Chapter 27: Escape Attempt

"Oh, Carl!" Mom urged in an excited whisper.  "Get the camera!" 

She had checked in on Barb and found her with both legs dangling through the slats, as if she'd attempted to escape the confines of her crib.  The bulge of her diaper, apparently, kept her from completing her efforts.  It's a good thing Barb wasn't a skinny baby.

Dad responded to Mom's suggestion, only to shoot another overexposed crib picture.

What impresses me most about this photo is the beautiful wood floor found in one of the parsonage bedrooms.  I imagine this is a feature found throughout the house.

Chapter 26: The Parsonage Playroom

Although not a typical example of the style, the old First English Lutheran parsonage in Great Falls was of a 'four-square' design.  Walking through the front door, you enter a hallway that extends to a stairway leading to the second floor.  To the right are the living and dining rooms, though there is very little separation between these two spaces.  (I have a dim memory that this side of the first floor was all living room when we first moved to Great Falls from Auburn, but I'm sure we didnt' have enough furniture for such an arrangement.)

To the immediate left was the playroom, which was connected directly to the kitchen, the last of the 4 first-floor rooms on a tour.  (The only bathroom was on the second floor.)

The playroom was sparsely furnished.  Outside of the little card table and two chairs, I don't recall any other places to sit.  The room provided an excellent location for the playpen, as Mom could keep an eye on Barb from the kitchen.

It's clear from these two photos that my favorite Christmas gift was the model car that, apparently, I would not let out of my sight.  By 1960, I had become proficient at naming cars by their make, model, and year.  In fact, in Warren, I used to take a chair from the front porch, along with a pad and pencil, sit myself at the corner of West Third and Conewango, and tally the cars that passed by.  Chevrolet always won tallied the highest number.

I recall the service station with great fondness. This toy kept me occupied -- not so quietly, perhaps -- for many hours. I'm sure I made plenty of engine noise for effect.

The sight of the record player in the first pictures reminds me of how often Mom would tell the story of how, even before I learned to read, I could identify each and every record by sight.  It doesn't appear I had much of a collection, though.

Chapter 25: Barbara's First Christmas

From the clothes that Larry and I are wearing, I assume the first two photos were taken on Christmas Eve.  I look spiffy in a red-white-and-blue patterned sweater and a white shirt with the pointy-est collar I've ever seen.  (Watch out, Barbara!)   Larry, on the other hand, looks absolutely adorable in a striped jacket and bow tie.  I imagine that First English scheduled an early-evening service featuring the youth choirs, a long-standing tradition in the Lutheran church.  I'm sure we didn't attend the late service, which probably didn't start until 11:00 p.m.

The other Christmas Eve tip-off is the still-wrapped presents under the tree.  Because of Dad's need to focus on church activities from late afternoon on, we didn't open gifts until Christmas morning.

The woman turning the pages of a book, which appears to be of little interest to the Nelson children, is Dora Donald.  An emigrant from England, Dora served as the church organist and choir director.  She was single, and, as far as I recall, had an active social life, participating in a variety of community organizations and traveling, mostly to California, to visit family and friends.  She lived in a neatly cluttered, 3-room apartment on the first floor of the Maryland Arms on 2nd Avenue North.  I visited her once on my own on Sunday afternoon.  I couldn't have been more than 6, but my parents will allowed me to walk the three blocks to her apartment on my own.

The Nelson family didn't purchase the loveliest of Christmas trees in December 1954.  Or perhaps it was given to us by a member of First English Lutheran Church.  By its misshapen form, which not even an over-abundance of tinsel can hide, it looks ready to lead us a sing-along of "I'm a Little Teapot".

Before the tree was taken down and carried out of the house, the tinsel was carefully removed and replaced into its original packaging, to be used again the following year.  It even traveled with us in 1957 from Great Falls, Montana, to Warren, Pennsylvania, and remained in use into the early 1960s.

Remember the toy gas station and light green model car, which will appear again in our next chapter.

Chapter 24: Bedroom Dresser

(The two words printed on the slide mount.)

An arty shot of Mom and Dad's bedroom in the old parsonage in Great Falls.

I don't know if the furnishings are new, or if Dad was attempting a photographic inventory of the house's content.  I wish it were the latter as I have a difficult time remembering the exact layout of the second floor, which four bedrooms and a full bathroom.  Typical of early-20th century home construction, there was no bathroom on the first floor.

