Travels

A finished puzzle at Mom's house. We can go to the library, borrow a puzzle, put it together and then take it back. I should count all the puzzles we've done this winter. It's a  phenomenal amount. 

May 1st I was scheduled to take a bus full of 5th graders to the MN Zoo. Thankfully, I could follow another bus from Blooming Prairie driven by a skilled bus driver who has made this trip to the zoo several times. 

I thought about my dad many times through the day. He drove many grade school field trips over the years before his death in 2014. Now I've been asked to go on field trips and I found out I enjoy this part of the job. 

This time, if I hadn't signed up to take 5th graders to the zoo on Friday, Ellis and I would have gotten an earlier start on our travels to MT. 

Instead, I drove to the zoo in the morning,  drove back to the bus garage in Blooming Prairie that afternoon, climbed aboard bus 7 and drove the afternoon route. When I got back to the bus garage I parked the bus. It was now approximately 4:00 pm. I had been up since 5:00 am. because we needed to be packed and ready to leave Blooming Prairie immediately after the afternoon route. 

Ellis readjusted the seat in our jeep and we were off!

I was not much help with driving or keeping the driver awake. We drove to Jamestown ND and stopped for the night at Norway Inn.

Tillie's funeral was at 11:00 MT time at Coalridge Mennonite Church. Very fortunate for us. Because we gain an hour when we travel west. 

As we were speeding along on our way to the church we were stopped...

by a train. It was a mile long -- sitting perfectly still. Now what? If we turned around and tried a different route we would not arrive in time. 

We were impatiently waiting when I saw the train move very slowly, then pick up speed,  then at last I said, "It's not my imagination! It's moving!" We met approximately 25-30 vehicles who were backed up on the other side of the tracks. 

We arrived at Ivan and Karla's place at 10:07.

Changed clothes, brushed teeth, combed hair and drove to the church which is just a hop, skip and a jump down the road. So close we could have walked except for the wind. The wind was blowing 40 mph. (just as a guess) 

Tillie Drawbond

photo credit: Sharon Drawbond Wengerd

At the Coalridge Mennonite Cemetery the wind was still blowing. Many family members rest there at the top of a hill, no trees in sight, only prairie grasses for miles around. 

Back at the church lunch was served -- there was a baked potato bar with all kinds of lovely toppings and cookies and bars for dessert.

Also there was the delight of visiting with people we haven't seen for years.

Because we had to rush to drive to MT we have taken some days off work and won't be back to MN until Wednesday evening. 

(The dates on my blog posts are confusing because I wrote the last one April 28th. Then I noticed a mistake so I corrected it and the date changed to May 1, 2026.)

1963

         Pictures from an old photo album

My family in 1963.

We are posing in the living room of our friends, Mark and Florence Harshbarger. 

Every Sunday we drove to Montana for church, leaving our home in North Dakota at 10:00 am and arriving in Montana for a 10:00 church service. 

The Drawbond farm where Dad worked that summer was in the north western corner of North Dakota while the Harshbarger farm was in the north eastern corner of Montana. 

Two states divided by a time zone .... a person is continually doing math in one's head. Will that event be ND time or MT time?

Today it's better to have a watch when we visit instead of trying to rely on a cell phone for the time. A cell phone keeps on searching for cell service. Sometimes it picks up service from  a tower in MT, other times it will find service from across the line.

I  wish someone in my family would  have kept a journal. Did we take some furniture along for the year in ND? Maybe the two houses we lived in were furnished and we only took clothes and basic necessities packed into this trailer. 

Or was this a later trip?

Piecing together the interesting events of that year reminds me of the puzzles we've been working on at Mom's  house this winter and spring.

Asking questions of people who remember,  looking at old pictures, and coming  up with even more questions...

This picture was developed in 1966. Ladina and I are older than one and two. Were we on a family camping trip? Going west to visit friends? 

When I asked Ellis he wondered if we were traveling to Glendive MT for North Central Conference summer meetings.

You can still visit this friendly cow today if you take the right exit off I94 as you travel across ND.

I'm sort of surprised that we didn't stop and take pictures with our family when we traveled the road back to visit Grandpa and Grandma Harshbarger. 

