My question??  Would the Dunseith gang ever want to do a stay in Vegas?   With Allegiant out of the bigger cities in ND with runs to Vegas it might be fun.

Loving every minute of summer….don  ‘t know what I do but it takes me all day long most days

Evie Gottbreht
949-249-6984

Dick

 

Sherry Marie Poitra, age 39 of Dunseith, died Wednesday July 11, 2012 in a St. Paul hospital. Funeral services will be held on Tuesday, July 17, 2012 at 10:00 A.M. in the St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Dunseith. Burial will be at the St. Mary’s Cemetery of rural Dunseith. A wake will be held on Monday beginning at 4:00 P.M. with a prayer service at 8:00 P.M. in the church.

Dick

I did an ancestry check on the Ingalls due to always having heard that we were related to Laura Ingalls Wilder of “Little House on the Prairie” fame.  I wanted to prove or disprove it for my own curiosity.  It turned out that both Laura and Keith’s Great Grandfathers # 6 were brothers.  Laura’s Great Grandfather #6, Samuel, was born in Oct 1645.  Keith’s Great Grandfather #6, Henry (Samuel’s Brother) was born in 1656.  So, not related, just connected.

In running that check, I found that the 20^th President of the US, James Garfield (Born 1831), came from Laura’s side of the family.  I spent a few months gathering data that someone else can take credit for and put it in an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of where it all tied together properly.  The spreadsheet currently has nearly 1,600 lines.  If anyone would like a copy of it please let me know.

Dale Pritchard

Gary-  I just wanted to comment on the article on Carmen Richard- I can’t think of anyone who deserved this more than her-  !- not only farm woman but a genuinely wonderful person!!_

On  another note I just had to add a “jayism” —  we had a customer come to the shop and he was restoring old cars— he had gotten some parts from Dick a while back- and he was wondering   about some more parts  if Dick would know where to get them- and Jay said “Well,  if Dick doesn’t know where to get it no one will–  He has been wheeli’n and dealin’ since he was knee high  to a short sheep”   guess that says it huh?-

Take care!-Lola

We just got back from Mississippi where we buried my Mother-In-Law on July 3^rd.  She passed away from Cancer in a nursing home here, where she had been for five months, on June 27 about 11:30 PM.  We had here transported back to Poplarville, MS so she could be buried with my Father-In-Law.

My Brother Darold also lives there so we stayed with him.  We went through a big plastic tub of pictures that my Mom had left behind.  Attached is one of (L – R) Lois, Lorraine and Shirley.  My Grandpa William Pritchard is in the background along with someone else wearing a hat.  Rumor has it my Dad wore hats like that at that time.  I estimate the picture as being taken about 1941 or 1942.

Dale Pritchard

A friend of mine was sitting on a lawn, sunning and reading,
when he was startled by a fairly late model car crashing
through a hedge and coming to rest on his lawn. He helped
the elderly driver out and sat her on a lawn chair.

My goodness, he exclaimed, you are quite old to be
driving!

Yes,� she replied, I am old enough that I don’t need
a license.   The last time I went to my doctor, he examined me and asked if
I had a driving license.  I told him “yes” and handed
it to him. He took scissors out of a drawer, cut the license
into pieces and threw them in the wastebasket.  You
won’t be needing this anymore, he said.

So I thanked him and left.

EXERCISE FOR PEOPLE OVER 50

Begin by standing on a comfortable surface, where you have plenty of room at each side.

With a 5-lb potato bag in each hand, extend your arms straight out from your sides and hold them there as long as you can. Try to reach a full minute, and then relax.

Each day you’ll find that you can hold this position for just a bit longer. After a couple of weeks, move up to 10-lb potato bags.

Then try 50-lb potato bags and then eventually try to get to where you can lift a 100-lb potato bag in each hand and hold your arms straight for more than a full minute. (I’m at this level.)

After you feel confident at that level, put a potato in each bag.

Joke of the Day

‘When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does, is done with perfection.

Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand things as other children do.

Where is the natural order of things in my son?’

Then he told the following story:

Shay and I had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay asked, ‘Do you think they’ll let me play?’ I knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on their team, but as a father I also understood that if my son were allowed to play, it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging and some confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his handicaps.

I approached one of the boys on the field and asked (not expecting much) if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance and said, ‘We’re losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we’ll try to put him in to bat in the ninth inning.’