I remember well the attractively designed headboard.  It remained a part of my parents' bedroom well into the 1970s, as did the dresser.  In fact, the dresser is now stored in the basement of the former St. Paul's parsonage in Warren, Pennsylvania, where my brother Dale still lives.  Rummaging through its drawers during a visit 5-6 years ago, I discovered a cache of Dad's pocket-size appointment calendars.  When I looked for them last year, the drawer was empty.   Dang!  Should have claimed them while I had the chance.

Chapter 23: Another Nelson-Hasselquist Get-Together

The Hasselquists: Peter, Gene, Miriam, Gladys, and Lynn in the Nelson living room.  A Thanksgiving gathering for two families whose closest relatives live more than 1,000 miles away.

The Nelsons and Hasselquists solidified their friendship in 1954.  It was the only time I recall my parents having a close relationship with another couple prior to Dad's retirement in 1981.  As a pastor's wife, Mom occasionally bemoaned the limits her role placed on her.  She didn't want to appear to be playing favorites among members of the congregation.  In the 1970s, she socialized with a group of women, none of them members of St. Paul's, who regularly went swimming at the Y.  Enjoying each other's company so much, they branched out into other activities.  Going out to dinner and leaving their husbands at home being a favorite, if I recall.

In the picture below:  Larry, Peter, Gene, Lynn, Miriam, Paul, and Barbara (who, all of 7 months old, appears to be highly amused at whatever Gene is reading to us).  Since I'm no longer wearing a cowboy shirt and Lynn no longer has bows in her hair, I assume this shot if from another end-of-year gathering.

Chapter 22: Miriam Hasselquist's Baptism

A number of thoughts come to mind when I view these two photos.

First of all, Gene and Gladys Hasselquist have chosen Mom and Dad to be their daughter Miriam's godparents, a relationship that, in my experience, has little significance in the Lutheran church and in Swedish-American culture.  I have no idea who my godparents are.   Or Larry's, Barb's and Dale's, for that matter.  Although they kept in contact with Gene and Gladys after moving from Great Falls to Warren, Mom and Dad never sent Miriam birthday cards or acknowledged other special occasions in her life  

Secondly, no one else is present in the church sanctuary.  Perhaps the foursome posed for these two pictures after the baptism service ended.  More likely, both Gene's and Gladys' families lived too far from Great Falls to attend, just as the case would have been at Barbara's baptism earlier in the year.  I'm sure this isolation had much to do with the bond of friendship formed by these two families.

Finally, the sanctuary of St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church looks exceedingly spartan:  bare walls, wooden pews, not a stained-glass window in view.

Chapter 21: Dinner at the Hasselquists

The adults' table.  From left to right:  Mom's face cut in half lengthwise, someone who amazingly resembles Uncle Rudy (my Dad's sister Ruth's husband), Gene Hasselquist, three unidentified women, and a side portion of Gladys Hasselquist's head.  (Not your best work, Dad.)  My clearest memory of the Hasselquist's home is the dark woodwork.
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The kids' table.  Let's start with the boy in the maroon shirt who stands front and center.  I have no idea who he is or who at the adult table he belongs to. Peeking around his torso is Lynn Hasselquist.  Then we have a Shirley Temple lookalike.  The boy in the maroon pants with suspenders looks likeMaroon Shirt's brother -- look at the shape of their heads -- but it's Peter Hasselquist, Lynn's younger brother.  The girl standing in the doorway looks exactly like Miriam Hasselquist at age 6, at least as I remember her from Christmas photo cards, but she was only two months old at this time.  Larry has already taken a seat, probably thinking, "When are we going to eat?"  I don't know the girl who's wearing what appears to be an apron or oversized bib   She's definitely sending me a very friendly signal.  (Wonder if I responded)  At least I think that's my right ear and the sleeve of my blue cowboy shirt.  I was always tall for my age, but here I seem to tower over the rest of the group.

Chapter 20: Picnic with the Hasselquists

I have to check a map to determine where the Nelson and Hasselquist families picnicked on a beautiful and lazy summer's day.  My best guess:  Thain Creek, located in a small section of the Lewis & Clark National Forest about a half-hour drive from Great Falls, via Belt, a small community that we frequently passed through on family drives.

I'm sure the day has no special significance -- just two Lutheran pastors and their families getting together and enjoying one another's company.  In the first picture, you see (from left to right) Gladys Hasselquist, daughter Lynn (who had the most beautiful auburn hair), husband Gene, son Peter, Mom, Larry, and me.  Behind Mom is the buggy in which Barb is sleeping.  The Hasselquists would have one more child, a daughter they named Miriam whom I remember being close to Barb's age.  A close-up and adjustment of the exposure of the first picture confirms that Gladys is probably just into the third trimester of her pregnancy, although it certainly doesn't look that way when she is shown lying on her back in the second picture.

