HI GARY, JUST THOUGHT THAT I WOULD TELL YOU THAT I JUST RETURNED TODAY FROM A TRIP TO NORTH DAKOTA, IT WAS A FAMILY REUNION AT RICHARDS PLACE AND ALSO A GOING AWAY PARTY FOR RICHARDS GRANDSON DEVIN MILLANG WHO IS GOING INTO THE MARINES THIS SUNDAY,FOR THOSE OF US THAT WHERE THERE WE HAD A MARVELOUSE TIME, THE FOOD WAS GREAT AND THE HOSPITALITY OF RICHARD AND ELE WAS SUPERB, NEEDLESS TO SAY A BALL WAS HAD BY ALL LOOKING FORWARD TO THE NEXT ONE

Bobby, Ele/Richard & David; We’d love to see some pictures if you guys have any you’d like to share. Gary

Message/Stories from Larry Hackman (66): Bismarck, ND

Gary

How are you? I hope this letter finds you and your family well. We are all well here. North Dakota is finally nice and green after many dry years. With all the moisture the reservoirs are filling up and even the western part of the state looks great. The crops are nice and green and thick, The hay fields are lush. the pastures have grass up to the cows knees. I can tell you how great everything looks because I’m not a farmer. A farmer as you know can’t say how great everything is until the grain is in the bin, the hay has been stacked and moved into the farm yard, and the cows and calves are back home in the corral, because they don’t want to jinx anything by talking about it. I’m not a farmer so I can tell you that it is looking like a great year in North Dakota for everybody.

Have a good day Gary.

Your friend,

larry

Larry, thank you so much for these wonderful stories. You truly are a great story writer. We love them. Gary

Art Siem and AxelJohnson stories from Larry Hackman:

The stories and pictures of Art Siem and Axel Johnson recently posted, reminded my brother and I of a couple of stories.

My brother, Henry (class of 65) related this story to me about Axel and our dad, Clarence, catching a thief.Henry said, that Axel had come over to visit with dad.This was after my dad had lost his ability to walk and we had moved from the farm in the hills, to Dunseith.Axel says to my brother Henry, ” that your dad could run like a deer in his younger days”.Then Axel told him a story about when he was a Game Warden and he had come up to Carpenter Lake to check on complaints that someone was stealing peoples traps and muskrats from the muskrat huts.

You trap muskrats by chopping or augering a hole into the side of their mud and grass huts, that they usually build in the water, near to the shore.

Some people say that the further out into the lake they build their huts, the drier the year will be, and vice versa, the closer to shore they build them, the wetter the year will be?After chopping the hole in the hut, you place the trap in the hut, with the chain from the trap anchored to the outside of the hut. Then you fill the hole you made into the hut with the material you removed to get into the hut.

Our farm in the Turtle Mountians was located about a half mile west of Carpenter Lake.Anyway, what Axel said was that dad and him had made their way from the farm through the snow down to the lake and had just cleared the tree line and was scoping out the snow covered icy surface of the lake. The lake surrounded with all the muskrat mounds and cat tails was quiet and casting long shadows, as the sun was just going down. Most trappers check their traps in the early morning hours when the sun is coming up. They saw movement and at about the same time the man, who was bent over removing a trap from a hut saw them.He threw the traps he had collected over his shoulder with the rats still in them and took off running across the lake.Axel said, with the head start the man had and with the way he was running, he thought there was no way they were going to catch him.He said, Clarence our dad, grabbed a scoop shovel and took out after him and before that guy got half way across the lake, Clarence, our dad had caught up to him and clobbered him along side the head with the scoop shovel, knocking him out, colder then a cucumber.

Art Siem Story

– Damned if you do.Damned if you don’t.

I was at home in bed sleeping as I was scheduled to work the next day (Sunday) at Robert’s Service Station.It was about midnight when the phone rang.It was the A/C Bar.They asked if I could drive a farm truck.I said, Yes, that I had driven farm trucks before.They asked if I could come up and drive Art Siem home.He had apparently taken a load of grain to town and sold it, and on his way home he thought he would just stop off at the A/C Bar and just have one.Well, anyway, they explained that he was in no condition to drive, and they were wondering if I could come up and drive him home.I said that I would and that I would be right up.They asked if I needed somebody to follow me up into the hills to bring me back to town.I said no,that I would have my sister follow me up and bring me back to town.

