous reaction or something.This seemed to cause quite a stir up in the middle of town on a busy afternoon with shoppers everywhere.The male population seemed to be all watching and laughing, and the female population seemed to be trying to navigate through the commotion while pretending not to notice what was causing the commotion.This was particularily tough on the women drivers trying to navigate their vehicle down main, while appearing not to be looking at the street directly in front of them and to not notice the dogs.There were some close calls. I’m sure, this is what caused the city fathers to react and order the chief of police to rid the city of as many stray dogs as possible.

Oh, yes!The burning question!What happened to the dogs that were pasted together in the middle of the business section of town.Well, eventually either they relaxed and went on there way, which was probably tough to do with people shouting and laughing and cars honking around them.So, what usually happened is that one of the business proprieters would notice the commotion and figure out that this wasn’t a good thing and one would come running out of their place of business with a pail of cold water and dump it on the dogs.Apparently them people, even way back in them days, knew about shrinkage and I know they did not learn about it from watching George Costanzia on Sienfeld.Anyway,

shrinkage apparently solved the problem and the dogs would run off separately, happy to escape them humans with their lifes.

Apparently not worrying about the chief-of-police or the cowboys. Yet?

Remember: Laugh and the whole world laughs with you.

Larry