Memories – Page 7 – Valerie's Voice

A Treasure Hunt

I do well with order. I like to keep a tidy house, with a place for everything and everything in its place. However, right now I am living in the “messy middle” as my friend calls it, because I am charged with going through many boxes of my late aunt’s possessions. “I’m going on a treasure hunt,” of sorts.

My aunt Ag & Florence – in 1984 I believe. Most photos lack dates and identification!

My aunt died is 2004, but her long-time friend and housemate lived in the house they owned together since 1968. The house was passed on to Florence when Auntie Ag died. Florence lived another 16 years in that house (after Ag’s death), and Florence died in their home at age 99.

So it was up to Florence’s family to clear out, and clean up, the house. They carefully put all the items that belonged to Aggie in boxes to be given to our family. I was chosen as the point person, so over a dozen hefty boxes were delivered last week, to my doorstep. Each individual box to be sorted, organized, and then distributed.

My house is a mess! I have tablecloths and linens on the dining room table…my grandma’s wedding dress hanging in the office,

my kitchen table and counter tops full of old photos, another room with a table set up and all kinds of Norwegian folk art and other miscellaneous items on top of it. There is a large box of jewelry, and another large box of pictures off the walls, a box of books and a box of Christmas plates…and more boxes in the garage…

So for now, I am going through her stuff, one box at a time, and setting it out for her niece and nephews (my cousins) to pick out what they want from the collections. In my effort to declutter my own things I’m in the mindset to not keep much. I hope I don’t regret it but I think a few mementos, and some photos, will suffice.

That being said, I did succeed in finding a most valuable treasure within the boxes. I opened up an inconspicuous, old, Fanny Farmer candy box and discovered it was full of hand-written letters, from my father to his mother and father, and sister and brothers.

My father sent these letters back home from the army during WWII. I did not know the letters existed, all dated 1942 or 1943. I’ve been reading each one and learning a bit about this man, my father, who died at a young age (55 years old). I was 20.

I enjoyed that some letters were tied up with ribbon.

These letters are precious. They will be kept, read and reread, and cherished.

I set out on a treasure hunt, and found a fortune.

Bike Trails and Fire Towers

We like to getaway and ride different bike trails. There are so many to choose from. This year we went to Pequot Lakes in northern Minnesota. Our first stop was in Crosby, Minnesota to ride our bicycles on the Cuyuna Trail System. These trails are well-known for mountain biking, but there is a nice paved trail to ride also.

Huntington Mine Lake is along one of the Cuyuna Trails.

The trail goes past old iron ore mine pits, which are now beautiful lakes, with no development on them. The mountain bike trails go through the woods, and a bicycle with special tires is needed. The mountain bike paths are red dirt, from the iron in the soil.

A photo of our group at Huntington Mine Lake.

After our trail ride we continued to drive north to Pequot Lakes, our destination. We planned to ride our bikes the next day on the Paul Bunyan trail, one of the longest bike trails in the state. The Paul Bunyan Trail used to be the Burlington-Northern railway tracks.

At the Paul Bunyan trailhead in Pequot Lakes.

We rode a small portion of the trail. The weather was hot and humid, but the portion of the trail we rode was shaded and scenic, with surrounding lakes. We’re grateful for the many wonderful trails that have been created on old railway lines.

Above the tree line on the fire tower in Pequot Lakes. I’m in the red shirt.

The third morning we decided to hike in Paul M. Theide Fire Tower Park. The DNR recently acquired this land to create this park to protect the historic fire tower there. The small park is lovely with a nice picnic pavilion and a few trails that lead to the fire tower. The tower, built in 1935, is accessible to climb if one is so inclined. I learned this is the second tower to be built on this site. The first was a wooden structure built in 1927. The current tower is in excellent shape (no carvings in the wooden steps). I climbed up four flights (of eight) and was already above the tree line and could see for miles. Unfortunately, I left my camera down at the bottom.

Climbing the tower brought back memories of vacationing with my parents and friends in cabins on Rainy Lake in the 1960’s. There was a fire tower within walking distance of the resort where we stayed. We would climb the tower every year, several times during the week. I do remember some of us kids carving our names in the wooden steps. Whoops.

Several years later we went up to see the resort at the end of the road, Highway 11 East out of International Falls, and the fire tower was fenced in and locked up. I learned it’s called the Black Bay Fire Tower, or Rainy Lake Fire Tower, and it was built in 1939. I couldn’t find much more information online about this tower.

The historic fire tower in Paul M. Thiede park.

There is another accessible fire tower in Itasca State Park which we have climbed a few times; once with our two sons when they were younger, and a few times over the years when we’ve camped in the state park.