It's sort of hard to believe that Ellis and I met when we were infants. He was three and I was two that summer. 

After the seeding, summer work and harvest was finished at Emmett and Tillie Drawbond's farm we moved to the town of Grenora and rented a house. Dad worked at a gas station pumping gas. 

We moved back to Graceton in the spring of 1964. The reason I know this fact is because Trenda was born May 5, 1964 in Baudette MN.

This morning I  found  out that Tillie Drawbond went home to sit at the feet of Jesus. She was 102 almost 103.

We will be making a flying trip to Coalridge MT this weekend for Tillie's funeral. 

 

Pork Roast

We finished our Sunday lunch with coffee and homemade bread and jam.

On my slice of bread I had Sweet Orange Marmalade which reminds me of Paddington Bear. 

In Norway, Lisbeth served homemade orange marmalade! She shared her recipe with me. So far I haven't made it. I confess.... it is too easy to buy a jar at the store. 

Today, the pork roast, potatoes in their jackets, carrots and onions took me back in time to Sunday Lunch at Grandpa and Grandma Skrivseth's place. 

I suppose my sisters and I ate the proper amount of meat and potatoes and gravy. There was always a small shiver of horror if I happened to see translucent onions floating in the gravy. Now I know they are delicious, but back then it was a struggle to get past them. 

The main thing I remember was Grandma's wonderful homemade bread. Slathered in butter. When we ate at Grandma's table we must have depleted the bread supply. I  remember Jo Ellen or Rhoda being reminded to go in the kitchen and slice more bread.

Another memory is nearly as painful as the thought of sticking my tongue on a frozen piece of metal. (Fortunately, this has never happened to me, but I've heard about other children who had the misfortune of that unhappy event.)

In my case I was dreadfully embarrassed one day. My fork caught my lip and pinched it between the tines. There I sat, with tears streaming down my face, unable to get that wretched fork to let go of my lip. Probably there were screeches coming from my throat, too. I can't imagine I suffered in silence. Someone came to my rescue and helped me.   

Sunday supper was more bread and butter and cold, sliced pork roast. 😋 

Someone made a lot of bread at Grandma's place. 

This memory is taking me to bread baking instead of pork roast preparations. Let's get back on track. 

Ellis buys pork loin from HyVee when it's on sale. He has it cut into roasts. On a Sunday  morning he sears it on all sides in a cast iron dutch oven. He also will sauté onions, cut up carrots and potatoes, throw all of this into the Dutch oven with much shaking of several seasonings, pour chicken broth over it and bake in the oven. 

At lunchtime, he slices the meat, I make gravy out of the broth and we have a feast. Thankfully,  I've learned to make gravy without lumps of flour to disturb us. (Another story some of my friends will remember.)

Come visit us.  Let us know ahead of time so we can thaw the meat and we will have a party.

60 Years Ago

March 1966 A Blizzard to Remember 

You can read about it here

This picture was taken the winter of 1964-1965. 

A path to the house.

The barn

Talking on the telephone 

Dad sculpted this guy out of snow. I don't  know if this was after the storm or a different winter altogether. 

Home

Describe your childhood home:

Next on the prompts in sharing my life story.

There is a rumor when Dad and Mom bought  their home near Blooming  Prairie MN they were celebrating 14 years of marriage and had lived in 14 different homes.

Since I am the oldest child I also shared this merry go round. To travel so much in the 60's seems unusual.  There will be an attempt now to create a time-line of these moves. 

First of all I will be quick to say these weren't  moving all household items. Sometimes we packed our suitcases with our clothes and house sat for another family.

1960 - 1961 Fort Wayne IN

1961 - 1963 Graceton  MN

1963 - 1964 Fortuna ND and Grenora ND

1964 - 1966 Graceton  MN

1966  Goshen IN and Plain City OH

1967 - 1973 Graceton MN

1973  October - December  

British Columbia Canada 

1974  January - May 

Cazenovia WI 

1974  Moved to Blooming Prairie MN in May 

This is also the time where I feel like I need to ask questions about those early years. I have pictures to look at and memories stored in my brain. 

I realize that some of these stores are already written and are hiding in my blog. I'll  see what can be done to bring them to the surface  -- right after I talk to someone who can help me.

A very old cliché says --

Home is where the ❤️ is.

