Folks, I was just informed that Patty Boguslawski Gottbreht will be joining us on the Alaska Cruise. She and Cheryl Haagenson will be cabin mates. Patty is one of the friendly happy faces that you see, while shopping, at Wayne’s (Barbot) Super Value in Dunseith. Wayne has a beautiful store with such a friendly and very professional staff. I think Wayne is a good mentor in that department. Gary
From Alan Poitra (76):
Beer Can Alley, what memories that brings to mind. Back in the day, we always seem to have a good time back on that old road. As well as Halvorson’s Grove and maybe a few other spots around Dunseith. To those classmates from the late 80′s and 90′s and today, we did not have all the (lets say) luxuries kids have today, there was not the 1600 channels on TV, game boys, X-box, cell phones and all the other gadgets that seem to monopolize teens today, we made our own fun and Beer Can Alley was one of the hotspots to party. I remember one time, there were probably 7-8 cars parked on the road and we all of course had a few beers and we use to seem to have a good time just standing around joking and babbling about this and that, when around 11 or midnight, this car came driving up slowly but surely, the lights were off and they just drove right up to us and we were thinking I wonder who this is, when all of sudden the lights came on and we realized it was the cops, well needless to say, all you could hear were cans and bottles flying thru the air into the ditch and car doors slammin, one of the guys with me knew we had beer in the trunk of my dads car and thought we are gonna get caught, so he took the trunk key and broke it off in the keyhole, thinking then they would not be able to open the trunk, well that was correct but now I had to explain to dad how that happen but if I remember we got it out and another made, I will not mention any names of the group that use to hang out and have a few night caps, just to protect the innocent… That was one that comes to mind, now I can remember many times I have seen many, many upper classman showing up a little happy at dances and what not…come on guys and gals share some of those foggy memories… We all have them and hopefully you will not get in trouble with mom and pop…
A walk down memory lane is good for the heart!!!
From Deb Morinville Marmon (70):
Hi Gary,
This is to Dick Johnson. I had no idea that you were such an old car buff. I’m hopeless about cars. When people ask me what kind of car I have I tell them “it’s gray” We have a Classic Car Club here in Miles City. The 3rd weekend in May we have a gathering called the “Bucking Horse Sale” They bring in wild horses and buck them out for sale to the rodeos. On Saturday morning there is a big parade and the CCC makes up a good part of it. Although I don’t know anything about the cars it sure is a beautiful sight.
To Larry Hackman. Although I grew up in town your story about farm life was so vivid I felt like I was one of the kids! My parents originally came from Bottineau to run the creamery but it burned down after a few years. At one time Mom ran a satellite station in the back of the AC bar and us kids helped her out. The smell of fresh cream was unbelievable.
Hope everyone is having a great summer and doing lots of fun things. My fun is having hip replacement surgery on August 11. Oh boy! But after I will be able to walk without a walker or cane. That is worth looking forward to.
Deb Morinville Marmon 70
From Janice Leonard Workman (56):
Hi Gary and all, I knew Harry and Rachel Fassett a long time. My folks had a café on Main St where Wayne’s grocery is at now and the Fassetts lived 1 block behind and across from Lucien Bedard. My brothers chummed with the Fassett boys. I can remember when I first learned to ice skate and there would be what seemed like hundreds of kids at the rink. During Christmas vacation (10 days or more) the rink would be full all day, every day. James Fassett would always keep track of the younger kids and when a game of pump, pump, pull away would start he was always helping get the younger girls across. I think all the little girls loved him, he was truly a “hunk”. When I worked for McCoys in the Crystal Café, Rachel was the pastry cook and was she ever good. I would work some Saturday mornings when Bob McCoy couldn’t get up and I would get the first hot donut out of the lard and also the first hot caramel roll. They melted in your mouth. Then when I went to the Forestry, Rachel had moved to Bottineau and cooked at the college. Harry was police in Dunseith for a while after my dad, he was always nice to the kids.