Shay struggled over to the team’s bench and, with a broad smile, put on a team shirt. I watched with a small tear in my eye and warmth in my heart. The boys saw my joy at my son being accepted.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay’s team scored a few runs but was still behind by three.

In the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove and played in the right field. Even though no hits came his way, he was obviously ecstatic just to be in the game and on the field, grinning from ear to ear as I waved to him from the stands.

In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay’s team scored again.

Now, with two outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base and Shay was scheduled to be next at bat.

At this juncture, do they let Shay bat and give away their chance to win the game?

Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible because Shay didn’t even know how to hold the bat properly, much less connect with the ball.

However, as Shay stepped up to the

plate, the pitcher, recognizing that the other team was putting winning aside for this moment in Shay’s life, moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least make contact.

The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed.

The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shay.

As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball right back to the pitcher.

The game would now be over.

The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could have easily thrown the ball to the first baseman.

Shay would have been out and that would have been the end of the game.

Instead, the pitcher threw the ball right over the first baseman’s head, out of reach of all team mates.

Everyone from the stands and both teams started yelling, ‘Shay, run to first!

Run to first!’

Never in his life had Shay ever run that far, but he made it to first base.

He scampered down the baseline, wide-eyed and startled.

Everyone yelled, ‘Run to second, run to second!’

Catching his breath, Shay awkwardly ran towards second, gleaming and struggling to make it to the base.

B y the time Shay rounded towards second base, the right fielder had the ball . the smallest guy on their team who now had his first chance to be the hero for his team..

He could have thrown the ball to the second-baseman for the tag, but he understood the pitcher’s intentions so he, too, intentionally threw the ball high and far over the third-baseman’s head.

Shay ran toward third base deliriously as the runners ahead of him circled the bases toward home.

All were screaming, ‘Shay, Shay, Shay, all the Way Shay’

Shay reached third base because the opposing shortstop ran to help him by turning him in the direction of third base, and shouted, ‘Run to third!

Shay, run to third!’

As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams, and the spectators, were on their feet screaming, ‘Shay, run home! Run home!’

Shay ran to home, stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the grand slam and won the game for his team

‘That day’, said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, ‘the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of true love and humanity into this world’.

Shay didn’t make it to another summer. He died that winter, having never forgotten being the hero and making me so happy, and coming home and seeing his Mother tearfully embrace her little hero of the day!

AND NOW A LITTLE FOOT NOTE TO THIS STORY:

We all send thousands of jokes through the e-mail without a second thought, but when it comes to sending messages about life choices, people hesitate.

The crude, vulgar, and often obscene pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion about decency is too often suppressed in our schools and workplaces.

Do we pass along a little spark of love and humanity or do we pass up those opportunities and leave the world a little bit colder in the process?

A wise man once said every society is judged by how it treats it’s least fortunate amongst them.

You now have two choices:

1. Delete

2. Forward

May your day, be a Shay Day.

                                        Gail_schu@hotmail.com

Colleen (58) and I were in Dunseith and Rolette Memorial day weekend to decorate the graves of her parents (Ed & Florence Conroy)  We were pleased to see the cemetery so nicely maintained and commend those who do the maintenance.  A tour through the town seemed to indicate a decline in population, while the population of the cemetery grows every year.

We had lunch at Dale’s where we encountered several “old” friends from years past and got caught up on some of the latest happenings as well as reminiscing about things of the past.  Of course I had my usual “Dale’s Burger. (I forgot what the new name for it is.)  It was delicious as usual.

We stayed at the Skydancer hotel where we were told that they are in the process of building a new $30 million casino, so we contributed a little towards it.  While there we met Colleen’s brother Don for dinner, who also had come to Dunseith to decorate the graves.  I also encountered my cousin Jim Martel from Bottineau and some of his family.  We always encounter friends and/or relatives there.

We also decorated my parents and brother’s graves at Sacred Heart cemetery north of  Rolette.  In 1972, my brother Rick was killed in a traffic accident and was the first one to be buried in the “new”  cemetery, now it is nearly full after 40 years.  Both cemeteries have the graves of many friends, relatives and neighbors.  I also have my paternal Grandparents and several great aunts and uncles, buried at St. Mary’s cemetery in Maryville township, south of Belcourt.

Colleen has grandparents, aunts and uncles buried at the Crary, ND cemetery (east of Devils Lake).  We also decorated those graves as there is no one else to tend to them.

