11/08/2011

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ND work Ethic Story
From Aggie Casavant (69): Fort Mill, SC
 

Hi Gary,

 

Couldn’t miss the opportunity to share my expierence with the N.Dakota work ethic stories.

 

One night in 1985 while working at the Bismarck Tribune in Bismarck N.Dak. I noticed an ad in the paper advertising for a nanny in Houston Texas. With my restless spirit stirring in me once again, and always ready for a new adventure, I thought to myself…Hmmmmm

have never thought about being a “Nanny” before, I said to myself, “come on self, lets do it! So I applied for the job,and after about a month and a half of exchanging pictures, background checks and a couple conversations on the phone,and a back up plan with my family in case I was being set up to be kidnapped…LoL… I boarded a Greyhound Bus and headed for Houston. After a couple days on the bus, and getting beat up by a 78 year old women(which is a story for another time) I arrived at the Greyhound Bus terminal in Houston at about 10:30 p.m, with my glasses broke, my face scratched and swollen, I began the task of trying to find David and Nancy Anderson,the couple I was to baby sit for. After the crowd thinned out in the bus terminal, we saw each other, needless to say, they looked a bit stunned at the condition I was in. After our greetings, I started kinda laughing and told them I can explain the bruises, so I went on to explain to them how I came to get beat up on the bus by a 78year old women in the middle of the night in Texarkana. After the shock wore off them, we ended up by having a few good laughs,and went to the house that was to be my home for the next 2 years. Approximately after being at the Andersons for about 3 months I asked Nancy “What in the world made you put an ad for a nanny all the way up in N.Dakota? She explained that, “three of the other attorneys in Davids law firm got their nannys from N.Dakota, and according to the nanny agency that his law partners went thru, that the nannys from N.Dak. were the most honest, hard working, and reliable, then any other state.

After being at David and Nancy’s for 4-5 months I went to the grocery store. While walking around the store, this lady ran into a display of can food and knocked them all over the floor,and just kept going. I stopped and started setting the display up the best I knew how…pretty soon I heard this voice behind me say”Bless your heart,that’s awfully nice of you to do that,seeings your not the one who knocked it down the lady said, then she went on to ask, “Where are you from? I answered N.Dakota…Why?…she smiled and said,”I knew it had to be somewhere like that, cuz no-one from here would of ever stopped to make right, somebody elses mess.

 

After 2 years in Houstons I came here to Ft.Mill S.C. to work for the Jim and Tammy Bakers P.T.L Ministry, where two of Tammys brothers Donny and Larry Grover worked.. Donny a mechanic, and Larry was over the landscaping dept. where I worked. One day while I was out planting flowers with about 30 other employees, Larry pulled up in his jeep and hollered, “Hey Aggie! Come over hear I need to talk to you. When I got over to his jeep, he reached out and hugged me around the neck with one arm,and said, Hey shorty, you’ve been keeping a big secret from me? I said, Huh? secret? (I started getting a little nervous,cuz I did’t really know him that well,all I knew is that he was Tammy’s brother and he had alot of power within the ministry. He must of saw the nervous look on my face,cuz he kept hugging me and started laughing,and said,” I didn’t know you were from N.Dakota,and I said, yeah why? And he said,” A couple years back when I use to be wild and foolish and B.C….before i started living for Christ, I use to own a bar in Fargo, N.Dak. He went on to say,”Some of the nicest most honest hardest working people I’ve ever known”. Then he told me as he was getting back into his jeep,”jump in, your just the person I was looking for to work up at Jim and Tammys house. He then went on to tell me to pick anyone out of the 200 landscaping employees, that I thought would be a good worker,and could be trusted not to run to the news media with Jim and Tammy stories. So I picked my best friend Theresa…and the rest is history…. Hope you all have a blest day :) Aggie

 
 

