In May of 2010, Grant and I were preparing for a nine-state road trip which would take us south from Minnesota on I-29 to Omaha; west across Nebraska on I-80, with a planned historical/family heritage stop in Aurora, NB, for … Continue reading
Think back, if you’re old enough to, to June, 1962 – or visit that time in memory with me. My thoughts return to my high school graduation, one month earlier. Now, on some day in June, we are loading the very … Continue reading
“Sharon, we’ll be using the sterling…..”…was the instruction I would hear on a Saturday in 1954 as I got ready to set the dining room table for the dinner guests due to arrive on Sunday after church. Many of … Continue reading
As is so often the case when I pick up my Granny’s copy of Streams in the Desert, the devotional for the day is a perfect fit for the day. And there was Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, sitting … Continue reading
These colors still fill that tapestry. Sunsets might have been pale white or pink — or blazing red, with the remainders of thunderheads stacked sky high, a magnet for the heart and the eyes that had us standing out in … Continue reading
Frederic and Johanna Hansen are pleased to announce the birth of their 6th daughter, Her name is Edith Mathea. She might have been the 8th (or the 7th)of the twelve daughters; I don’t have the records handy but wanted to acknowledge … Continue reading
This gallery contains 6 photos.
In June of 1962, our piano sat on the sidewalk in front of the Montana farmhouse (where the skies are not cloudy all day). Our Dad had entered heaven’s rest on March 31 that year and by mid-June the farm … Continue reading
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Mom and I were at the regular Ladies Aid meeting at a neighboring farm where they had a phone. I was playing quietly with my friends and then the phone call drew a line through the middle of the afternoon. … Continue reading
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The Frederick Hansen home flourished in Montana, eventually featuring eleven girls and two boys. I have always marveled at the fact that Grandpa Hansen, by all accounts, just “went on his way rejoicing” even though I’m sure he was hoping … Continue reading
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Making something for our mothers for Mother’s Day was a rite of spring in the classrooms of the 1950s. I hated it because I wasn’t good with dainty things and had no patience for tiny handwork. The worst of all … Continue reading
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Our living room always had a piano in it. Until I was about six, it was the old classic upright. About 1950 or 1951, our Dad bought a new studio piano for us. That piano got moved hither and yon … Continue reading
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Temple Bailey (1885 – 1953) was an American novelist and short story writer. In the early 1900’s, her writings were published in The Saturday Evening Post, Woman’s Home Companion, Good Housekeeping and McCall’s. What follows is the text of a handwritten transcription of one of Temple … Continue reading
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Seven children spread over 17 years required a lot of daily “keeping up with chores.” There was no such thing as “catching up.” Moms didn’t get behind in their daily work except for illness or childbirth. Each day’s work filled that day more than … Continue reading
This gallery contains 6 photos.
In 1960, the little country church celebrated their 50th anniversary when three generations who had worshipped and matured there returned to sing together, eat together, pray together and remember together. Our mother’s mother Johanna, along with her husband, was one … Continue reading
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This poem was given to me by our mother a little while after our father died in 1962. Just Yesterday I had a dad, just yesterday; not young, it’s true, but well and gay and full of life and love and … Continue reading
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When the air fills with the fragrance of lilacs in the spring, I’m taken back to a warm summer afternoon and I hear the screendoor slam as someone goes in or comes out; the bike chain slips (in its usual way) when I take off down the road; the … Continue reading
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Palle Lauring has a two-page discussion in A History of Denmark* in which he analyzes the historical reluctance of Danes to spend material, men or money in the interest of a constant state of military defense. This missing piece in the essential business of self-preservation … Continue reading
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In 1925, with his World World I Navy service behind him, our father was beginning to work his own land, thinking about rain and wheat. He wrote the following to our mother in a letter dated September 14, 1925: Dear … Continue reading
This gallery contains 12 photos.
Branding irons and barbed wire fences were frequently the frame for range wars in the 1800’s. They were sometimes cause and sometimes consequence of bitter battles between competing ranchers; between those who owned cattle and those who owned sheep; and they … Continue reading
This gallery contains 12 photos.
Some who drive through eastern Montana on I-94 today believe it’s a place you go to only to go through. Even those who love Montana understand that. One time my Dad said with a chuckle, “I think we should just … Continue reading
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Mailboxes and Old Barns 