A few dozen fire towers remain in Minnesota. At one time there were 120-150 in the early to mid 1900’s. At that time there were about 5,000 fire towers throughout the United States. A majority of the “second generation” fire towers were built by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) in the 1930’s. These towers were built of galvanized steel and included steps. Earlier towers were made of wood and used ladders to access the cab. As airplanes and modern technology took over the task of spotting wildfires, many towers were taken out of service.

I’m grateful for organizations that have insight and resources to re-purpose railway lines and preserve fire towers.

A beautiful hibiscus bloom on the hotel patio.

A Visit to North Carolina

Visiting someplace new is always fun. And staying in a private home instead of a hotel is delightful. And having grandchildren at that home is the best!

We spent eight days in a suburb south of Charlotte, North Carolina visiting our youngest son and his wife and two children. They recently moved into a new home there, leaving a two-bedroom apartment in Colorado. It was great to see their new house and their neighborhood, to actually see their faces to know how they are doing, and to hug the grandchildren.

I enjoyed choosing a photo – or two – every day to send a “Photo of the Day” to our other son and his family back in Minnesota. It gave a glimpse of some of the things we were doing during our time away…like going to a fireworks display on the fourth of July, or going to the neighborhood swimming pool, building a workbench,

working on art projects, playing dominos, going to parks and playgrounds, going on a picnic, going out for ice cream.

And simply sitting on the front porch every morning, drinking our coffee, waiting for the kiddos to wake up and come down to greet us each day. Hopefully creating memories for the grandchildren.

Their house is next to a wooded lot so we saw deer several times, and lots of birds. We heard interesting creatures (insects and/or frogs) at night when we ate dinner on the veranda, in the back of the house.

The covered veranda at the back of the house.

As we sat on the veranda on our last night before returning to Minnesota, we saw two fawns and a mama deer in the woods. We talked about how curious we were as to what was over the hill and down the road in the wooded area.

The “Private Drive, NO TRESPASSING” sign.

A “Private Drive, NO TRESPASSING” sign was posted at the entrance to the driveway leading into the property, at the end of the cul-de-sac, next to our son’s property. We had seen little activity there over the past week. Our son and daughter-in-love had not ventured past the private property sign since they moved in, about a month ago. We had been there only a week and were curious!

The wooded property at the end of the cut-de-sac.

So Andrea and I decided to venture down the drive that last night. We bravely walked down the road, arm in arm. The deer saw us and ran away. We approached a modest house on a lake, and took a look at the surroundings. Our curiosity satisfied, we turned around and walked back up the drive. Just then we saw a car’s headlights! The occupants were coming down the drive.

We were busted!!!

After all the times of no activity… and then…here they come when we are trespassing.

Our son’s house next to the neighboring, wooded lot.

The car stops, of course, and two young men in their 20’s rolled down their windows. We greeted them and told them we are from the house right past their driveway and we were just curious to see what was down the gravel road. Thankfully they were very nice about it. After a little small talk we continued on, walking very quickly back to the veranda where our guys were waiting, curious to hear what happened. They had seen the car go into the drive and wondered what kind of reception we’d get.

We settled back on the veranda, let out a sigh of relief, and then had a good laugh.

Lake Side

My friend and I spent a couple of days up at her place on Daggett Lake on the Whitefish chain of lakes in northern Minnesota. The weather was hot and humid, so being by a lake was a good place to be. Her husband liked to call their place “the porch with a cabin attached”.

There is a screened-in porch, with a dining table and two double beds in it…so it is large, almost as big as the cabin. We spent a lot of time on the porch, on the dock when the shade covered the dock bench, and under the shade trees.

My friend told me of a new “cabin” being built one lake over. She said it’s worth seeing, but only from the lake…so we decided to go take a look. We had two choices…an old-fashioned paddle boat or the jet skis.

I have been on her jet skis before… I kind of have a history of mishaps with them so I was a little nervous. Also, because of Covid I was not up at her cabin last summer so it had been a while since I had been on a jet ski. However, that seemed the most reasonable way to see the new cabin from a lake view…it was way too hot to paddle across the lake, through the channel and into another lake. So we decided to take the jet skis.

As I got on a jet ski, and got a refresher course, I asked my friend, “At what age are we too old to be doing this?” And we laughed.

But, we did it! And without a mishap too.

We backed out of the lift, accelerated fast, creating a refreshing breeze as we skimmed across Daggett Lake to the “no wake zone” to get through the channel and to the next lake. Once there, the new house stood out from the shoreline, big and beautiful. It was stunning…not a cabin at all, but a rambling, lovely lake home with amazing features, that you can only see from the lake (unless of course you are invited into this estate.)

