lunch time

This is a "I Remember" story.  Taking lunch to the field for the men was a very significant part of the day.  I have found a couple of photos that show different periods history.  One is much older than the other.  I also remember sitting by the hay stack eating the lunch together.  It was the haystack that was being made that very day. It wasn't just any old lunch, it was important that it be very special.  Grandma Helen was good at creating lunches, but it also was very time consuming for her.  I think the children enjoyed the trips to the field and being a part of "lunch  time."  They could run around and play.  Grandma Lennie is the driver of the older car.  I am driving the newer car.  Jack is in the car, Glenn to the left, and Oscar to the right.  We also took noon meals, and that was quite a production.

Hot Cross Buns

Julie, this is especially for you.  I made Hot Cross Buns last night.  I know they probably aren't quite like yours.  I didn't have white flour, so they are heavier.  Some of my family turns up their nose to candied fruit, but I can eat them.  Have a great day Mum

family

This morning as I was on the treadmill I was thinking....

Yesterday I talked to Julie in Australia and she was asking about things to bring.  It brought to mind when they moved to Australia.  I remember the last day that Jerry went back into his home and took video's.  We waited in the car, I had such a sense of saddness in my heart for him at that moment.  Now we are seeing a reverse as Julie is having to do the same.  I haven't had the experience of leaving my home.  I know you children have said that you would push it in.  But if my life circumstances make it so I have to move to some other place and that house is still there, it will be sad.  Unless ofcourse god works in my heart to know that I need to make a change.

 Father, help us to give our lives and things to you that we are willing to go where you want us to go and to be what you want us to be.

family

It is 2:57 a.m. and I am writing.  I am home alone, Jack is in Fargo for airplane symposium,  Julie in Grand Forks for a concert, she and Shannon stayed at Jacqui's because the road is terrible. So they didn't go to her house. Brenna and Shaun need to leave really early for Bismarck and they closed I 29 because of the drifting and ice(I think).  Well at 2 a.m. I got a call from Chuck wondering if I had a shovel(he didn't know dad wasn't home) so I drove over to where they were stuck on their road.  Those low vans don't do so good, they get hung up on the driftand the snow was hard.  I took two shovels and put on a lot of clothes,  Chuck and I did the shoveling, but he really didn't have the appropriate clothes,  finally Alice got out and I told her to get in the back of the jeep as there were more clothes.  Frank and Dorothy were along, I don't know where they had been but I think that they had picked up Gabe who had been to the concert that Julie, Shannon, Shaun, Brenna and Alicia had been at.  It is time to say goodnight, maybe the cat and will get some sleep now.  Mom

family memory

Today, we have had sort of a blizzard.  Julie got to Fargo about 8 p.m. and started for home.  It was after midnight, or about then when she arrived here.  She was really tired, I am sure that her own bed looked good.  She slept in today, and Jack and I have been in the house all day.
    We continue with our genealogy project.  Jack has been reading about his relatives from a scrapbook sent to him by his cousin.  Our conversation prompted me to get out the Walsh County atlas where we found a lot more information.  I am making copies of the family stories and putting them in the three ring binders with their family genealogy. 
    Tonight, I got a call from a relative of Jack's that we did not know, but by calling another person we have found out about her.  Her grandfather was a brother to Jack's great-grandmother.She is interested in genealogy and will call again tomorrow evening.
    When I think of a blizzard day, I think of the times that my father would take us for fun rides.  He would use a flat surface behind his tractor, the flat surface might be the hood of a car.He would tie it to the back of the tractor and we would sit in it while he would give us rides around the yard.  It was a lot of fun.  I think my cousins Mary Ella and Betty Clare remember those times, too.
    My dad also liked to ice skate (and roller skate) so he made us a little skating rink out in the yard, somewhere south of the light pole.  He could figure skate, making "8"'s,etc.
    We usually had a really big snow bank on the road north of our house.
    One winter we really had a lot of snow,  I think it was about 1956.  The road to the east of the O'Brien farm had a bank that was higher than the vehicle on both sides of the road.  It had been plowed many times and it just kept getting higher and higher,  I think we missed a lot of school that year.

History

     This photo was taken in 1953.  It evidentually was a family gathering at my home.  It is special because my Grandparents, and Jack"s grandparents are present.  I also see my Uncle and aunt, and Jack's parents.  I note the clock on the shelf in the corner.  I still have that clock.    I note that Grandpa Oscar is sitting on the antique chair that sits in our bedroom.   I don't see any of us children, we probably were sitting in the kitchen.  Would they have ever realized that in the future our families would be united because your dad and I would marry.
     I know that my mom was a very good cook, and a capable hostess.  I have only one memory of times that she entertained.  She had a china bowl, it was a quite thin china and she always served cole slaw in it.I have it so I had to go look at it, she had written under it that it was my grandmothers. 
    The room looks much the same to this day.  I guess you children could also remember many meals served in that room.  Any memories that you can share?

I remember

So you want me to write.....Dad is sorting photos.  I have tried to add this photo to this site, but I don't seem to be very successful.  I will tell the story anyway.   The photo wouldn't mean anything to any of you but it does to me, and to dad.  One time when Janet was in high school, we flew her and another girl, Laura Axmann to Ellendale for a youth conference at Trinity Bible College.  Janet was in a speech meet at Devils lake. so we picked them up late in the day and took them to the airport.  We got up in the sky, we were above the clouds and it looked like this. Though I remember the clouds as being whiter.  It was beautiful.  Dad said, we need to go below the clouds so we could navigate.  So he made a few circular manuvers and down we went. Beneath the clouds it was getting dark.  So we had to watch for the lights of the towns.  We flew to Ellendale, Pastor Dave met us at the airport.  We left the girls there and we flew back.  We got back to Devils lake about maybe midnight.  We left the airplane there and drove back to the farm.  It is a good memory.