Ginger (LaRocque) Poitra

I’m very sorry it took me so long to answer your questions, but I had archived this email and didn’t take the time to go to my archives. I apologize, I certainly didn’t mean any disrespect.
Anyway, I do not have any relatives left in the Bottineau area and yes it was our 50th class reunion this summer. I had a great time as I think we all did. Doreen Larson, Harvey Hiatt, Dennis Haakenson and Dwight Olson were all classmates of mine and the success of the reunion was due in no small part to the work and organization of Doreen and the rest of those classmates who helped. Thank you, again.
Being I’m already on the computer, I’ll relate my connections to and memories of Dunseith. Our family was originally from Winnipeg and we moved to Bottineau in 1949. We ended up there because of my father’s sister, Annie Sanden. After she finished nursing school in Winnipeg she went to work at San Haven in the late ’20s or early ’30s, and I don’t know how long she worked there. She met a Dunseith man (I believe that’s where he was from) and they were married and lived in Bottineau. His name was Harold Lamport. We came down to visit them a couple of times and with my father not being happy with his job in Winnipeg, the visits were impetus enough for my parents deciding to make the move in 1949.
We had a family friend who used to come over for Sunday dinner quite often. To show his gratitude he would take us out (as in out of town) to eat on occasion and also take us out (again out of town) to a movie once in awhile. My fondest memories of going out to eat were going to Dale’s. And being a kid, my standard fare was a hamburger, french fries and a chocolate malt. And it was really good. Going out to the movies usually meant going to Westhope with the Cinemascope screen. But we went to the Dunseith theater once, “High Noon” was playing – Bottineau hadn’t gotten it yet nor had it been to Westhope (that I know of). I still have very vivid memories of that movie, especially Tex Ritter singing the theme song (the movie version is a lot better, much more stark and more compelling than the record version).
Bottineau High School had great basketball teams from 1957-1960 with 3 trips to the state class B championship. But after the class of 1960 there was a real shortage of good players. As such I decided to try out for the team (I hadn’t really played since the 8th grade but played hockey instead). I made the team as a bench warmer and lasted on the team for the first half of the season. The highlight of my very brief basketball career came in a home game against Dunseith. We were down by 19 with about 2 minutes left in the game when the coach called a timeout and said “Sanden go in and shoot every time you get the ball”. The ball was passed to me and I passed it on. Coach called another timeout and reprimanded me “I told you to shoot every time you get the ball”. After already taking a couple of shots, we were coming back down the floor towards our basket and I got another pass and immediately shot it again.. Dwight Lang shouted “Oh, a hot dog”. Anyway we were beaten handily, I got off 4 shots in the 2 minutes and made 2 of them. Dunseith had a very good team that year, besides Dwight I remember John Morgan and I believe a Leonard and I’m thinking Dennis Dubois was probably on the team.
In the fall of 1966 I headed back to UND where I was hoping to wrap up my senior year. I moved into Budge Hall (the oldest building on campus) that semester where the cost for a semester of board was $99 (WOW!!). I had visited Budge a few times the year before to see Dwight Lang (we became drinking buddies for a time) and had decided then that it was for me next year. I moved in that fall and met my new roommate and the 2 guys across the hall, Bill Grimme and Alan Boguslawski. Bill and I became good friends and it was a good year for fun and friendship (scholastic endeavors did suffer). I was drafted into the army immediately after that school year and was discharged in 1969 after my 2 year stint. When I got back to Grand Forks, Bill had gotten me a job and along with another discharged friend of mine the 3 of us rented a house on campus – good times. Bill is a very smart man and a generous friend. Thank you very much Bill.
In yesterday’s blog there were 3 great pictures of Bottineau city hockey teams. I had never seen those before. In picture 1 (1937) the man standing on the far left identified as Harold Lampert is my uncle Harold Lamport (married my father’s sister). And in picture 2 the man standing on the far right in street clothes is again my uncle Harold Lamport.
Gary, thank you very much for all you do.

Deb LaVallie’s hockey pictures made me think of another hockey
player from long ago. Dad told me he had heard that August ‘Guff’ Faine
was a good hockey player and had either gone to, or come from, Chicago
with the game of hockey.
Anyone else ever heard that? Many of the people who were in our midst
actually had done things that were notable and sometimes even bordering
on heroic and were later just part of the community with no great
fanfare. Many times very few other people even knew of their past.
Although there are many, just to name a few—our favorite banker and
neighbor Alan Campbell was a tail gunner in a B17 bomber flying out of
England over Germany in WW II. Another was Ray Neameyer who flew many
combat missions in a P38 fighter that the Germans called ‘the forked
tail devil’. Most people knew Ray as the quiet shuffling scrap yard
owner from Rolla. Many of the guys served in combat either on land or
at sea and returned to blend back into the community as the folks we
know as businessmen and neighbors. Let’s not forget our friend Bill
Hosmer either—many combat missions over North Vietnam. Not the most
friendly skies you can fly. These are just a few of the people that did
what was needed at that time in history and returned to become part of
our diverse little town. Thanks Gary!

Dick