Memories by Muriel (Anderson) Simonson

Mother's day, (2008)

Every  May,  mothers are honored on a special date. This year, 2008, Mother's Day is May 11th.  In Minnesota, that nearly always is also Fishing  Opening week-end, as it is this year also. Recently I attended the memorial service of a dear lady who was a great mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and day care provider.  A statement in her obituary was "the longest and best job was that of a homemaker". I also have been given the blessing and privilege of being a wife, mother, grandmother and homemaker. I never call myself a "HOUSEWIFE"  which was the familiar title for a number of years. I did not marry the house!!   In the Bible, in Proverbs 31, beginning with verse 10, we read of the "excellent" or "virtuous"  woman, a list of attributes that no one person could live up to.  This poem expresses the praises of a good wife, extols the honor and dignity of women, and emphasizes the importance of mothers. She is definitely not a selfish woman, but a caring, loving woman.  Read it for yourself. I am thankful that I knew my maternal grandmother who passed away when I was ten.  She was orphaned in Sweden as a young girl and the children were split up to be raised by family members. Grandma immigrated to the Tower/Soudan area in this country as a teen-age young woman, earned a living for herself, met and married a young Swedish immigrant. They homesteaded in what was to become the Leander community near Cook and worked hard. She gave birth to ten children, with the aid of mid-wives, no doctors or hospitals!  She mourned the deaths of two sons, one a 17 year old, the other an adult man with a family. I never knew my paternal grandmother, also a Swedish immigrant, as she died before my parents were married. I also knew my husband's maternal grandmother. She was a little tiny woman, under five feet tall who, through circumstances, was on her own from her early teens. She married young and  raised 11 children, raised big gardens and was a good cook. My husband claims she made the best sugar cookies you could find. He told our kids they could sit in the sun for a week and still be soft. The kids theory is that with so many kids and grandkids around the fresh cookies were devoured so quickly that they didn't have time to get stale or dry.    My mother passed away in 1969 when our children were little. I am thankful for the years I had her and that she lived to see all of her grandchildren.  This year I am the oldest grandmother in our immediate family.  Don's mother passed away in September at the age of 89.  She was an important part of my life for 50 years.  Her family was her life.  Her first two grandchildren born were girls!  She had raised four sons so she really enjoyed sewing dresses and combing little girl's hair.  We can appreciate and are thankful to these women in our lives - for their love and concern for us as well as their Christian example and for teaching us from God's Word and of His love.  Our daughters and daughter-in-law are also wonderful, loving mothers to our 11 grandchildren. Happy Mother's Day, Ladies!

Don's tribute to our mothers

The article below was sent to me by my cousin, Avis Anderson Oldenburger.  Her father, Rev. Axel A. Anderson and my dad, Peter Anderson were brothers. They  were born in Sweden, immigrated as young boys with their parents, two other brothers and two sisters, settling in Isanti County, Minnesota.  Thanks, Avis, for sending the Easter information .

THE DATES OF EASTER Easter is always the 1st Sunday after the 1st full moon after the Spring Equinox (which is March 20). This dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that Hebrew people used to identify Passover, which is why it moves around on our Roman calendar.   Based on the above, Easter can actually be one day earlier (March 22) than it will be this year (2008) but that is pretty rare.   This year is the earliest Easter any of us will ever see the rest of our lives! And only the most elderly of our population have ever seen it this early previously (95 years old or above!)  And none of us have ever, or will ever, see it a day earlier! Here are the facts:   1) The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2228 (220 years from now). The last time it was this early was 1913 (so if you're 95 or older, you are the only ones that were around for that!). 2) The next time it will be a day earlier, March 22, will be in the year 2285 (277 years from now). The last time it was on March 22 was 1818. So, no one alive today has or will ever see it any earlier than that.