-- To be continued 

Salmon for Supper

I was shopping  at Aldi when I  saw this in the meat section. 

Hmm! Should I  try that recipe Olaf and Lisbeth gave me? 

Can I find the recipe in my email?

                               Success!

Very happy with my purchases I went to the parking  lot and found  this on the door of my jeep.

What is this all about? (I mentioned that I'm behind in some of the modern trends.) 😀 When I called  Ellis he knew immediately that I had been *ducked* and now I must begin a row of ducks on my dash. Also it would be good to purchase some ducks to give away to other jeep owners. This began in 2020 (if you can believe Google) in Canada 🇨🇦.

What fun!

I was even more tickled when I found a duck at home which must have been purchased for a baby gift and then left behind in my gift basket for later use. 

The recipe was quite easy to follow. It would  be even more amazing if Olaf and Lisbeth and Deanne could join us for supper!

           Here we are! It was delicious! 

Salmon Sandwiches

Rain poured from the sky.  Mom, my sisters and I sat in a cozy nook with windows on three sides of our table. We had been hoping to go for a walk or a driving tour --  then it began to rain. We changed our plans. A fancy tea inside a warm, dry place sounded better than being drenched in a thunder storm. Tea was served in a chubby teapot. Next, fancy sandwiches on platters  arrived. Slices of cucumber and cold salmon were sandwiched  between two pieces of bread. These were held together with skewers. I don't remember what kind of bread. This was before the sourdough fad.

 We were celebrating Maria's 40th birthday at Niagara on the Lake in Ontario Canada.

The year was 2006. Doug had reserved a bed and breakfast as a surprise for Maria. Ladina, Trenda and I flew to Toronto where we were picked up by Dad and Doug. Dad and Mom had driven to Ontario earlier that week. Dad was helping  Doug work on some renovations on the house. 

There was the huge satisfaction of pulling off the surprise without Maria suspecting anything. The next morning we drove to Niagara on the Lake.

Each morning, after a lovely breakfast, we went on little outings in this quaint town. There were  picnic lunches in the park, hikes on walking paths with glimpses of the lake showing through  the trees and history lessons learned when we toured historic buildings. 

Now as we sat at the table with rain streaming down the windows, chatting about our weekend we attempted to eat our very expensive sandwiches. The salmon was a shocking pink color and icy cold. Each of us ate half a sandwich. Bravely, Trenda picked up the second half and lifted it to take a bite. I was feeling quite squeamish and thought to myself, "I don't  think I want any more of this." Suddenly, Trenda put the sandwich down and said, "I cannot eat another bite."  All of us drew a sigh of relief as we put our sandwiches back on our plates.

The desserts were delicious. We downed another pot of tea when it appeared. When the rain stopped  we asked for a box to put the sandwiches in. 

The next adventure began. We had a ride in a carriage pulled by beautiful horses. The  horses wore diapers to keep the streets clean. The drive took us past old homes and our tour guide had more stories to tell about long ago days. 

When it was time to drive back to Toronto to catch our flight we passed an old fashioned carousel and stopped for a ride. Then Maria dropped us off at the airport. As we were flying home to Minnesota Trenda said, "I hope Maria takes those toothpicks out of the sandwiches before she feeds them to her dog!"

Since that memorable day I  have eaten salmon once. I know .. it's good for me. I should  be buying it and preparing it and fixing it for my family so we can all benefit from this healthy food. 

In Norway, Lisbeth fixed salmon for our last meal together. It was served hot with baked potatoes. There was a delicious sauce to smother each bite. And Olaf translated the recipe into English for me so now there is no excuse. I should be fixing salmon on a regular schedule. I'll let you know how that goes.

              -------------------------------------

The other day I found the salmon sandwich memory scribbled on a piece of paper. My cousins are writing 20 minutes each day and posting their stories. They inspired me to write again. I am finally learning to talk into a microphone and see my words being typed in front of my eyes. (Ellis has been using that feature on his phone for texting for years). Many times I scribble the first draft of a story on paper anyway. Now I can read it and my words are typed.  Amazing technology. I am spoiled. I am grateful to family and friends who help me catch up when I lag far behind.

This was an experiment to try the 

*new for me* method.