All of the cemeteries were very nicely maintained

It is always a busy weekend and we try to do it every year.

Reply to Picture posted yesterday

From Joan Tremblay Johnson (’79): Dunseith, ND 

Hello,

   I don’t believe I’m related to this lady.  It looks like her last name is spelled Trambley. My maiden name is spelled Tremblay. I have seen other versions even in relatives. 

  Hope all is well with you and please give Bernadette my best wishes.

Joan

 

 

 

Reply to Picture posted Yesterday

From Neola Kofoid Garbe:  Bottineau & Minot, ND

 

Hi Gary,

 

The Frances Trambley in the Class of 1960 reunion picture is the daughter of the Trambley’s who owned, for many years, “Trambley’s Dry Cleaners” in Bottineau.  Brian Trambley is my classmate; his sister, Virginia, was a year older; a younger brother, Garber, passed away several years ago.  In the Centennial book, it states Mr. Trambley was born in Maxbass.  He married Eva Marchand–possibly from Bottineau?

 

If I could type as quickly as Eileen does, I’d send Oliver (“OK”) and  Eva’s entire article.   I wish there was a site where families’ information (from the Centennial Book) could be found/copied/pasted.  I can locate copies of the index for the Centennial Book, but haven’t found a site where I can copy/paste the info.

 

Neola

worked a dray, then worked  West building the Canadian Railway.

He entered the United States,North of Bozemont ND to visit his eldest sister he did not like the ever flooding Red River of the North,

he moved on West working as a deputy sheriff, and  owning a hotel in Churches Ferry.  

He filed  on a homestead at  Maza, ND, where his older brother Hugh joined him in

farming wheat.

While in Maza, he  married  the sister – in – law of his best friend  Emil Plath.

William Metcalfe moved  to the Turtle Mountains from Cando/Maza with his 1st wife Bertha (Ebert) Metcalfe

and fuour young children, Lillian, Billy, Bertha and Bessie.

The first summer after moving  they lived in a  dirt dugout on Indian Creek, until their home was built.

My Dad pointed the location out,  as he did …where Lily died,  the lake North of  Walter DuBois house on #3 . 

(OOPs I got ahead of my self. ( I am  a better oral story teller than a writer like you, Susan)

Bill Metcalfe on his travels likened  the Turtle Mountains to Ontario, where he was born.

He purchased acreage north of Rabbit City Lake from a “black squatter”. 

The little lake, just West of Rabbit  City Lake was named after the squatter.

 Lily  and Billy attended HillSide School together. 

( I’ve  researched their school record at  the Rolette Supt. of Schools office).

 One day,  William I took the wagon  into town, Lily was dropped off  at the end of a road,

 to visit at her paternal Auntie Annie (Metcalfe) Eccles.

When her father came to pick her up, Aunt Annie hadn’t seen her as she and her husband

had been out looking for a calving cow.

Then…. came the Egbert’s looking for their daughter.

Two  girls   were missing, one was Billy’s sister Lily, the other Sadie Egbert.

A  neighborhood search party ensued.   Finally  the  frantic searchers dragging  the lake where two 

bodies were  recovered.

A terrible, tragic mystery which haunted each of  Lily’s siblings through out their lives.

Another baby, Hugh Emil was born the following  July 15. 

His mother,  Bertha died shortly after.

It was said, she was a weary, broken, woman full of sorrow.    

Lily and her mother were both first buried in the cemetery north of Lake Shutte.

After his mothers death and funeral, Young Billy went to the Red River Valley with Auntie Christina Nicholson. 

Bertha and Bessie went with their maternal  Aunt and her husband the  Emil Plath’s to Cando, then moved as teens to California.

Hugh Emil went to live with his paternal Uncle Hugh and Aunt Sarah Metcalfe in Cando.  

Sarah changed the name Hugh Emil to Roy.  

The younger three children never  again lived with their father.

William I,  as a widower continued to live on the farm north of Rabbit City  Lake.

He met  Veronica Rose Ann Leduc DeMontigny.

 William I and Rose lived  on the  North side of Rabbit City Lake in Hillside Township from until1935.

” When my dad told this story he’d say,  his “Wild Bill brother” reddish hair, freckled and full of life!

Apparently, “Young “to much to handle”, Billy also lived with his cousin,  Tillie Chrisitianson and her husband,

….. a big logger in the big woods of Minnesota.  After all ther efforts,

Young Billy  with a sign around his neck arrived by rail, back in  Dunseith. 