Although Lynn and I are the same age and got along very well together, we never saw each other outside of these family get-togethers.  We weren't regular playmates, in other words, probably because I had plenty of friends in the immediate neighborhood of the First English Lutheran Church and parsonage.

St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church, where Gene served as pastor, was located just 7 blocks from First English, two blocks north on 8th Street, and five blocks east on 4th Avenue North.  As a young child riding in the family car, it seemed to be a much longer drive whenever we visited the Hasselquist's.  (Like First English, the St. John's parsonage was located next to the church.)

Though Whittier Elementary School, where I attended kindergarten and the first two months of 1st grade, was located just 5 blocks from the Hasselquist's house, Lynn attended a different school, three blocks west and two blocks north.  If we had attended the same school, I sure we would have had a regular series of what are now called "play dates".

Chapter 19: Hungry Horse Dam II

I can't recall if these two photos were taken during a family day trip, or if Dad and I -- Mom, Larry, and Barbara staying at home -- were on our way to or from Bible Camp.  Since I'm the only person in the frame of either pictures, I suspect it's the latter case.

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And what it is about these Nelson family slides and a parked 1951 green Chevy with one of its doors open?  It's definitely a theme.

Chapter 18: Rockford Visit, Part 2

The Stark family -- Charles, Lila, Genevieve, and Min (short for Minnerd) -- stand in front of 1815 Charles Street in Rockford, Illinois, where my grandparents, Herman and Anna Nelson, lived from around 1906 until their deaths in the early 1960s.   Dad was the last of seven children to be born, all at home, and never had his own bedroom.  From what I recall, he and his brother Ford slept on cots in the dining room, and their five sisters shared one of the two bedrooms.

In the summer of 1954, cousin Charles, always a full-of-himself, too-big-for-his-britches sort of guy, would be entering his senior year at Beloit Memorial High School that fall.  Cousin Genevieve, who would have been experiencing regular seizures at this time, would start 9th grade.

Lila always struck me as the quirky aunt.  In retrospect, it seemed as though she was always on the verge of breaking into a Barbara Stanwyck impression - one of her comedic roles.  (There's actually a slight resemblance between the two women, don't you think?)  She was a tremendously compassionate, patient, and industrious woman, though she never worked outside the home after she married Min.  She was handier than most men, which added a fuller dimension to her role as homemaker.  Even as a child, I sensed an unusual, for the time, equality in their marriage.

An engineer by training, Min worked at the Beloit Corporation for most, if not all, of his career.  Although an affable and approachable man, he always retained an air of unfamiliarity to me, as though he was a neighbor who had just dropped by to say hello to Lila's brother and his family.

The Stark family lived in a fixer-upper at 910 Vine Street -- and through the late 1960s they always seemed to be working on one remodeling project or other. 

This picture of Mom and Barbara is taken at the edge of the alley behind the house at 1815 Charles Street.   (I think the garage in the background is where Uncle Harry and Aunt Svea parked their Imperial.   Though they could have easily afforded to live in one of Rockford's most , they rented upscale neighborhoods, they rented the 2nd floor of the house.  Above "Ma and Pa", as I'm sure Svea wanted it.  (In a very close-knit family, Dad was the only child who broke from the circle.  Perhaps something to do with five doting older sisters?)

Nowadays such front-frontal nudity, even of a 3-month-old, might land the photographer (Dad) and accomplice ("Ma" Nelson) in hot water, considerably hotter than what Barbara is bathing in.  Whenever we had family slide viewings, this picture always produced a roar of laughter from everyone except Barb, who sat stoic quiet, impatiently waiting for the next slide to click into place.  And can you blame her?  There was never an accompanying slide of any of her brothers with their privates in full view.

Chapter 17: Rockford Visit, Part 1

For both of my parents, Great Falls Montana was a long way from home.  For Mom, in particular.  In the pre-Interstate highway era, it was a grueling 2,286-mile road trip to visit her family in Springfield, Massachusetts.  In 1953, Mom, Larry and I traveled by train while Dad drove alone to Washington, D.C. to attend a national conference of the United Lutheran Church in America.  From there he drove to Springfield to take his family back to Great Falls via Rockford.  I imagine he put close to 5,000 miles on the odometer.  And what's even more amazing, he did all the driving on these 1950s family excursion.   Mom didn't get her driver's license until after we moved to Warren, Pennsylvania.

The picture below was taken in the back yard of the home of Ruth and Rudy Benander at 1214 17th Street, i Rockford, Illinois.   Ruth is Dad's youngest sister.  This is how I remember the summer days of my youth:  abundant sunshine and cumulus clouds.