The Saturday night story brought back memories too. I guess when I was in 7thand 8th grade, my friends would “walk the streets” I don’t know what we were looking for, but it was something to do. Later when we had boyfriends with cars, we would cruise the streets, what a bore that sounds like know, but then it wasn’t. A lot of Saturday nights after I was in high school, I worked at the café and couldn’t cruise, and usually didn’t get home until way past the time the streets were rolled up. When I didn’t work and would cruise, we always ended up at one of the parking places. There was the old “airport”, “pregnant hill”, the city park, and lovers lane were some of the places and the next Monday, everybody at school knew where everybody had parked. What fun!!!!!
Then there was the time, in the spring of 1955, when almost all the juniors and seniors and some sophmores skipped school one afternoon. In the group that I went with there was DuWayne Lang, Mickey and Neva Haagenson, and Bonnie Awalt.. DuWayne, Mickey and Neva hadn’t been in school in the morning, so they wouldn’t be missed, and we thought we wouldn’t get caught. However, another bigger group, also skipped, and we were all caught. For punishment, we had to outline the rest of our History Book,(about 8 chapters) which we were never going to finish anyway, we had a huge typing and science or biology assignment. We typed our history outline and used it twice. Mr. Jerstad (typing) wasn’t as up tight as Miss Shurr (History). But when we talk about that day now, we know it was worth the punishment and whenever a bunch of us get together, we always bring that memory up.
Those were the best of times!!!!
Janice Leonard Workman, Class of 56
From Bev Morinville Azure (72):
ok how about Larry and Dick getting together and writing a book? Loved your story Larry was fun to go back in time again . I always think we were the luckiest generation to live and after reading these stories I am sure of it. I only wish my kids could have known Dunseith( the people) back then. Bev
From Dick Johnson (68):
Gary and Friends,
Larry, another great story of days long gone by! Can anyone remember how
the stores almost all had canvas awnings that were cranked down on hot
summer days? It kept the stores cooler by shading the sun from shining
in the large windows. I thought it was neat! The main thing Larry’s
story reminded me of, was the crowd that was in town on Saturdays! Larry
you were right, people parked cars on the first two blocks on both sides
of main street. My Grandpa Henry Olson sometimes would park his car on
Main street early in the day, and leave it there so we had a place to
sit and watch the people and the action in the evening! Thanks for the
memories, Larry! Thanks Gary!
Dick
Story from Tim Martinson (69):
Gary,
I’m sure you will be getting responses on Larry”s 50′s story so will
send off a few of my early memories of days on the farm which Larry left
out. I’ll explain now as many may wonder I too had a connection to
the farm experience that a lot of town people know little about. It
amazes
me when I talk to someone about having a garden and how delicious the
home grown vegetables are and they respond with, it sure must cost
a lot to by all those plants, and I respond with not when I start
everything from seed. That is when I get the lost look, start from
seed? It sets
me back a little when I realize that yet again I have come across
another person who has had no connection with the plant growth cycle and
what it takes to bring a crop to harvest and then used for feed on
the farm or sold as produce for the market place. The home gardener who
tries to get the seed in the ground as early as possible after
spring frost and then hurries in the fall to can, blanch, freeze and
preserve all the
fruits of their labor throughout the summer. I must say that I was
one of the lucky ones to have been there, done that as in Larry”s story.
In the winter when the cows and horses were kept close to the barn if
not in the barn because of the cold and only let out to get well
water, that
was either hand pumped or engine pumped with a belt attachment to the
pump into a galvanized water trough and kept from from freezing at
that time with a type of snorkle stove inserted in the tank and wood
or coal burning. The stove kept the water from freezing solid but
when it was
below zero and windy there was always surface ice that needed to be
broken so the animals could drink. It always amazed me how warm
those old barns were in the winter when the animals were kept inside.
