09/08/2009 | Dunseith Alumni

Spelling correction.

Betty Boardman, I apologize for the miss spelling of your name with yesterday’s posting. Although you did not complain, I still want to make the correction. Gary

Reply from Luella Boardman Bjornseth (49): Bottineau, ND.

Gary!

Thanks for posting Bob’s obituary. It is a sad time for us and we will miss him but we are thankful he is no longer suffering. Luella

Reply from Don Boardman (60): Bottineau, ND.

Thanks for putting Bob’s obituary in the Alumni news. I hadn’t seen it in the paper here yet.

There were 6 of us in the family, Agnes was the oldest and died October 7, 2004. You wouldn’t have had any information on her as she graduated from Ommeemee. You have Harold’s death listed. So now there is just 3 of us left.

You do a really good job of getting everything into the news. Congratulations!

Don

Don, Even though Agnes didn’t go to Dunseith, to make your family complete in our records, I’d like to add her to the master DHS list with the year she graduated from Ommeemee with a notation. I could not find her death record in the SS death records with the name Agnes Peltier. Gary

Condolences to the Boardman Family & message from Dick Johnson (68):

Dunseith, ND.

Gary and Friends,

First of all, my condolences to the Boardman family on the loss of
their brother, Robert. We all know Don and Luella from Bottineau and
share in their loss. To Aggie, there are many ordinary folks out there
who were on the edge and further serving their country so we can have
the freedoms we enjoy. A cute story about Harry Truman was when someone
asked his wife why he used the word ‘crap’ when describing something?
She answered, “That’s not bad, it took me years to get him to say
‘crap’.” I didn’t make a political statement here, just a humorous
observation! Thanks Gary!

Dick

Condolences to the Boardman family & message from Erling Landsverk (44):

Portage, WI

Hi Gary and Friends:

First, I wish to express my condolences to the Boardman family on the loss of their loved one and one of my old classmates We are both about the same age so it tends to bring back old memories.We shared a lot of classes in the basement of the old white school, along with typing classes across the hall. All our instructors did double duty as to class, since many of the teachers were in the military or on the way, . The ones that come to mind are Stebner, Aucutt, Dorothy Page, Castleman (principal), Hannah Jevne and Mrs Feycho I am not sure that i spelled Mrs Feycho’s name correctly, so I simply spelled it phonetically.I guess i will always remember a day in study hall, when I saw Mrs Feycho standing at the windows, looking at the sky, dabbing her eyes with her kercheif. I learned later her husband had been killed flying a mission over Germany. Such a sad time for wonderful people like her a nd others as well. Bob was a member of our 6 man football team , I think I was the runt of the entire team, and I watched more than I played, I believe, I played center and defensive end and I guess where i was told to play by Glen Shelver,(our coach) i remember Alan Campbell, on the team, Bruce Cornell, Lee Sanders, Raymond hagen and others. If I remember correctly, the equipment was a little less than great. The school was rarely closed due to inclement weather, except for one day in the winter of 40 and 41, my brother Ossie and I walked over to the school from our home away from home so to speak, we thought it seemed pretty cold, but when we arrived at the school, we were informed that classes were cancelled because the janitor could not get the interior temperature of the class rooms above 25 degrees farenheight. We asked how cold was the temperature, and was told it was 54 degrees below zero, with a brisk windout of the northwest..I thought of the trappers in the Jack London stories I had read about spitting on the ground and when the spittle hit the ground it was already frozen. I tried it and it did! No kidding. Incidentally, our home away from home was a store room on the north side of Charlie Wrights cream station. Most of the kids from the hills did the same thing at that time, since there were no buses, andthe road conditions were rather unpredictabel. So Dunseith had quite a few of the students from the hills living in rented rooms doing light house keeping from Sunday night through the following Friday. We spent the week ends back in the hills, while our mothers cooked a lot of food that would keep through the week. amd of course we all knew a little about cooking ourselves The one thing that many people today wonder about is , how much trouble did unsupervised kids get into? Well, for anyone interested, there never was one inccident of Turtle Mountain students causing problems or getting into problem that I am aware of.. We knew that our parents had to trust us, and we all wanted to honor that trust.. It surely saved them a lot of concern and worry. I think it must be the air out there. what do you think? Thats all for this time, Thank you for listening.

Erling Landsverk.

From LeaRae Parrill Espe (67): Bottineau, ND.

Wedding of Karna Colby (granddaugher of Mr. Ben Grossman)

Saturday evening I had the privilege of attending the wedding of Karna Colby and Lance Monteau. Karna is the daughter of Patty Grossman and granddaugher of Mr. Ben Grossman whom many of us had for English back in the 1960’s. Karna is a medical doctor in Bismarck -her speciality is pathology. Lance is almost done with medical school-I believe he just has a year of internship left. K. Flynn Richard and her mother Minnie and I were the only old Dunseith connections in attendance.

Patty lives about five miles South of Velva and spent her career as a science teacher. She taught 16 yrs at Ryan HS in Minot and then in several other area schools. She spent the most years at White Shield. Currently she is retired and doing substitute teaching.

Paul and Peter Grossman have worked for the coal mines in the Hazen area for many years. I so appreciated visiting with Paul as he shared his memories of coming out to our farm with my brother Clark. Parrell Grossman, the youngest brother, is a lawyer and is the head of Consumer Protection for the ND Attorney General. I have seen him interviewed on the news many times regarding consumer fraud.

Both Bonnie and Ben passed away a number of years ago.

