Myron (65) & JoAnn Zorn Family:

From Marlys Zorn Bryan (69): Fairbury, Nebraska

To everyone who has been writing to Myron Zorn and his family,

We all appreciate you so very much. This has been an incredibly hard time for Myron and JoAnn. But at the family gathering in the chapel the night before the funeral, JoAnn stood up and thanked everyone, saying “We have been held up by prayer. We know it.”

So thank you all so much for what you have been doing for them; you have made a difference.

Ryan was a great man.

Marlys (Zorn) Bryan, (Myron’s sister)

Folks, The email address, listed above, the we have on file for Myron & JoAnn Zorn is good. For some reason my messages to them were getting returned a few months back. I’ll give it another try with today’s message. Gary

Florence Pladson Sime (62) – Update following her car accident:

From Tina Pladson Bullinger (78): Bottineau, ND.

Gary,

We have so much to be thankful for this day!! Florence got to go home yesterday!! She will be taking out-patient therapy in Minot for her hand and arm, but is doing so well, even the doctors are amazed at her progress. We just want to say thanks for all the prayers, cards, phone calls, and visits. Thanks you all and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Tina Bullinger

This is wonderful Florence that you are recovering this fast with all the broken bones you had following that accident. You have to be one healthy hearty person with a lot of determination to recover this quickly. This has to truly be a wonderful thanksgiving for you. Gary

Reply from Tom Hagen (51): Mesa, AZ & Williston, ND

Gary, yes Della was the mother of the Hermanson boys and Marvel was in
my grade . Lindstrom’s lived east of the school , not sure which farm.
It has been too long ago but Orvin would know . and yes Clem Helgeson
attended with us at Loon Lake # 2 but as a high school correspondence
student. Also Amsbaughs,Ted Pladsons , Knutsons , Martin Rudes, Ingolf
Fulsebakke, Ole Hagens, Ritzmans, Christiansons, Cliff Halvorsons, Tom
Hagens, Clyde Satrang, Olsons, over the years I attended there and I
may have forgotten some families!!!

We love E-mail letters, Love Tom and Dot

Tom, I recognize all but the Ritzman family in those you mentioned. Your dad’s name was Tom making you Tom Jr. or as a lot of us know you as Tommy. You have always been Tommy to Orvin and your nephew Don Nelson, Donny. Elmer and Millie Torgerson Lindstrom were always very close to our family. They were extremely close friends of Leonard and Dot Kevil’s over on Little Prairie too. They belonged to the same church. I only remember Della Torgerson Hermanson, Millie’s sister, as being widowed living in Bottineau. I never knew her husband or any of her children, who are older than me by a number of years. Elmer Lindstrom came to my folks rescue several times when they were down and out and had no where to turn. I remember one year he brought his big “R” John Deere tractor and bailer all the way up from the prairie to bale the hay in my folks meadow when dad’s equipment broke down and he had no means of putting up the hay. Elmer gave my folks some butchered beef in some trying times too. For a number of years, Dad and Elmer put up all the hay on Oscar & Sylvia Bergan’s and John Wolf’s east of Lake Metigoshe. Elmer and Millie’s youngest daughter Deb is married to Kevin Lee, brother to my Brother Darrel’s wife Debby. Elmer and Millie had 5 girls. Elmer always wanted a son. He would have dearly liked to have Adopted my brother Allen, but my folks did not agree to that.

Sept. 1970 – Not sure of the occasion
Dean Lamb and Joanne Millang both 1970

A Horsetale story from Vickie Metcalfe (70): Bottineau, ND.

A Horsetale

The Louis Bergan family and William (#1) Metcalfe family were friends and neighbors in Hillside Township for many years from the early 1900’s-1935.
Emil Metcalfe and Clayton Bergan were about the same age,attended Bergan School, and enjoyed an easy and life long-lasting friendship.
Quiet, gentle Emil (Cliff fondly called him ‘Joes’ or ‘Joesy’) allowed Cliff who was younger by about three years tag along on his ventures with Clayton.
One sunny Sunday, summer afternoon adventure, in the early 30’s, could have quickly turned to be almost fatal disaster.
Three “boys”, were left to their own devices. (William)Bill Metcalfe had a yearling colt which was broke to lead but someday, he planned to break to drive. Clayton and ‘Joes’ were “Boys will be boys”, who want to prove their worth as men,and convinced each other. They had seen horses broke by men and they were big enough to do the job!
After catching the green broke gelding,Cliff hung onto the halter, while the other two managed to collar and pull on a harness. The horse shied, was nervous, sidestepping round and around. With much effort and team work, he was finally quiet and hooked up to a single tree, to the wagon.
The boys were quite certain the hard part done, now, was the easy part. Just climb up in the wagon and go for a Sunday drive. Then, return to the farm with the horse pulling the wagon.
‘Joesy’ crawled up on the wagon seat, and in his broad capable hands,took up the reins. Clayton, a slender, gangly, young fellow, climbed up to next to ‘Joesy’ to ride shot gun and specifically give advice on how to accomplish the job.
Cliff let go of the horse, moved quickly as not to be left behind, jumped into the box to stand behind the seated older boys.
The horse with a sudden snort, squeal, then mighty leap, burst into a mad trot then gallop. An immediate runaway! The wagon _ took off bouncing up and down, to and fro over and across the trail! NO brake! Three boys hanging for dear life onto the careening seat!
Try with all his might, there was no easy way ‘Joes’ could slow the horse down. A bright idea! Clayton pointed toward two lone trees,and stutteringly yelled, “P-p-put him–wite– be-tween d–d–does too tw—ees…..!”

‘Joesy’ putting his strength into both arms steered. Clayton and Cliff hung on as the horse leapt between the two trees, snapping the harness, next the single tree, off and away went the horse on a dead gallop, reins trailing along behind.

The wagon bluntly jarred to a Sudden. Complete. Stop. Stuck right-between- the two solid trees. Three boys sailed out and over the wagon onto ……..

…………………………………………………………HOT, HOt. hot sun overhead.
The next thing Cliff recalled, he woke up, walking, slinking along in the shady shadow of the tired, sweaty horse, holding his throbbing head. ‘Joes’ groaned and moaned as he led the horse, the other hand clenched against his ribs. And, Clayton? Clayton with nary a scratch, un harmed, took off briskly in direction of home.

When they were together years later recalling experiences of horse breaking, Emil said, he’d landed on his chest on a big boulder where Cliff had landed squarely on his head quite unconscious. Clayton had dropped and rolled. Emil and Clayton then caught the horse and got Cliff up and walking.

The moral of this story told to me often, probably could be, from another saying, more often quoted by the storyteller, my dad,Cliff Metcalfe. “One boy half a man. Three boys ain’t worth a______.”

Metcalfe boys were careful to never complain about injuries. Nor could they recall being punished for a broken wagon. William Metcalfe was a man who somehow knew the boys had learned their lesson that Sunday afternoon.
Years later, a doctor told Emil, he had broken his ribs sometime and another asked Cliff, when he had a severe concussion.

They chuckled heartily, as they remembered the day when three boys discovered they were not yet men. And they, The Boys of Hillside….always enjoyed their life long friendship.

This is story told to me by my dad, I’ve told to my nieces and nephews and I tell them it’s a tale from their Grandpa Cliff. Vickie Metcalfe/November 2009

Post card post marked 1939