The sign said:

William Metcalf

 Dunseith, ND.

His father met him at the depot. They rode silently in a wagon to the farm.

When Billy  jumped off the wagon, ran into the  house he saw a jolly, chubby, toddler playing on the floor.

Billy pointed at the lad, and said to his father, “Who’s that?”

His father said, “That’s your brother, Laughlin.”

Billy pointed to the big woman in the room and said, “Who is that?

His father replied, “That’s your new mother.”

Uncle Bill respectfully called her, “Rose”.

The Metcalfe children,  attended Hillside School,

with the exception of Bertha, Bessie and Roy who attended school in Cando.

The summer of 1935, Cliff the seventh son was 12. The Rabbit City children were all 

walking home from Bergan School, some one came and said, “Mr. Metcalfe passed away.”

All the children ran for home.  Cliff ran, sobbing blindly through the brush.  He clothes lined on tree. 

Arnie Evans came back, helped him up, put his arm around his shoulders, and said, “C’mon Cliff”

” I’ll walk you home”.

Young Bill the eldest son, dug his  fathers grave, in the hard packed, late summer soil.   Then, he

 along with Charlie, Lucky, Jim,Archie,Emil  pall bearers at their father’s  funeral at the Dunseith Stone Church.

Grandpa’s dog  “Hoover” sat, waiting and waiting at the gate at the end of the lane for his master’s return. 

Rose took food out, tried to coax him to eat, and come to the house when it began raining.

The poor dog refused, mourned and subsequently died waiting for his master.

After a time, Rose and her youngest children moved into a little  building that had been 

a chicken coop on the South East side of Dunseith.  Leona, Cliff and Jean attended  Dunseith school.

Yes Susan, Rabbit City Lake was a tight community.  Everyone knew each other’s  strengths and faults,

and  were accepting and fond of  each other in spite of their differences.

They looked after each other and whenever together shared fond memories  and laughter.

I was lucky to get a glimpse through stories passed on to me.

…Sorry ..folks…I do get long winded about history. 

 

Thanks Gary.

Vickie Metcalfe

I have been reading through old scrapbooks that my grandma Kate,  my mother,  my dad,  my sister,  and myself had kept over the years.  I also have volumes of old letters dating back to the 1930’s.  I have quite a lot of old Dunseith Journals and my mother wrote everyday on her calendars of things going on around Dunseith.    I also have diaries from my parents and grandparents and personal journals.  If anyone needs family information,  I am more than willing to research for them.  I can be contacted at my email address susankay47@gmail.com. I love history of Dunseith and would like to hear more stories from the older folks out there.  I still want to hear more about Rabbit City where my Grandparents and the Anderson family lived at one time.   Hugs and prayers,   Susan

I bet the proof reader was off the day “Junk Rally” was printed and distributed.  I didn’t know Dunseith went back to 1429.  I am guilty of some poor proof reading myself.

Dale Pritchard

Helen M. Barden, 65, of Fargo, ND, died Tuesday, December 29, 2009, at MeritCare Palliative Care, Fargo, under the care of Hospice of the Red River Valley.

Helen Marie Metcalfe was born April 27, 1944, in Seattle, Washington, daughter of James and Ella Marie (Evans) Metcalfe. She attended country school and graduated from Dunseith High School in 1962.

Helen attended the North Dakota School of Forestry and Junior College at Bottineau for two years. She graduated from Minot State University with a Bachelors Degree.

She married Lance Barden in Bottineau in 1968.

Helen taught at Anamoose, North Dakota and Holdingford, Minnesota.

She was active in Atonement Lutheran Church and Women’s AGLOW ever since she came to Fargo. She worked for 30 years as a legal secretary and also worked as a receptionist for Access RRV.

Helen is survived by her husband, Lance, Fargo, ND; two brothers, James (Yolanda) Metcalfe, Kingman, AZ; and Gary (Sue) Metcalfe, Hollister, MO; four sisters, Geri (Charles) Munro, Fargo, ND; Margaret Leonard, Rolette, ND; Patty (Jack) Woods, Dunseith, ND; and Lola (Jay) Vanorny, Dunseith, ND; numerous nieces, nephews, extended family and friends.

She was preceded in death by her parents; brothers-in-law, Duane Coleman and Charles Leonard.

Memorial Service: Saturday, January 2, 2010, at 1:00 PM at Atonement Lutheran Church, Fargo, ND.