LeaRae, How well those of us from the 50’s & 60’s remember Mr. Grossman. He was a wonderful teacher. He truely stressed education and getting a college degree, higher education or training. He drove that one into us hard on a regular bases. He would truely be very proud of his granddaughter. Gary

Reply from Allen Richard (65): Midland, MI.

Aggie–I ask myself that very often. Actually it is where my wife, Susan grew up. IBM downsized in 2002. In June that year her department was all but eliminated — June was also the month that her dad died of liver cancer. I was free lancing at the time, so when a job opened here I took it. Susan went back to the Minneapple, sold the house and the “toys” and moved here where she was employed almost immediately. Susan’s mom is 78, so our being here is a good thing. Now Susan is the director of Big Brothers Big Sisters in the Heart of Michigan and I’m director of the Literacy Council of Midland County, both non-profits that do good things.

Midland, MI is home to Dow Chem. and Dow Corning along with a number of peripheral companies and a few other prosperous corporations. The economy here is pretty good compared to the rest of the state, parts of which have been in recession/depression for forty years. The current unemployment rate for the state is pushing 15%, Detroit is at about 30% and the entire upper peninsula is at about 22%.

Sometimes God is subtle about what he wants — and some times not.

Allen Richard

Also to Aggie—In my years in politics I found that there are two species–not Democrats and Republicans but rather Statesmen and Politicians. Statesmen have been on the “endangered Species” list for longer than either of us has lived. I’m afraid statesmanship is rapidly going the way of the Dodo Bird!

Allen

From Don Aird (Carroll Carlson’s Nephew): St Louis, MO

I just read about the five most stressful places to live in the US, LA is #2. Several years ago my cousin was hosting his brother-in-law from Orange County California. Maurice Aird lives and teaches in St John, ND. After a week in St John, Maurice’s brother-in-law passed out they had to take him to the hospital in Rolla. Turned out he was taking too much blood pressure medication. Just one week staying in St John and his stress level dropped significantly. They adjusted his medicine and he had no more problems. This guy was so excited he bought land on the edge of St John to build a retirement home. Cancer claimed him before he could get it done. I was trying to get him to do a commercial for ND. The commercial would play in LA, lots of folks in ND didn’t want that to happen. They really didn’t want a bunch of Californians discovering ND.

Reply from Aggie Casavant (69): Fort Mill, SC

Hi Gary

WoW! Dunseith and neighboring towns without a doubt did there part during the Vietnam War. I never realized there were so many from our area that went into the military.But in retrospect when you think the draft was active at that time, it only make sense. I always felt and still do,that once they did away with the draft,thats when this country started a downward spiral with the young teenagers.Back in the 60’s and 70’s if a teenager started any signs of getting in trouble,by the time the military draft enlisted them,and they did there stint in the military,they came back into civilian life as pretty upright citizens with direction and purpose in life. The kids today….well need I say anymore. Yes, there still are some young people who choose to go into the military,and fight for what they beleive in,and serve their country,or the young kids who didn’t necessairily go into the military but became productive members of society.But I guess being in the line of work I’m in, I’m reminded everyday, where I beleive this country went wrong when they did away with the draft. Some people out there may disagree with me,and that’s O.K. But that’s my take on it from my personal observation of working with teenagers this past 32 yrs. or so.

Well you all,I better sign off before I launch out into the Gettsburg Address… So thanks Gary,for everything you do keeping us all connected… Aggie

Aggie, The military for sure makes men out of boys and teaches a whole lot of discipline and respect. The training may be hell, but it’s very effective. My thoughts all the way through basic were “I didn’t volunteer for all this crap”. I truly admire those of the Volunteer services of today. The training has relaxed some, but it’s still very rigid. When I say relaxed, I mean they have done away with a lot of the undo harassment tactics from the days of the draft. I was a pansy and extended a year of my commitment, in Basic training, to become a Dental Technician. For my overall military career, that proved to be good move. Following Active Duty, I continued on in the Army reserves, in a Dental unit, for 25 years. I was the only prior service active duty guy in that unit when I joined. As a result, I got all my ducks in a row, made Sr. ranks quickly, and rode everything out to retirement. Our unit was deactivated in 1996 the year I went into what they call the retired reserve. We just had our first ever reunion, also at the Best Western, in Seattle. It was a blast with nearly 90 folks. We were a very tight unit over the years with an excellent reputation for the Dental procedures we performed on our week end drills at Fort Lewis. Well so much for that soap opera. I was just very proud to be a member of such a great organization. We were not only the Army’s largest Dental reserve unit, we were also one of the best with the many specialist we had. Believe it or not, an Army dentist has to pass state boards, from any state, before he/she is allowed to practice dentistry in the military. That is one rule they are very strict with. Gary

Todd Poitra, Son of Ginger LaRocque (65) & Tony Poitra – Saudi Arabia

Bill Fassett (36) – WWII

Ricky Kuhn – Son of Mel Kuhn (70) – Kosovo 2009

Warren Anderson (65) – Viet Nam

Pictures from Kenny Nerpel (65): Devils Lake, ND.

Gary,

A big story around Rugby these days is the big wind farm that is being assembled along highway 17 just to the north of Rugby. When completed electricity will be sent to a substation east of rugby owned by otter tail power and from there sent off to consumers as far away as Sioux Falls SD.

The towers are over 300 feet tall and give quite a different look to the prairie landscape. There are 71 of them and they have the capacity to provide electricity to about 45,000 homes. Today was a fairly clear day and as you can get up very close to them my wife, my mother, and I took a drive up that way to get some pictures.

Kenny