A web site about the dates of Easter

CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS BRING MEMORIES

As we decorated our Christmas tree many of the ornaments brought back memories of days gone by and special people in our lives. Some of the special people are no longer with us. I thought of my mother, Hulda Anderson, who has been gone for so many years as I hung the "icicles" on the tree.  The hand-made bead ornaments my aunt Dill Edblom gave us brought fond memories of her and Uncle Dick and all the great times we had together AND all her great cookies!  We thought of our good friends, Rose and Urban Rent as I hung her crocheted bells and stars on the tree. Her poticas were so good. The beautiful crocheted stars that Don's mom, Norma Simonson, made and gave us as a Christmas gift a number of years ago are especially meaningful this year as it is our first year without her. There are a number of other items that also have special meaning. Some of them are from our children and grandchildren. Some are from some of the children who were in my Sunday school class or Club Kids, and are all grown up now.  The boy who was our next-door neighbor is a grown married man. We have a greeting on the tree sent to us by a young friend who was serving time in prison. He is now back home, working and doing well.  There are ornaments we have purchased over the years as mementos of our travel, as well as some things that I made many years ago.  The lights on the tree remind us of Christ and His great love.  When our oldest daughter, Carol, was in high school she walked to our neighbor, Adelaide Hyppa's home for a weekly ceramics class. One winter she painted a nativity set which includes three shepherds, the wise men, camels, other animals, Mary, Joseph, an angel and the important piece to remember is the baby Jesus in the manger. We set this up every December to help us and our visitors keep in mind why we celebrate Christmas. Some people decorate their tree and home with a special theme.  Our house is decorated with "memories".

REMEMBERING MY BROTHER, HARTLEY

I have known Hartley for over 69 years as he IS my big brother.  I am sure that after his having Mom and Dad to himself for nearly eight years, it was not that much fun for him to have this baby sister taking the attention a little baby requires.  I know there were times when it must have annoyed him to have that bratty little sister wanting to tag along.  He did like to tease at times, though. Growing up on a farm meant much work for everyone. When the Alaska Highway was being built, Dad was gone working in Dawson Creek for several weeks during the winter. I think Hartley was only 13 or 14 years at the time. It was cold, lots of snow. The stove-wood supply ran low so he went out to the woods to bring in what he could find to feed the cook-stove and the heating-stove to keep us warm. He also helped Mom with the cows as they had to be led out to the water pump for their daily water needs. It was not an electric pump either, you had to pump the handle up and down to supply the many gallons the animals required. I am sure he must have helped Mom bring in the hay and shovel out the manure too.  The  cows had to be milked also, but I  think Mom did that. Summer time was haying time - we all worked! Hartley recently told me Dad first had a "Molly" which I don't remember.  Later we had a "Joker". I learned to drive in the hayfield  at an early age on that "Joker". I am sure Hartley did too. Later Dad acquired a tractor. When he was old enough to drive Dad's milk truck he occasionally drove the route to pick up milk from the farmers and deliver the milk to the creamery in Cook. It was not a bulk tank like creameries use now. Hartley was strong and could pick up two ten gallon cans full of milk at a time, one in each hand and lift them into Dad's insulated milk truck box. As all siblings do, we had our moments growing up! I remember the time he was teasing me and we ended up tipping the kitchen table.  For some reason Mom didn't like that!  I also remember the time Mom and Dad were gone for the evening and he decided to make fudge. It did not want to get firm so he set the dish outside in the snow. Our dog, Buster, ate it! After he graduated from high school he worked on highway construction, as a carpenter's helper when they were building housing in Babbitt and Hoyt Lakes and in the mines, helping out on the farm at the same time as well. He was drafted into the army during the  Korean War receiving his basic training at Fort Knox, Kentucky.  Mom, Dad and I  made a trip down to visit him.  He was sent to serve in Germany. During the time he was there, Dad had a serious heart attack which required him to be hospitalized for quite some time. Hartley was given a short emergency leave to come home to  help with the farm and milk route.   He then served the remainder of his time in the States, at Fort Sheridan, Illinois, if I remember correctly. After he served his  military time and was discharged, he returned home, worked out at various jobs and helped on the farm.  That was when he made the decision to attend college and become a teacher.  In many ways we had an ideal bringing up. There was not an abundance of money, but we were loved by our parents and spent much time with our extended family. Our maternal grandparents, great aunts and uncles, aunts and uncles and many cousins lived in the area. Church, God's Word and the message of God's love were a big part of our childhood and teen years. We had many good Christian role-models who were not only our Sunday School teachers, church leaders, neighbors, but also good friends. We both thanked the Lord for our Christian Heritage and being taught the need for personal relationships with Christ. It seems that we had  more in common as we grew up and had our own families. I may be younger, but I got married a few months before he did, also had my first child a few months before his first child. Our children were much the same age which was enjoyable when we got together.  We lost both of our parents during the time our families were growing. A few years later his dear Nancy was called home to heaven. He had his children and grandchildren whom he loved dearly. He was very lonely without his dear Nancy.  A couple of years later he met and married Dorothy.  Soon her children and grandchildren became a part of his family. We  met Hartley and Dorothy in Duluth for lunch on September 10th. I was leaving soon and we wanted to get together as they were hoping to head back to their winter home in Florida. As we have gotten older, health problems were with all of us, we always thought that we might not see one another again this side of heaven. It just seems as if it came too soon, too suddenly.  I am far from home in New Zealand doing "Grandma Stuff" visiting a new granddaughter and her three sisters and their parents.  I will not be there to say.. "Good-bye" to my only sibling and be together with family and friends physically, but my heart, love and prayers are there. Good-bye, Big Brother. See you in Heaven. Your Little Sister, Muriel