Now to keep and feed those barn animals grass was cut and dried then
picked up as with a pitchfork and pitched onto a hayrack, transported to
the barn where it was stored in the haymow. When I was small all
this was accomplished with the use of horses, rope, tackle, and a
huge hay
picking tine that would grab the load take it to the barn eave then
inside the barn by a steel I beam and deposited throughout the
haymow. I
use to love playing and jumping off those hills of hay. Feed was
ground up with a small mill and stored or made as it was used. What was
really neat were the little homemade stools that were used for
milking and what about those kickers what an invention for those cows
that
were a little touchy. Now to top this off was that swinging tail and
what to do with it especially if it was a little crusted over,
getting smacked in
the head hurt. I always recall the warning of stay close to the
middle of the barn because there was no way of telling when and what was
coming out of the back end of those cows, and it did at anytime.
Thinking back, it was kind of funny to look in at a cow as they were
looking
back at you and she would let a load go, plop, plop, plop, or what
seemed like never ending splish. Milk the cows, separate the cream then
feed the calves with the leftover milk. My Grandpa Martinson would
always set aside a bucket of cream under the house that he would let
ferment and turn a tad ripe then take the top off and eat it like
cream cheese. Dad told me he did not have the stomach for that
stuff. ” Uff Da”
Winter time in a barn brought in all the critters and to my surprise
there were still mice even though most of the cats were in there
also. The
cats were probably saving a few breeders for spring time when the
kittens were born. It seemed like there was always a owl in the haymow,
she was probably picking off a mouse here and there. Springtime
always brought in the chicks with the heat lamps, feeders, and waterers.
Strangely the cats left the chicks alone. Then there were those hens
that laid a clutch of eggs outside and paraded around all summer with
their chicks a scratchin and pecking. Oh the sow and her piglets we
must not forget, root, root, root, and stay out of her pen she can
really
get mad easily when a piglet squeals.
One of the crappy jobs on a farm was the barn cleanup. I can
really remember the winter time since it involved a lot of movement
in the barn
with the cows. Move the cow, shovel the old bedding into the gutter,
put down new bedding, move the cow back to her spot. And they had
their own spot, it seemed like there was always a cow that tried to
move in on another”s territory and always got butted out of the
way. Back
to the gutters which by now were overflowing and seeking out all the
low spots to drain to. Time to hitch up the horse to the stone boat and
bring it around to the back of the barn and load it up with that crap
in the gutters then pull it out to the manure pile and off load it
there. The
fun part was the ride out and back behind the horse on that old stone
boat.
As time went on so did the milking of cows by hand and cows died or
were sold and not replaced. The horse was the longest to stay and
one day she went down but we were able to get her back on her feet
and she lived on for a short time. So ended what at one time was a
small dairy that supplied milk to town a mile away. Dad told me how
he and his dad had traveled to Dunseith to purchase a bull calf up at
San Haven. He raised the calf and then entered it at the Bottineau
County Fair and took the Blue Ribbon. The bull was huge according
to Dad. I was surprised that San Haven had their own cattle and also
Greenhouses since I can not remember any barns but I think that the
greenhouses were located east of the power plant. Maybe someone has
the layout or blueprints of San Haven, when it was first proposed?
I”m sending along a picture of Terry and I with the Barn and Granary
in the background.
Take Care, Tim
Tim & Terry Martinson
Obituary/Picture provided by Neola Kofoid Garbe:
Note: Mrs. Lawrence (Lela) Wenstad was a Satrang. I believe she was a sister to Alfred, Beryl’s husband. Gary
Beryl’s picture is at the bottom of the email and also an attachment.
My condolences to all Satrang family members.
Neola
| Obituaries
Picture provided by Neola Kofoid Garbe: |
Note: Casey & Esther had a diner in Bottineau for years and also up at the Peace Garden.
Ken & Sharlyn, Casey & Esther’s children, both graduated from Dunseith
| Evenson | Kenneth | Po Box 63 | Portal, ND 58772 | (701) 926-3181 | evenson@midstatetel.com | 67 |
| Evenson Olson | Sharlyn | 1105 8th Ave SE | JAMESTOWN, ND 58401 | No Phone | No email address | 68 |
