Hello Gary and All,

 

Sue and I just got back to Branson from three weeks vacation up to the Canadian border. We had about the right amount of problems with our motorhome to make the trip one with priceless memories. The first was, did not even get a click when I hit the starter in a rest area in S.D. I needed some WD40 BAD. A carload of young Hispanics came to my rescue. One can came from the front and one from the back…no charge, but I just took one! So we turned west at Sisseton, S.D. where Cliff Nerpel and I built. lt a couple of houses for the tribe over 50 years ago. We found the houses and they still look O.K. We snaked our way west and north up through Ellendale to Sue’s Rubgy school reunion that lasted 3 full days. I survived it! It was an all class reunion so I found plenty of people to visit with. As young as Dave Shelver and as old as Bob Johnson. Bob in his late 80’s had a better recollection of events than I did about coming to the border to back up our old stack mover which my dad, Art Sime, Carrol Carlson had invented. Dad stayed in the good graces of old Ben Kupker, who was farm boss at the San. That year Dad’s contract was for stacks of alfalfa, another year they baled the alfalfa and one year they chopped it.

 

Sixty years ago, and I still remember the look on ole Bob’s face when the front wheels of his John Deere came off the ground. I sat on the radiator for weight and we made it up that tremendously steep hill at the Peace Garden. I guess you could not call Bob a flat lander after that!

The next night was at Barton and one of my favorite old story tellers was there, Eben Ahrends. He is right at the 80 mark.

Now we head to Dunseith and north to the hills with two items on my bucket list, #1 to see if Jim Birkland was as good a musician as I thought he was and in good enough health to do it. Turns out he was and my brother Jim, sister Margaret and I spent a couple hours warming up his many instruments. He and Ruby agreed and journeyed to Metigoshe the next evening. We had Patti and Jack’s cabin rocking and rolling as we sang a good part of all the songs that Jimmy knew. I guess I certainly remembered his timing and the songs from the 50’s, Hank Williams being a large part of them. This was a reconnecting with a humble and talented man from long ago. His brother LeRoy and his dad also played several instruments.

Bucket list #2 has been on my mind the last 4 or 5 years, people told me it is too wet, roads not good, bottom line I did not have the right equipment to search it out. All at once I thought about Raphael (sp?) Poitra, as was he ever the man for the job! He said I will take you and your brother and show you everything anytime. So we made a date for the next day. He took his nearly new 4 wheel drive pickup and took us one mile south of the road I would have taken. There we found the Bergan School and where Louis Bergan used to live. Also found the entrance to the Evan’s place where my mother was raised. Then back up to the north side of Rabbit City Lake where the Metcalfe’s lived. This was not a very big lake but I know a thousand stories of the happenings there and I hope this puts and end to my quest.

Here I found a man so knowledgeable about the old days and old ways which he had to learn from his dad and the rest of the Poitra’s. We talked about Frank Makes It Rain and Maynard Rising Sun who were his dad’s hired men. Then he said, “Chickamish lived right there”. So I was able to put a name on him because I remembered who lived there. Anyone want to guess who Chickamish was??? Getting too long….more later. Gary Metcalfe