We made our way back to my friend’s cute little cabin and I said, “So, really, what do those folks in the new mansion have that you don’t have in your cabin?!”

It was fun to be on the jet skis again. And it was fun to see the new “cabin” from the lake.

I don’t have any pictures documenting our jet ski ride, or the castle cabin. At one point I mentioned I should get my iPhone so I could take a picture, but my friend politely reminded me I should not bring any electronics near water. O yes, I remember…A few years ago I capsized in a kayak and ruined my camera, and then a few years after that, up at this same cabin, I was on the dock, pulled my iPad out of the cloth bag and it slipped right out of my hands into the water.

Turkish Delight

A few weeks ago, a friend dropped off a gift for my birthday. It was a bag of Turkish Delight. I have been reading the Chronicles of Narnia so I’m not sure if that is what prompted the idea for the gift. In the book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Edward is enticed to go with the wicked White Witch because she offers him Turkish Delight, which he cannot resist.

I had never tasted Turkish Delight before. It’s good… sugar-covered nougat with pistachios. My train of thought from tasting the candy was as follows: it started with the gift, to the book series I’m reading, to nougat candy, to candy stores, to Apache Plaza where my friend Diane and I would go to the Fanny Farmer candy store and buy a quarter’s worth of almond bark! What a crazy thought pattern.

I grew up in northeast Minneapolis, in a wonderful neighborhood filled with a lot of kids to play together. My two best friends lived across the street: Donna & Diane. A few blocks away, past a section of woods where we would often play, then across a couple busy streets, Apache Plaza was built, in 1961. It was the second enclosed mall in Minnesota, Southdale Center being the first.

Our moms would let us girls walk up to Apache Plaza together (neighborhoods were safer back then). I remember the layout of Apache well. We usually entered through Murphy’s Department Store. After looking at all the trinkets we’d go into the plaza and walk around. JCPenney’s was an anchor store, as was Montgomery Ward.

In addition to buying a quarter’s worth of almond bark at Fanny Farmer, we would sometimes go to the soda fountain at Woolworth’s and order a coke and French fries (I’d like to do that again!) I bought records (45’s or albums) at Musicland and spent hours in Minnesota Fabrics looking at sewing patterns and fabric. There was Brown’s Photo where our family had film developed, a pet shop we always walked around in to see the animals, and downstairs was a bowling alley. Apache Plaza was damaged by a tornado in 1984 and demolished in 2004.

The Turkish Delight was a delightful, simple gift given, that brought back such fun and crazy memories, especially a quarter’s work of almond bark!

Waterfowl

On a walk around the ponds in our neighborhood yesterday, I was treated to seeing several different types of waterfowl: ducks, Canadian geese, an egret and a great blue heron.

I stopped to watch the heron stealthily approach the egret. Canadian geese and ducks were swimming in the pond. It was a delight to stand and watch the birds, and take pictures of them.

The heron approaches the egret, with an image of a bird flying over the pond.

It reminded me of a time, years ago, while traveling with our sons, we had to wait a while for a train. There was a pond nearby. I told them nature can be very entertaining, and we went to sit near the pond to watch the birds and ducks.

It was entertaining then, and it is today.

The heron, the egret and Canadian geese all together for the photo shoot. ha!

These birds did indeed entertain me, and bless me, this day.

A Treasure Chest

Every few years we open up our cedar chest. It holds many treasures.

We use the beautiful cedar chest my father gave to my mother (when they got married in 1947) as a TV stand. The price tag is still inside…$54.95. Also, inside is a moth insurance policy!

The cedar chest works well as a TV stand, but with the TV on top it is not conducive to getting inside. We need to move the TV and other paraphernalia in order to open it up.

A look inside the cedar chest. It still smells good.

The last time we looked inside was in 2016 and I blogged about it then. Recently we opened up this treasure chest and here a some of the treasures:

This is a baby quilt made for me by my aunts and cousins, when I was pregnant for the first time. it is precious and I put it back into the cedar chest.

This is my Brownie uniform. I gave it to a thrift store.

This is my candy striper uniform, complete with a cap! I was a candy striper at the University of MN hospital. I gave it to a thrift shop.

This baptism gown was used by me and my brother. My mother and her sister’s was also in the cedar chest but in very bad condition. I had to throw it away. I’ll keep this gown until the next time.

This “shawl” my mother knitted. It does have arms and an angora collar. I liked it. I saved it for the grandchildren to play dress-up.

These bags I made for my boys, and then stenciled them. They used them to carry their “stuff” around.

A pillow cover I made from a Norwegian stitchery kit. I sent it on to the thrift store.

This is one of my favorite dresses I sewed in high school. I put it back in the cedar chest.