FATHER’S DAY   Happy Father’s Day to all dads!  It is interesting that they are now talking about fathers being important in the lives of their children. The differences of the way men/fathers think, the things they do, compared to what women/mothers bring to the rearing and lives of their children.  A few years ago for a time dads were considered by some to be not that important.  A lot of us knew differently, didn’t we! My own father was born in Sweden in 1896, the youngest of seven children.  When he was seven years of age the family immigrated to the U.S. A. aboard the liner, Cymeric, arriving at the Boston Harbor.  They continued on their travels arriving in Isanti County in Minnesota where they settled.  Many other Swedish immigrants, a number of them were relatives, settled there also.  He grew up on the family farm. His father died not very many years later when Dad was a teen-ager and his mother when he was in his early 20’s. As a young man he worked out west for a time driving a large team of horses in the harvest fields.  He later moved to Duluth (Minnesota) where his brother was a pastor. He worked in various manufacturing plants. He and Mom met in Duluth and lived there a few years following their marriage until the depression forced them to move to Northern Minnesota near Mom’s family.  They built a small farm, including a log house, and worked hard. I remember riding horsey sitting on his long legs as he recited a Swedish rhyme about a little girl riding on a horse. There was much hard work to provide for a family in hard financial times. He purchased a “milk truck” with which he picked up milk in the farmer’s ten gallon cans and brought them to the local creamery.  Many people on his route were Finnish so he learned the language to be able to converse with them.  I realized one day that he  spoke three languages; his native Swedish, English and some Finnish.  Not bad for a man with a fifth grade education.  However, he never stopped learning.  He  read the newspapers and if he did not know the meaning of a word, he looked it up in the dictionary.  He loved to study and read God’s Word also. My brother and I learned to work at young ages, a love and respect for God, and our need to know Jesus as our Savior was imparted to us by Mom and Dad when we were young. Church and family were very big parts of our lives. Thanks! Yes, fathers are important  My late father-in-law was also a God-fearing man and caring husband and father. My kids and grandkids have a great dad and grandpa. Our son and two sons-in-law are great dads also.   All of you  guys out there, realize you are important. Kids out there, love and respect your fathers! My father passed away on May 5, 1961 at the age of 64 when I was 23 years old.  Don's father passed away on June 24, 1989 at the age of 78. Happy Father’s Day!    My Father and Mother in front of the log house they built with the timber from their farm.

MOTHER’S DAY MEMORIES AND REFLECTIONS

Another special day has rolled around when we remember mothers. I remember when we were kids that people would wear a carnation on Mother's Day honoring their mother; a white one if their mother had passed away, a red one if their mother was still alive.    My own mother has been gone from my life for 38 years.  I was very blessed to have a Godly, loving, patient, hard-working mother. She was not only a good mother to my brother and me, but also a good wife to Dad.  She taught me much about life during my growing-up years, many of them by example, others by verbal instruction.  She did not have an easy life in many ways.  Her parents were pioneer homesteaders who were Swedish immigrants.  Being third in age in a family of 10 children, she learned to work early in life. She and Dad were married in 1926, shortly before the great depression.  She made do with what they had. When they were in their 50’s Dad suffered a serious heart attack which caused his health to be  poor from then until he passed away at the age of 64.  During the years that he suffered hospitalization and recovery from time to time, she kept the small farm going with much hard work and few complaints.  Thanks, Mom, for life and for all I learned from you. My mother-in-law is still with us although not in the best of health  which necessitates her living in a nursing home a few miles from us.  She was also a Godly, loving, patient, hard-working wife and mother. I am thankful to her for raising the fine son who has been my husband now for 50 years (coming up in June). She also taught me much and was very helpful to me when I was busy having and we were busy raising our five children.  I have been fortunate to have her as part of my life for all these years.  My in-laws have been a part of my life many years longer than my own parents.  Both of our mothers went through the loneliness of widowhood. Both of them  have been wonderful grandmothers  to all our kids. I am thankful for the opportunity and responsibility I have of being a wife, mother and grandmother. Parenthood  DOES NOT last for 18 years, but for an entire lifetime.  Grandparenthood is just one of the rewards of parenthood. We also have three other lovely mothers in our immediate family.  Both of our daughters and our daughter-in-law are loving, caring mothers.  Our grandchildren span ages of 25 years old to the youngest to be born in September.   We have six granddaughters, four grandsons, and the Lord knows if the new baby will be a boy or a girl.  Thanks, Carol, Becky, Michele for being such good mothers to these precious lives God has given you to love, nurture  and mold. All of our “kids” and “grandkids” continue to be in our prayers. ALL MOTHERS; enjoy your children!  They grow up so quickly and we get “old” so quickly.  Keep the important issues in life in your focus.  The most perfectly decorated, clean, dust-free  house, fancy meals, the newest fashions and fads are not as important as time, love, understanding, discipline, and life lessons are in their lives.  God’s Word is still a great instruction book.      HAPPY MOTHER’S  DAY