1971 – 1972 Dunseith Dragans Basketball Team/Picture
 
 
Reply from Les Halvorson (Teacher & Btno radio sports announcer): Bottineau, ND
 
Hi Gary and Blog readers,
The pic of the 71-72 Dragon BB team brought back a lot of memories for me…that was my first year of teaching at DHS and this was an excellent BB team. Many folks will be able to identify this group……Back row left to right: Kathy Schimetz, Lyle Olson, Jim Mellmer, Curt Berg, Don Olson, Tim Gunville and Trish Larson.
Front row: Linus Faine, Terry “Pie” Counts, George Malaterre, Coach Larry Haugen, Don “Duck” Malaterre, Curt Hagel and Greg Evans. I’m sure Kathy and Trish were excellent stats girls as they were both excellent students. The cheerleaders if memory serves me correctly were LaRae Hagel, Lynn Gillis, Loraine and Loretta Neameyer, Gail Halvorson and Becky Coleman.

These Dragons won the dist. tournament in Rugby where they defeated Rolette in the title game; beat a good Valley Hoople team in the regional semi final game and Munich in the championship game in Grafton to go on to the state tournament at the Aud. in Minot. In the first game at the state they played Berthold and lead at one point by 15 in the first half..lost the lead by half time..got up by 16 or so in the second half , lost that lead and lost the game 58-57. I think it was a case of nerves as the Dragons were a much better team. In the consolation round they had no competition and breezed thru that beating Fessenden 60-57 and New Leipzig 76-64 for the fifth place title. Mayville-Portland won the state title that year and I still believe to this day that the Dragons could have beat them if they would have won that first game and moved into the championship bracket. The Dragons had good size with Curt Berg and Jim Mellmer at forwards, big Don Olson in the middle and a couple of sharp shooting guards in Pie Counts and Greg Evans. Those that came in off the bench contributed as well every game. The Dragons ended up with just 3 losses that year..Berthold in the state tournament and lost to Class “A” Langdon and the Wolford Wolves. They ended up with a 26-3 record.
Over the years I have announced hundreds of state tournament games and many times the two best teams do not end up playing in the championship game..March of 1972 was one of those years . These kids were good athletes who could play baseball quite well too..their goal was to win a state title and in the spring of 72 they did just that as they won the state “B” baseball title. That was one of the best high school baseball teams I have seen in years. They had excellent pitching, good hitters and solid defense. Curt Berg was one of the best high school catchers I have seen play the game even tho a football knee injury hampered him somewhat during his senior year.
With Curt behind the plate opposing coaches knew better than even think of trying to steal a base against him, he had a cannon of a right throwing arm. Many of these basketball players also played baseball in the spring. On the baseball team were Don Olson, Greg Evans, Curt Berg, Dave Hagel, Jessie Marion, Don and Clark Malaterre, Leslie Allery, Stanley Thompson, and Rick Becker was the coach. I may have forgot a player or two..sorry to those players if I have.

This 71-72 team was a group of excellent athletes and a fine group of young kids…they were fun in be around in the classroom and around the school.

Larry Haugen came to Botno after that and coached the Braves for many years..he has now retired from education but still is in the painting business and hunts and fishes.

Thanks Gary for all you do and for the memories,

Les Halvorson

 
Hi again Gary,
One other player on the 71-72 team that played alot but not pictured was Jeff Evans. Jeff was a junior that year.

Thanks,

Les H.

 
 
Reply from Trish Larson Wild (73): Fort Collins, CO
 

Gary,

 

I forgot this photo existed. That is me on the right and Kathy Schimetz on the left. We were the student managers that year. She and I washed a lot of uniforms that year… We also attended every game and practice and kept stats on every shot taken in every game, and Coach Haugen would post the results so the players knew what they needed to work on. We made it to State in Minot that year. Even though we didn’t take first, I will never forget all tjhe cars that drove out to meet us as the bus came back into town. I think everyone felt like heroes because of that show of support.

 

I could give you most of the names of these players, but I will let others do that. It was a great year, and we were the first femsle student managers at Dunseith. Larry Haugen was a great coach, a class act, and a kind man. I never saw him yell at a player.

