Chapter 39: A Visit to Dad's Relatives

The distance between Great Falls, Montana to Dad's hometown of Rockford, Illinois, is 1200 miles.  In July of 1955, Dad drove this entire distance by himself.  Uncomplainingly, as far as I can recall.  Mom didn't get her driver's license until two years after we moved to Warren.  Dad must have really loved to drive.

I have always been enamored of this photo of my grandparents, or Ma and Pa, as their seven children always called them*.   In most of the photos I have of them, they look so stern and forbidding, someone that a 5-year-old would prefer to avoid.  Even a 5-year-old grandson.

*In the Nelson and Luthgren families, the women were usually named first:  Ma and Pa, Grandma and Grandpa, Mom and Dad, Signe and George, Ruth and Rudy, Gen and Ed, Millie and Jerry, Edna and Walter.  On the flip side, I have no idea why these couples were the exceptions:  Ford and June, Frank and Stella, Min and Lila.

I was never completely comfortable around Grandpa Nelson.  He spoke English with a thick accent.  When he spoke to me, I'd turn to one of my parents, my face frozen in a mask of confusion, silently pleading for a translation.  My cousins never had this problem, but then they saw him on a much more frequent basis.  If not weekly, certainly once or twice a month at a minimum.  I wasn't even on a once-a-year schedule.

One of the few family portraits from this period of my life.  Larry and Barb look bored, Barb more interested in sucking her thumb, a habit she had developed by this time, and one that would continue well into grade school.  The photo was taken in Iron Mountain, Michigan, where Dad's brother-in-law, Frank Carlson, husband to his sister Stella, was pastor of First Lutheran Church.   Both Frank and Stella were prone to haughty, holier-than-thou airs when practicing their religion  Once we were older, the joke among the Nelson children was that Frank's prayers were as long as Dad's sermons.  Frank could be insufferably long-winded.

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.