Standing in the back row:  Dad (holding Larry, who is 2); Genevieve Stark (age 14); Sharlynn Nelson (12); Aunt Ruth (holding Joyce Benander, 1); Annamarie Benander (or "Mim", as everyone still calls her, 12); and Carole Benander (14).

At front: Curt Nelson (6), Anita Nelson (8), Joan Benander (6, in the engineer's hat), and me (4). All the kids are cousins, by the way.

It's a birthday party, and from the single candle on the cake, we can assume that cousin Joyce has turned one year old.

Let's go clockwise around the table starting at 12 o'clock: Carole, Genevieve, Mim, Sharlynn, Curt, Anita, Lar (who appears especially fascinated by Anita), Joan, Paul, and Joyce in the high chair.  Not exactly the smiling-est group you've ever seen.

Compare the bold-patterned wallpaper with that in the dining room (2nd photo) of the First English Lutheran Church parsonage.

The next two photos show Larry and me taking turns riding a pedal fire truck.  (Look at what these toys are selling for now!)

Although I seem to be managing quite well, I have a dim memory of feeling disappointed that, at 4 years old, I was already too big for this type of toy.

Chapter 16: Ministers' Wives

At first, I concluded that these women comprised the Ladies' Aid organization at First English Lutheran Church.  Then I recognized the woman wearing the gold butterfly pin in the front row.  That's Gladys Hasselquist, husband of Gene, who was the pastor at St. John's English Lutheran Church in Great Falls.  With both couples having three children about the same age, the Nelsons and Hasselquists became very good friends.  I assume then that this is a meeting of the Great Falls Ministerial Association wives that Mom hosted.  (The 1956 Great Falls telephone directory lists 6 Lutheran churches in the yellow pages, which leads me to believe that this is an ecumenical group.)

An underexposed group shot taken in the living room, which answers the question that popped into my mind when studying the above photo?    At what time of day did this event take place?  It's light outside.

Chapter 15: Scenes Along the Missouri River

In 1954, all I knew of Black Eagle, a small community located across the 9th and 15th street bridges from Great Falls, was the towering smokestack of the Anaconda Company.  Mom and Dad routinely referred to the sprawling industrial complex as "the smelter".  It wasn't until many years later when I became aware of the diversity of Black Eagle's resident.

Here's an excerpt from an article published in the September 18, 2002, Great Falls Tribune.

Black Eagle, the little community north of Great Falls, grew up in the shadow of the Big Stack, and its heyday rose and fell with the fortunes of the Anaconda Mining Co.

Situated above the Missouri River and the falls, which were named for a black eagle’s nest on an island below the falls, the community became a melting pot of the area’s immigrants.

In fact, Black Eagle was home to immigrants of as many as 20 nationalities who proudly proclaimed they had come to America in the late 1800s and early 1900s to find a better life. The European mix came from Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Italy, Greece, Norway and countries in between. Most worked at the Anaconda Co. metals refinery that was part of their neighborhood.

A platted addition, called Little Chicago because of its industrial and ethnic nature, later was assimilated into Black Eagle. Little Milwaukee was there, too, but the area was never platted. Residents of Little Milwaukee had to move to Little Chicago when the company expanded the plant.

Residents were famous for their camaraderie. Black Eagle was considered one big neighborhood with a diversity of characters whose common bond was loyalty to their families, friends, community and the company — the Anaconda Co. — where most of them worked.

Larry and I appear fascinated as we watch the water of the Missouri River rush over the falls just east of the Black Eagle Dam.   The original dam and powerhouse were construction in 1890.  What we're looking at is its mid-1920s replacement.

I'm guessing that the picture above was taken along what is now River's Edge Trail, which in 1954 was 35 years before the start of its planning phase.    Although it looks to be taken from a great height, the picture below, a more distant view of the Black Eagle Dam, 733 feet across, is one of many panoramic vistas along River Road North.  (Note the power lines cross the river.)  From this point, you can understand why our first visit to Niagara Falls didn't immediately knock our socks off.   A different story, though, once we reached the one of the overlooks where the water is almost close enough to touch.

In the upper left hand corner of the photo below, you see the faint outline of the 15th Street Bridge.  The "Big Stack" is out of picture to the right.

Rainbow Dam (below), constructed in 1910, is located about two miles northeast of Giant Springs, which made it a natural follow-up destination on our family drives.  "Going for a ride" remained a popular family activity until the mid-1960s, or, more specifically, until I, the oldest of four children, got my driver's license.  Then began the relentless requests to use the family car.  (And we were always a one-car household.)

I suspect this is a view of an inhospitable curve of the Missouri River looking east from Rainbow Dam.