COUNTRY SCHOOL REUNION
The date was early March 2010 I believe, when I read an open invitation from Linda Gardner to everyone on the Gary Stokes blog. It was an invitation to participate in a reunion for all those who attended the one room country schools in our part of the Turtle Mountains, or “Hills” as we are prone to call them. The Turtle Mountains are located on the border between North Dakota and Canada and truly are hills rather than mountains. Linda suggested a date of July 10th 2010. This would give anyone interested in attending an opportunity to prepare. I became interested at once and called my sister, Borghild Landsverk Filas, who lives in Golden, Colorado. As I suspected, she was immediately drawn to an opportunity to renew old school chum relationships and see the Hills again. Our plans were made but shortly thereafter she came down with a case of shingles, which resulted in painful nerve damage. I asked her if she felt that she could still attend and she told me that she had already mailed Linda her reservation fee and certainly planned to attend. I called Linda and told her the situation. Linda told me that if Borg could not go, her money would be refunded but that it would be a disappointment if she didn’t make it.
A couple of weeks passed and I kept in contact with Borg and she was making progress with good medical care. I was ready to mail in my reservation when Borg suffered a heart attack in May. Naturally I thought the trip was off. “Not so fast” Borg said, I am going up to see our Cousin Francis in Bermidji, Minnesota on June the 18th and then to the Peace Gardens and Bottineau, North Dakota if the doctor says its okay. Besides, she said, Francis’s daughter Betty and her family will be taking me and will keep an eye on me. It turns out that she did make the trip and when she returned to Golden she called to tell me that she expected to see me in Bottineau in time for the Reunion. Talk about being invincible and showing true grit. Fortunately, two of our sons, Owen and Eric, volunteered to drive this old bag of bones out to Bottineau. We made it in one day and met Borg and her son Frank in Bottineau for supper on the evening of July 8th. I asked Borg how she was feeling, and she replied that she felt okay but the shingles were still causing her a bit of pain.
The next morning we had breakfast at a place called the Bakery. They had great food there but the place was filled with alumni from the Bottineau high school that were also holding a reunion (their 50th) the same weekend. The din from their shouts and laughter was deafening but understandably so. After breakfast, we visited some places in the Hills that we knew well. We also stopped at Lake Metigoshe to check out the Twin Oaks Lodge where the reunion would be held. We then decided it would be a good idea to find what was left of our Loon Lake School # 2 where Borg and I had gone to elementary school. We set off towards the Long Lake area so I could get my bearings (not always an easy thing to do when you are blind). We drove aroundLongLakeand came back to what I thought was a section line road and past what I remembered to be theHagenhome. I gambled and told Owen to drive straight east on this road, but we found nothing. I thought I had made a mistake and we drove back to the main road. Eric and Frank, who were in another car following us, didn’t come back to where we were. Fearing that they may have gotten bogged down in the soft ground, we returned to find
them where we thought the school should have been. They had searched around a bit in the brush and sure enough, they spotted some crumbling concrete steps that I had spoken of. I verified they were the right steps when I found the old pipe railings, which I remembered well. Yes, we had discovered the old school, thanks to Eric and Frank. Of course everything was overgrown, and there were no buildings remaining. I guess the school building had been moved off the lot after the school closed. Needless to say Borg and I suffered a twinge or two of nostalgia.
The morning had passed quickly and we went back to have lunch at the Bakery with our Cousin Sharon. The place was jammed again but the service was great. A friend of Sharons, Vicki Metcalf, stopped to ask if Borg remembered Henry Solmonson. Borg said she did, as Henry had been in her class in high school. Vicki said she would try to find a way to have him meet her the next day. After lunch and a brief rest we drove up to Cousin Bruce’s house in preparation for a trip to our old home in Homen Township. The property had been acquired by the State Forest and what was left of our old homestead could only be reached by overgrown snowmobile trails. The trip up there was an arduous one for all who participated but a most gratifying one. All of our cousins living in the Bottineau area were involved. They included Bruce, David, Sharon, and Barbara. Barbara’s husband Larry Lawrence and Gary Wenstad, a neighbor of Bruce, also joined Borg, Frank, Owen, Eric, and I. We owe them all a ton of gratitude for their efforts that made the trek a success. After bidding a final farewell to our former home that lay crumbling under nature’s attack, we stopped to pay our respects at the Rhindahl Cemetery. There are many family members buried there including our grandmother, two of our infant siblings, and many extended family members. The afternoon was tiring but a time of remembrance for those no longer with us and for those wonderful days when we were growing up.