VALENTINES  It is that time again - the time when we give our special expressions of love to those closest to us with cards, gifts, phone calls, special meals and our time. As I created valentines to mail to my five youngest grandchildren, I thought of the many valentines’ I have seen, received or given through the years. I remembered that when we were in grade school a special group art project each year was the creation of a "valentine box" we prepared where we deposited the cards we brought for our fellow classmates. It seems our teacher would usually send home a list of names of all the kids in our class to insure that the few more favorite friends or popular kids would not receive a large number of cards and those who were not as popular would feel left out. We would also usually make a special card to bring home to our parents.   I have saved a number of cards and notes over the years from childhood until now. Some were from my boyfriend who became my husband and best friend - some from him as through our married years, some from our children and grandchildren.   I have a box of my mother's special cards, letters and other memorabilia. Among them I found a couple of valentines with the postmark of 1912, when my mother would have been 16 years old. One was from a friend, Sophie, the other one only says "forget me not" - with no signature. I wonder who that romantic person was!   As we think of love we think of the new babies, our children and grandchildren, God gives us to raise and nurture, we think of how natural the love comes for them. Other loves come to us more gradually as we "fall in love" and marry and it grows and changes with the years. There is the friendship-love that develops. Sometimes with people we may not necessarily understand or even like when we first know them, but we discover common interest and concern.   Then there is the most important and complete love of all - the Love of God - who sent. His only Son, Jesus, to provide a sacrifice for our sins that we might have eternal life as well as abundant life on earth. John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes on Him shall not perish, but will have eternal life."   Enjoy Valentine's Day, but let us all display our love daily, not just with the grand gestures, but with the "little" things of life- kindnesses, helping one another, doing because we want to, not because it is e expected of us or because we are obligated. Cherish the loved ones in your life, remember the ones who are lonely and going through the heartache of loss. Enjoy the chocolates!!

CHRISTMAS CARDS, LETTERS AND PHOTOS

It is time to take down and store away the  tree and all the decorations of Christmas, the Christmas cookies and other goodies and traditional foods are all eaten, (we did not have any lutefisk this year), extra laundry washed, special Christmas dishes  back in their storage places in the cupboards and Christmas gifts put to use and enjoyed.  Now is the time to look through the Christmas cards again, look at and enjoy the lovely photos and reread the Christmas letters. It is good to keep in touch with the relatives and old and new friends at this time of year.  We remember those who are no longer with us or are unable to send notes as they did through the years.  E-mail and digital photos, phone calls also add to our “keep-in-touch” abilities. The personalities and styles of the various  people show through in the cards and greetings they send out.  Some are simple, some more elaborate, some are hand-made.   Each year as we are brought up to date on events, we note the happy times of births, marriages, celebrations of special milestones in peoples, lives, as well as the sad and difficult times of illness, deaths, etc.  In some cases there are  new addresses to jot down as people change their residences, sometimes locating great distances to new towns, states, countries, other times just short moves to smaller or larger homes.   The photos are always enjoyable as we can visualize how children are added to families, how quickly they grow from year to year and how families change in the process of living life.  They will be added to the last page of our 2006 scrap-book/photo album.  By what method  and whenever the greetings arrive we enjoy them all.  This year our first card and note arrived in early November and the last one (for now) arrived in 2007.  I did not get ours out until into the first  week of January either.  We do have friends who generally send their greetings closer to Easter. We will look forward to hearing from them  as well.  Let us all keep the joy of the Christmas season and the “Reason for the season” in our hearts and lives each day the Lord gives us on earth in 2007 and beyond.  We look forward to hearing from each one again.

