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.