The next day dawned bright and sunny. It was the day of the Reunion, but we still had some time to spend visiting our old haunts. After breakfast, we drove to Dunseith, which was the closest town to our home and where we had attended high school. My gosh, we were shocked to find that many of the old buildings along
Main Street
had been recently demolished leaving a series of empty lots! Next, we drove up to the International Peace Garden on the North Dakota and Canadian border. Since I could not see, I listened closely to the others describing the all the gardens and buildings that form this symbol of friendship between our two nations. I thought about the year 1932, when our entire family attended the dedication of the Peace Garden. It was a historic event that too often is ignored by the media. Borg and I remembered it well and we also thought of Orvin Hagen, an old friend, who had done so much over the years to make the Peace Garden as beautiful and inspiring as it is. I would be remiss if I didn’t make a reference to my father, Gunder Landsverk, and his brothers Knute, Nels, and Arthur along with our cousins for building much of the beautiful field stone work at the Peace Garden during the early 1930s.
After leaving the Peace Garden, we headed for Bottineau for a luncheon appointment with our Cousin Sharon. As we were enjoying lunch, Vicki Metcalf walked in and announced that she was pretty sure that Henry Solmonson would soon arrive. After a few
anxious minutes, Henry appeared and he and Borg saw each other for the first time in 72 years. Needless to say, it was a time for remembering and I heard a lot of chuckles and laughter as they conversed. Yield told us that Henry played the guitar and had entertained at many local events. I fool around with the guitar a little myself and I handed Henry and Vicki each a CD that I had recorded. I told them that the CD’s made good coasters if the music was a flop. It was a great lunch, and we were grateful to Vicki for her efforts in reconnecting us with Henry.
After a brief nap at the motel, we drove up to the Twin Oaks Convention Center, arriving about 4:00 P M. Linda Gardner, and her brother was there to greet us. The place was filling quickly and one could hear the friendly greetings from people all around us. It was great to be back among all the wonderful folks from the Turtle Mountains. As I seated myself I heard a familiar voice; it was Floyd Dion and his beautiful wife Louella. I remembered Floyd from my high school days, and Louella was our neighbor to the south in my early years on the farm. My sister Borg was sitting across from me and I could hear she was being greeted by many of her old friends as well. Borg graduated in 1938 and had spent a few years working at some of the stores in Dunseith while attending high school, so she really got to know a great many folks. As for me, I was greeted by a good many whose parents knew our family and myself. Lester Halvorson, Louella’s brother, chatted with me about old times. Orvin Hagen was there too. He had attended Loon Lake #2 with Borg. After he visited with Borg, he came over and spent some time chatting with me. I was a classmate of his sister Thelma in high school. I remember her as a very beautiful girl. Others crowded around greeting me, and I must apologize for my ability not to remember everyone, but vision would have been a big help in that regard. I still felt the camaraderie and warm friendship from everyone that I spoke to.
After a terrific meal, we took turns recounting some of our more memorable experiences in the “olden” days, with horses, deep snow, and cold fingers and toes. Orvin Hagen lightened things up with his hilarious description of the experience he had with his run-away horses, culminating his story with a couple of colorful and melodic yodels. The Reunion continued until us old folks got a little tired. We bid a reluctant farewell to our cousins and to Larry and Gary. As we neared the exit, Linda Gardner was there to say goodbye with a hug and a handshake. It was a most memorable time for all of us. My single disappointment that evening was that not one of the students who shared the Loon Lake School #2 with me was there. And, from what I could gather, nearly all of them had passed away. I guess that is one of the inevitable disappointments of growing older.
The next morning as we were loading our luggage in the car, a car drove up and Vicki Metcalf got out and approached me with her arms full of stuff. She had brought me a Bottineau T-shirt, one of Henry Solomon’s CD’s, and several pictures taken at our luncheon meeting. She gave us each a hug and big smile as she bid us goodbye. A feeling of gratitude swept over me for the thoughtful gift and the way in which it was presented. Thank you Vicki!