I don’t know if I thought about it then, but thats all I would of needed is for someone, that was sitting in the bar all night, following me, and then trying to drive me home.

I got up to the bar and got Art into the truck and drove him up into the farm yard. There was no yard light or at least it wasn’t on.It was pitch dark. I mean it was as dark as dark could be.My sister following behind the truck pulled up along side of the truck with the car, shining the head lights so that we could see..Art got out and disappeared fast into the night. The last thing I remember about Art that night, was that, when he got out of the truck and started walking he kept going faster and faster as he was trying to keep a leg between his upper body and the ground.He must have been successful at that as I didn’t see him fall and he diappeared fast into the night.

The next day I went to work at Robert’s Gas Station. It was about mid-afternoon.It was busy.Quite-a-few people standing around inside the station.All at once the front door burst open and in came Art Siem with another gentleman.Art was looking mad and bad with all the after affects of the night before plainly visible in his eyes, on his face, and in the way he was dressed,He was plainly one hurting unit. He looked around the inside of the station letting his eyes adjust to the change of light.His eyes finally met mine and he exclaimed! You stole my truck!I looked at him and kind of laughed and asked him?What side of the road do you live on?The west side or the east side?He said, the east side!Because as soon as he accused me of stealing his truck, it hit me that I had driven it and parked it in the wrong farm yard. Carrol Carlson’s farm yard.Apparently at the time he or I didn’t know what farm yard we were in or he was unable to tell me which farm yard we were in. Anyway, I had parked the truck in the farm yard west of the road. That night,

Art just diappeared into the night and I jumped into the car with my sister and went back to town and back to bed. After telling Art that his truck was parked in Carrol’s farm yard.Art just turned around and left the staion without saying a word.I just wonder to this day, whose house did he sleep in that night? I know Carrol was a good shot with a rifle.I had hunted with him in my younger years.Everybody party hunts deer in the hills and always have the best shots post in the openings, because if you see a deer that was run out of the woods by the other members of the party, you only have a instant to aim and shoot before the deer is back into cover.Carrol was one them guys you wanted posting in the opening as he never missed.Its a wonder that he didn’t come out and streighten us all out that night.He must not of been home. Lucky us.

A couple of comments:

I watched a couple of Hee Haw reruns and I think Buck Owens sings through his mouth.

I like the hits; I’ve got a Tiger by the Tail, and Act Naturally.His son, Buddy Alan, once put a show on at the Althea Theatre in Dunseith.He sung through his mouth also.Might have had a bigger crowd if he had sung through his nose. lol.

Isn’t it also strange, on them old pictures of cities and towns, that there are no trees, and hardly a blade of grass.I suppose when they woke up in the morning and the drinking water in the pail had turned to ice and they wanted their morning coffee like we do now.

That tree out in the front yard didn’t stand a chance, as wood was the main source of heat for heating the house and for cooking?I’m sure that with the horse they kept in the yard for transportation and that cow for milk and them chickens for eggs and meat there was know grass to mow.Look how the refrigerator has changed us?

Just think if you wanted fast food in them days it was provided with a ax.A ax was used to cut the wood for the stove and to remove the chickens head. Didn’t the first pictures of Col. Sanders show him standing with a ax over his shoulder and with a long stick with a wire hook on the end for catching the chicken by the leg in the other hand or was that, that guy from Minnesota with the blue ox?

I thought for sure I would get a reply from my old buddy and classmate Jay Vanorny with that onion story about his Grandpa.Maybe he did signal me.I just couldn’t see his hand with all the trees between there and here?

Remember: Laugh and the whole world laughs with you!

Larry(66)

Message/pictures from Dick Johnson (68): Dunseith, ND

Gary and Friends,

Paula Fassett brought up the Community Christmas Concerts we had back
in the mid 60s. I think Dad was encouraged to direct the choir made up
of all ages of folks from the area. I remember I was also ‘encouraged’
by Dad to be in it, although at the time I was one of the only kids my
age involved. The school choirs were also involved in the Christmas
programs, again under his direction. The pictures below are of one of
these concerts and were taken in the old city hall. The little girl by
Dad is Diane Hill. Next to her are Paula Fassett and Gail Henning. My
guess is Christmas 1965. Thanks Gary!

Dick