Visitation: Friday, January 1, 2010, from 4-6 PM, at the church.

Prayer Service: Friday, January 1, 2010, at 6 PM, at the church.

In lieu of flowers, memorials are preferred to Atonement Lutheran Church or Hospice of the Red River Valley

We purchased a 4,000 SF lot next to our property that allows us secure road access to our place. We now have several guys working leveling this lot. Today I had 3 Dump truck loads of fill dirt delivered too. After we get things all leveled we will be building a garage. With that going on and with a few other requests, I just haven’t been able to get the blog out. I don’t have much, so I am going with what I have.

Gary

I immediately called the police.  I gave them my location, confessed that I had left my keys in the car, and that it had been stolen.
Then I made the most difficult call of all, “Honey,” I stammered; I always call her “honey” in times like these.
“I left my keys in the car, and it has been stolen.”

There was a period of silence.  I thought the call had been dropped, but then I heard her voice.
“Idiot,” she barked, “I dropped you off!”
Now it was my time to be silent.  Embarrassed, I said, “Well, come and get me.”
She retorted, “I will, as soon as I convince this policeman I have not stolen your car.”

Yep it’s the golden years.

Thank you Mary,

Do you realize the mileage we’ve gotten out of this 80 year old picture and the amount of exposure it has gotten too. It has also brought back good memories to so many of the more senior folks too. Collectively over the past year we have slowly identified these folks.

Thanks to Neola too, for taking this down to a resident at the Good Samaritan home for him to identify several of these folks too.

Numbers 5 and 6 are the only two left to identify. We won’t retire this one just yet until these two guys are identified.

Gary   

 

 

1932 Willow City threshing crew

 

4th Row: (1)Boone (Lady),  (2)Jim Egbert, (3)Charley Schultz,  (4)Henry Durdle

 

3rd Row: (5)??,  (6)Andrew Stockburger,  (7)??

 

2nd Row: (8)Dave Eurich Sr., (9)George Egbert

 

1st Row: (10)Dave Eurich Jr.,  (11)Arnold Schultz

Joke of the day

Posted by Allen Richard (’65):  Midland, MI.

YOU HAVE TO LOVE THIS……… Two blonds were sipping their Starbucks when a truck went past loaded up with rolls of sod. “I’m going to do that when I win the lottery,” announced Blond #1.“Do what?” asked Blond #2. “Send my lawn out to be mowed.”

Being Green

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment.

The woman apologized and explained, “We didn’t have this green thing back in my earlier days.”

The young clerk responded, “That’s our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations.”

She was right — our generation didn’t have the green thing in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store.  The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over.  So they really were recycled.

But we didn’t have the green thing back in our day.

Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags, that we reused for numerous things, most memorable besides household garbage bags, was the use of brown paper bags as book covers

for our schoolbooks.  This was to ensure that public property, (the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribblings.  Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags.

But too bad we didn’t do the green thing back then.

We walked up stairs, because we didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building.

We walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks.

But she was right.  We didn’t have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby’s diapers because we didn’t have the throwaway kind.  We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy – gobbling machine burning up 220 volts — wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days.  Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.

But that young lady is right;  We didn’t have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house — not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana.  In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us.  When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power.  We exercised by working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.

But she’s right;  We didn’t have the green thing back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water.  We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.

But we didn’t have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service.  We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances.  And we didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint.

But isn’t it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn’t have the green thing back then?

Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smartass young person…

We don’t like being old in the first place, so it doesn’t take much to piss us off.

Good morning,

Gary, thanks for the e-mail.  It’s very sad when a friend and classmate passes away.  My sympathies to all Jean’s family and friends.

Helen (Rivard) Christesnon

Darrel,

 

As I mentioned in my reply to you, Jeanmarie called me frequently. It has been a while since she called now though and I have been thinking about her wondering how she was doing. Now, I only wish I had called when I was thinking about her. Now it is too late. Jeanmarie most certainly had her beliefs in life and she lived by those beliefs too. Her food intake and the kinds of food she ate was one of them. I used to like to get a rise out of her by telling her some of the food I ate, some of which I didn’t really eat or eat as much of as I told her and she knew that too. 

 

Jeanmarie’s kidneys gave out on her a few years ago, so she has been on dialysis.

 

Our condolence are with you, your parents and the rest of your family with here passing.  She will be missed.

 

Gary