Birthday
Reply from Erling Landsverk (44): King, Wisconsin
Hi Gary and Everyone:
I was pleasantly cheered and inspired by Gary Metcalfe’s letter in your most recent blog. It is always a joy to read positive and cheerful words written by old neighbors who live the lessons our parents taught. Thanks Gary, keep it up.
When I read Doreen Larson Moran’s letter, I was happy to learn that they have done well and have two homes and are hale and hearty, however I was disappointed to get a lesson in political opinions. I really do not believe that Gary’s blog is helped by bringing political controversy into it, but I for one would rather maintain the informal neighborly and friendly social intercourse that has been the norm to date. That is not to say that Doreen should not have the right to state her opinion. As I remember, the words Dad used, “the best way to spoil a friendly conversation is to mention politics or religion”. Thanks anyway Doreen, I got your message loud and clear
Erling landsverk
Erling, I don’t think Doreen meant to have that posted on our sight. It was sent to me more as a personal message. She made it very clear to me with a personal message that she was not the author of that article. It was a forward. I need to be a bit more careful with the screenings of our postings. Gary
Reply to Don Aird (Carroll Carlson’s Nephew) & Gary Stokes
From Vickie Metcalfe (70): Bottineau, ND
Don and Gary,
Some out houses were pretty nice,…two seaters like the one in this poem.
As a kid i wondered about those, hmm. Were those folks more affluent?
I recall some well kept up, folks had painted and planted specific plants around?
I believe it was “Tansy” or “Old Man” which kept the critters away.
I recall little bags of “lime” inside the door too.
The out house I use most currently use is at Little Prairie,
which, many times I am most grateful for, when I’m there visiting.
Since it doesn’t get alot of use,
I automatically make lots of noise to warn the mice and snakes I’m coming on in.
This summer, I even found a metal storage can at a yard sale, I plan to leave there with toilet paper.
Never the less, I don’t spend any amount of time reading____ in there.
____i wonder if other folks recall out house stories.
I recall a few.
Later. Vickie
On Aug 28, 2011, at 6:41 AM, Don Aird wrote:
The Carlson outhouse always leaned back. I don’t know how Grandma Christine used the darn thing.
THE OUTHOUSE POEM*
(*note: If you don’t know what an OutHouse is – ask someone a little older)
The service station trade was slow
The owner sat around,
With sharpened knife and cedar stick
Piled shavings on the ground. No modern facilities had they,
The log across the rill
Led to a shack, marked His and Hers
That sat against the hill.“Where is the ladies restroom, sir?”
The owner leaning back,
Said not a word but whittled on,
And nodded toward the shack.With quickened step she entered there
But only stayed a minute,
Until she screamed, just like a snake
Or spider might be in it.With startled look and beet red face
She bounded through the door,
And headed quickly for the car
Just like three gals before.She missed the foot log – jumped the stream
The owner gave a shout,
As her silk stockings, down at her knees
Caught on a sassafras sprout.She tripped and fell – got up, and then
In obvious disgust,
Ran to the car, stepped on the gas,
And faded in the dust.Of course we all desired to know
What made the gals all do
The things they did, and then we found
The whittling owner knew.A speaking system he’d devised
To make the thing complete,
He tied a speaker on the wall
Beneath the toilet seat.
He’d wait until the gals got set
And then the devilish tike,
Would stop his whittling long enough,
To speak into the mike. And as she sat, a voice below
Struck terror, fright and fear,
“Will you please use the other hole,
We’re painting under here!”
Vickie,How well so many of us remember those out houses. They used to freeze up in the winters too.Speaking of a certain Outhouse, I remember well when the Ackworth Cemetery Outhouse was set in place. Willie E Hiatt and my dad moved that Outhouse into the cemetery in the summer of 1963. That Outhouse came from the original Pritchard farmstead that was located nearly on the Canadian border on the very end of the Willow Lake road. From Harry Hiatt’s you had to cross several fields to get there. Corbin Pritchard was the last one to live there. I think he moved from there in the mid 40’s. Dad did some horse trading with Carl Melgaard, who owned the property in the 60’s and ended up with a few of the Pritchard buildings with the Outhouse being one of them. That Outhouse was at least 30 maybe 40 years old when Dad and Willie moved it into the cemetery in 1963. I had the pleasure of attending the Ackworth cemetery association meeting last year. At that meeting they discussed the Outhouse being in need of repairs. I am not sure if they repaired it or replaced it. After 80/90 plus years it was still standing and functional. Amazing. It may have been made out of Poplar lumber too.Gary
Reply to Doreen Larson Moran’s posting yesterday
From Florence Hiatt Dahl (51): Anchorage, AK
Doreen Larson Moran put it nicely and I would like to be the first to say AMEN—-VOTE and don’t be silent.
Reply from Doreen Larson Moran (BHS ’61): Usk, WA & Hazelton, ND
I am quite sure almost all your blog followers identify VERY well with the sayings but I felt I shouldn’t take the credit (although I wish I had taken time to write such a piece). I love the Walk With Me.Through Old Age……………………..
Am watching the heavy rains that Hurricane Irene is dropping on the East Coast. Seems like I heard something about a typhoon hitting PI. How are you faring? When Bob was stationed there in 1966 – 67 there were heavy rains, landslides, maybe even Pinatubo blew then too. His base was Clark AFB but he spent his time with the Negritos in the Jungle Survival Training area. Now I don’t remember just where. I did not even hardly consider going over there with him. Alice and Jody were babies; I knew the heat would be unbearable for me; (my thick Norwegian blood); he was almost never on the base proper. When he went over there was no housing for families – after ten months we could have gone but I had figured out by that time I had gone from June to March alone on Minot AFB and going to the Farm on the weekends, I could handle “things” until he would be assigned back stateside after Dec.
It did work for us quite well as he was sent to Fairchild AFB (Spokane WA). He spent from 1968 until his retirement in 1984 with Fairchild AFB; Global Headquarters of USAF Rescue and Survival Training. They now are called SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape). True, he was still gone from home a good deal of the time but we had a good home base, great school system, wonderful church family in St John’s Lutheran Church in Medical Lake. Now 43 years later we still love this area – a lot of friends through the years have chosen this area for retirement. The not quite so severe winters as the Turtle Mountains of North Dakota are good. Although I notice more than ever we don’t get near the sunshine in the winter time especially, that the prairies get. Clouds like to hang heavy many days on end.