Trish Larson 73

 

 

Reply from Linda Johnson Juntunen (72) Perth, ND

 

Front: Linus Faine, Terry Marion??(not so sure on this one), George Malaterre, Coach Haugan??,Don Malaterre, Curt Hagle, Greg Evans 

Back: Lyle Olson, Jim Melmer, Curt Berg, Don Olson, Tim Gunville

 

Gals: I’m thinking Kathy Schimetz and Trish Larson

 

I am sure others know better than I!

 
Reply from Art Hagen (72): Bottineau, ND
 

Sitting from left to right: Linus Finn(Fine, spell check), Terry Count, George Melaterre, Coach Larry Haugen, Donald Melaterre, Curt Hagel, Greg Evans

 

Standing from left to right: Kathy Schimetz, Lyle Olson, Jim Melmer, Curt Burg, Don Olson, Tim Gunville

Back: Kathy Schimetz, Lyle Olson, Jim Melmer, Curt Berg, Don Olson, Tim Gunville, Trish Larson

Front: Linus Faine, Terry Counts (Poitra), George Malaterre, Coach Larry Haugen, Don Malaterre, Curt Hagel, Greg Evans
 
 
 
Posted by Neola Kofoid Garbe: Bottineau & Minot, ND
 
Note: Clarence Berg was a brother to Erling
 
 
 
 
Posting of the day
Posted by Cecile Gouin Craig (’61): Windsor, CO
 
Several of these kinda hit home, brought back some good memories. Cecile Gouin Craig 61


SUBJECT: Small Town

It’s our childhood!!!

Those who grew up in small towns will laugh when they read this.

Those who didn’t will be in disbelief and won’t understand how true it
is.

1) You can name everyone you graduated with.

2) You know what 4-H means.

3) You went to parties at a pasture, barn, gravel pit, or in the middle
of a dirt road. On Monday you could always tell who was at the party
because of the scratches on their legs from running through the woods
when the party was busted. (See #6.)

4) You used to’drag’Main

5) You whispered the ‘F’ word and your parents knew within the hour.

6) You scheduled parties around the schedules of different police
officers, because you knew which ones would bust you and which ones
wouldn’t.

7) You could never buy cigarettes because all the store clerks knew how
old you were (and if you were old enough, they’d tell your parents
anyhow.) Besides, where would you get the money?

8) When you did find somebody old enough and brave enough to buy
cigarettes, you still had to go out into the country and drive on back
roads to smoke them.

9) You knew which section of the ditch you would find the beer your
buyer dropped off.

10) It was cool to date somebody from the neighboring town.

11) The whole school went to the same party after
graduation.

12) You didn’t give directions by street names but rather by
references. Turn by Nelson’s house, go 2 blocks to Anderson ‘s, and
it’s
four houses left of the track field.

13) The golf course had only 9 holes.

14) You couldn’t help but date a friend’s
ex-boyfriend/girlfriend.

15) Your car stayed filthy because of the dirt
roads, and you will never own a dark vehicle for this reason.

16) The town next to you was considered ‘trashy’ or ‘snooty,’ but was
actually just like your town.

17) You referred to anyone with a house newer then 1955 as the ‘rich’
people.

18) The people in the ‘big city’ dressed funny, and then
you picked up the trend 2 years later.

19) Anyone you wanted could be found at the local gas station or the
dairybar.

20) You saw at least one friend a week driving a tractor through town

or one of your friends driving a grain truck to school occasionally.

21) The gym teacher suggested you haul hay for the summer to get
stronger.

22) Directions were given using THE stop light as a reference.

23) When you decided to walk somewhere for
exercise, 5 people would pull over and ask if you wanted a ride.

24) Your teachers called you by your older siblings’ names.

25) Your teachers remembered when they taught your parents.

26) You could charge at any local store or write checks without any ID.

27) There was no McDonalds.

28) The closest mall was over an hour away.


29) It was normal to see an old man riding through town on a riding
lawn mower.

30) You’ve pee’d in a cornfield.

31) Most people went by a nickname.

32) You laughed your butt off reading this because you know it is true,
and you forward it to everyone who may have lived in a small town.

I would not have wanted to have been raised any other
way!!!!

Tough times don’t last…

Tough people do…