One of my favorite places in Devils Lake is the Lake Region Public Library, it has been a part of my life since I first got my very own Public Library Card when it was located in the Carnegie Building just down the street from its present location. My library card number was 3855, I still remember it, although they have changed the cards system since then. Funny how those things stick with you!
I have always loved reading since my daddy, who by-the-way, only had formal education that ended with the fourth grade. However, he taught me to read before I went to school for the first grade in August 1957. I was five years old, but I could read the funny papers – the full color, several pages of comics in each newspaper on Sundays, and just about anything on the breakfast cereal boxes (except the ingredients list, maybe?). That’s when it all began with me, my lifelong love of reading.
As a child I had my favorite tree in the shelterbelt where I would perch on a branch, hugging the cottonwood’s trunk and be transported to other worlds and adventures. Mom would holler for me to come in for chores or dinner but I really could not hear her – it was as if I had left our little farm two miles out on Highway 19 and was far, far away from the sound of her voice.
Daddy also loved to read and though his formal education was lacking, he devoured books his entire life, especially those written by Louis L’Amour, Zane Grey and James Fenimore Cooper. He memorized and often recited poetry like “The Wreck of the Hesperus” and “The Village Blacksmith” by Henry Wadworth Longfellow and “A Letter Home” by North Dakota’s unofficial poet laureate James Foley and many many more!
You can tell I was a “Daddy’s Girl,” can’t you?
All of this was brought home to me recently as we celebrated the expansion and renovation at Prairie View Elementary School on Wednesday Aug. 19 starting with a ribbon-cutting event.
When I was in first grade I attended Prairie View that first year. I remember it well.
Mrs. Peterson was my first grade teacher and Prairie View, at that time, was just one wing, grades one through six with a small gym, lunchroom (that doubled as a stage) and a library. We started each school day with the Pledge of Allegiance, the Lord’s Prayer and a song.
Normally you can’t just walk into an elementary school and visit it when you are feeling nostalgic but after the ribbon cutting, I found my first grade classroom, right where I left it, and sat for a while, looking around and remembering….
I remember the first day of first grade I received my very first proposal of marriage. Scott Gloger, also in the first grade, whose father worked in Devils Lake at Gilbertsons Gloger Funeral Parlor asked me to marry him. My response to him was “Not until after I graduate from college!” I had lofty goals even at five years of age!
At the time, my dad worked for the post office part time. He’d built up the sides of his old green Chevy pickup box so he could transport the large, heavy sacks of mail from the train depot to the post office and vice versa. That’s how it was done in those days. Dad would be waiting for me outside Prairie View with a little glass of milk and a cookie or a piece of cake in the glove compartment, to tide me over after a long school day. I thought of my best friends during those years – Patty Grohs, Elise Overbo and the late Julie Bryn.
I looked for my very first school photo to include with this column, but had some trouble locating it. I found my “School days 1960” headshot easily, but will continue to search for the 1957 picture, attached you will see another photo of me that I did find from 1957. At that time we lived in the basement of the Locke Block building, once one of the choice locations for businesses (on the mezzanine) and luxury apartments. One of the city’s most well-known ladies lived there, Mrs. Lake – I believe her first name was Florence. Anyone remember her?
My folks, Leland and Millie, were the caretakers of the building, in exchange for a portion of the rent, I’m sure, they cleaned the windows, hallways and stairways. Dad often utilized the lift to help tenants move in or out and raise or lower heavy items that required an elevator. It was operated manually, using “man” power instead of electric power like elevators do today. I remember a hand -operated brake of some sort, too. Funny the things you remember from years ago.
My folks and older brother, Daryl, lived in the basement of that building long before I was born.
The story goes that my uncle, Dale Nelson, from Saint Michael, N.D., married to my mom’s sister, Arleen, was in the service overseas, so Arleen came to live with Millie and Leland in Devils Lake because both sisters were very pregnant.
I was born on Sept. 20 at General Hospital – that was located roughly where SkyView Apartments and the old Good Sam Nursing Home are located, now. Three days later, Mom and I went home from the hospital to our apartment. Three days after that, my dad brought his sister-in-law in to give birth to my cousin Vickie on Sept. 26. I remember Dad telling me that the nurses at the hospital gave him a bad time for having too many pregnant wives at one time. He always loved a good story!
The Olesons added my sister Lynn to complete their family in 1954 and we lived in the Locke Block for a while longer. Meanwhile, Dad acquired a few acres of lake bottom land two miles west of town and moved an old machine shed from the Moen homestead to be the base of a “new” home for us, adding on bedrooms, a living room, laundry room and kitchen. There were many additions to the old shed through the years.
We moved to our “farm” two miles west on Highway 19, then Lynn and I were sent to Minnie H. I think that’s how they divided up who would go to what school – town kids went to Prairie View and Sweetwater and farm kids went to Minnie H. I could be wrong in that, but that is what I was told at the time.
Look for more “Louise Remembers” reminiscences on Tuesdays ahead as I learn to navigate my own definition of “retirement” here at the Devils Lake Journal – until next week – my quote is from one of Leland and Milly’s favorite TV personalities, Lawrence Welk: “Keep a song in your heart!”