This is another dress I sewed after high school. It was hard to get the whole dress in the picture. I kept the dress.

There were other items not pictured…an old Christmas stocking, a purse, some glass cat figurines I remember buying as a souvenir on one of my family road trips. It was fun going through these treasures that took me down memory lane.

I do have a story about an afghan I pulled from the cedar chest that I will share soon.

Story Time

For me, one positive impact from the pandemic was learning about the communication app Zoom. I’m grateful for the Zoom business to allow me free access to family members across the country, and close to home, during the restrictions of meeting in person.

Grandma enjoys reading the library books.

One result has been a weekly story time over Zoom with my grandchildren who live in Colorado. At each session we; visit, read books, and then sometimes, they read to me. Lately, our oldest granddaughter is attending in-person kindergarten, so it’s just me and Ezra…and Grandpa joins in occasionally.

A favorite memory from when my boys were little was reading to them. And now, I love reading to my grandchildren. I have always enjoyed children’s books, and have several on our bookshelves around the house. One sweet gift a daughter-in-love gave to me, early on in our relationship, was a children’s book. I treasure that thoughtful gift.

During our weekly story time I lay out books and let the kids choose which ones they want me to read. Zoom has yet to cut us off at the free forty minutes deadline…we typically go for an hour so we get to read several books. I love the children’s books I own, but it is always good to find new ones at the library to add to the mix.

I go to the Northfield Library to look for new catchy titles and book covers. At my last visit to the library the children’s librarian, who presents the library’s children’s story time each week (pre-Covid), was there. I asked her for suggestions and she was very helpful. She actually remembered Zoey & Ezra from our weekly visits to her story time when they lived with us. Even now, when the kids come to visit they still want to go to story time at the library. YAY

The interaction I had with the children’s librarian that day was extra special. She told me of a book she really liked about “an overnight at grandmas”. The library copy was checked out so she went and retrieved a copy from her story time materials. When I went to the automatic checkout I noticed the book didn’t have a bar code, so I went and asked her about it and she told me this was her own personal copy and “just return it when you’re done.”

How special is that?

Another Frigid Afternoon

With temperatures predicted to dip way below zero (15 to 25 degrees below) over the weekend we decided it might be a good time to find a project to work on inside our warm house.

The one that came to mind was…photos! The ever-looming photos, a project we kept saying we’ll work on when we retire – even after we were retired.

But, at last, the timing felt right.

Since 1982 (when our first son was born) I dutifully put photos in albums in chronological order. I have several mismatched albums of all different sizes, one for each year, through the kids high school years. Then digital cameras became the norm and now photos are stored on the computer.

But still we had a few photos printed, plus my mom had duplicates of our sons that she gave back to us, and Gary’s sister gave us back all the photos we gave her of the kids when they were growing up, and there were stray photos for various reasons in different areas of the house and some old, framed photos to take out of the frame, some very old black and white photos that date way back etc., etc., etc. We had a lot of organizing to do.

So we set up our six-foot folding table in a downstairs room, unfolded two folding chairs, found archival pens, extra envelopes, a scissors, notepad and pen, and started in. We brought everything to the central work station. working diligently for several hours the first day. We stopped for lunch and a quick walk in the subzero temperatures, and then back at it. (Won’t the kids be glad someday!)

Our mismatched photo albums in chronological order.

The next day we started in again and did get the organizing done, cleaned off the shelf area in the closet where the albums are kept, and put the albums back in place.

Our next step is to go through each album and weed out the unwanted/not-so-good pictures…and who knows, maybe even combine a few albums together?

The next steps may be more enjoyable. However, there are still many hours left on this project…but the weather forecast is for continued cold temperatures for a few more days, so that will be a helpful motivator.

And then there are the slides………

Ruby Red

Today was my mom’s birthday. She passed away in 2009 but I thought I’d share a poem I wrote about her at that time.

Ruby.
I don’t know the year this picture was taken.

Ruby Red     
 
Red was her color
Ruby was her name
Never much recognition
Never much fame.
 
But she was a faithful mother,
A grandmother, a friend
Loved and cared by many 
Generous to the end.
 
She surrounded herself with beauty
Both natural and man made
She had a green thumb for growing,
And an eye for things that stayed.
 
From the house on McKinley
To the apartment at Meadowbrook
She kept her place beautiful 
It was always fun to look.
 
Her fun sense of adventure 
Took her on many fine trips
And hours of playing bridge
Kept her mind sharp and crisp.
 
Being with family and friends
Made her most content
She had much joy in remembering
Those times were well spent.
 
So here’s to Ruby
Whose color was red
God blessed her life to 86
An active life she led.