Chapter 28: Around the House

Popcorn time!  But we weren't watching The Lone Ranger.  In 1955, at least at the time this photo was taken, the Nelson family didn't own a TV set.  However, we could have been listening to the radio version of the program

The bookcase behind an angelically smiling Larry is one that remained in the family for many years, as did the books, although I'd ventured that few of them were ever read cover to cover.  Mom and Dad must have belonged to a book club for a period of time.

Larry and I appear very excited about the family's latest purchase, a suitcase, which our billowy pajamas leave mostly obscured.  I must be wearing a bathrobe that Mom made.  No offense to her sewing skills  -- which were quite good; she made most of her own and Barb's clothes -- but it doesn't looks like anything sold in stores.

I have no idea what Barb is noshing on.  A zweibeck?  One of Mom's molasses cookies?  Behind Barb is the entry hallway, which looks much narrower than what my 5 year old's brain remembers.

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.