When we were visiting with my brother, Hartley the other day , I mentioned that I had baked date bars. He reminded me of the good  date cookies Mom  made and how  much he liked them.  I should dig up her recipe and try to make them one of these days.  I  remember her baking them along with a number of other tasty things to mail to him when he was in the service.  We also  talked of other food she prepared that we enjoyed..  This discussion  brought to  my mind that I have some of her recipes out of her "Receipt Book".

She did a great deal of canning from the garden and also fruit which she purchased at the  grocery store. Peaches, pears, plumbs, apricots.  I thought it was great fun to help her.  I didn't realize it was actually work! It must have been a great deal of work for her as we would need to peel and halve the fruit before cooking it and placing it into the scalded quart or pint jars and process them in the boiling water.  It sure was fun to slip the peels from the peaches and tomatoes  with your hands when you had them in the hot water for just the right amount of time.  I also remember chopping a lot of rhubarb!  Picking and shelling peas, cutting green beans and all the rest that went with it took many days and hours of work.  The years the blueberry yields were good we picked (I never liked to do that)  there were also berries to can and jams to make. I don't remember her ever making me clean the mess that must have resulted at  times in the kitchen on the counter and floors.  I probably went outdoors to play with the kittens and check out the calves in our barn yard. 

Then there were all the good pickles from the cucumbers from the garden.  Dill pickles, bread and butter pickles, and relishes.  She made an "end of the garden relish " that was delicious as well as watermelon pickles (from the white part of the rind). Remember them?  She also made delicious crab apple pickles and beet pickles.

Growing up on the farm we never went hungry  as Dad always raised a calf for our winter meat., We always had milk.  Mom seemed to be in charge of the chickens and eggs.  The grocery store was not a daily, not even weekly event  as the pantry was full.

I am including a few recipes below from Mom's book.  She always wrote the name of the person or place where she obtained  her recipes as well as the date.

JELLY ROLL
4 eggs, pinch of salt.
2/3 cups sugar
¾ spoon baking powder.
Put  bowl in hot water and beat until good and creamy.
Then take out of water and put in 3/4 cup sifted
flour and 2 tablespoons milk, 1  teaspoon vanilla.
Fold in ½ teaspoon of butter if desired to make edges
soft. 

 
Jan. 19, 1936  Mrs. John Edblom  (This was her mother, notice how formal it was?)

Apparently you were supposed to know or remember the size of the pan, temperature and length of time to bake this cake.

I think I will include some of mom's pickle recipes below.

TOMATO JAM
8 pounds tomatoes   (I think these were green
tomatoes)
4 cups sugar
1 cup vinegar
1 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon cinnamon.
Boil this for 3 hours in a kettle but be careful; not
to burn. Simmer off  some of the juice.
Mrs. Gust Edblom.  (Mom's aunt, Arvid Edblom's mother)

BREAD AND BUTTER PICKLES
Slice equal part of cucumber medium size, green
tomatoes, and small onions and put each in a separate
dish and sprinkle with salt, and let stand over nite.
In the morning squeeze out good and add it to the
following.  Boil vinegar and brown sugar to make good
and sweet. Add ½ teaspoon  celery seed, pinch of
tumeric, ½ teaspoon of mustard seed.  Add the pickles
to the vinegar and just bring to a boil or so they get
heated thru and seal in tight jars.  

Mrs. M. Johnson  (Could be Mrs. Martin Johnson, Byron Leander's aunt, or Mrs. Magnus Johnson, my aunt.)

Now for the END OF GARDEN RELISH
Cook separately
3 cups diced string beans,  3 cups diced carrots and
2 cups finely diced celery

Raw vegetables : 2 cups diced onions, 2 cups diced
green tomatoes, 2 cups diced green peppers and 2  cups
unpeeled cucumbers.    Let raw ingredients stand over
night in a brine of 1 quart water and ½ cup salt.
Drain in the morning .

Take 4 cups vinegar, 4 cups sugar, 2 teaspoons mustard
seed, add raw vegetables and  boil 3 minutes.
Add cooked vegetables, bring to a boil and seal. 

Nancy Skoglund of Cambridge MN (Dad grew up in the Cambridge area)

I do remember that  Mom used a food grinder with a coarse blade instead of chopping all the vegetables by hand.

So much for Muriel's memories of the canning chores. When you go to the grocery store to purchase your fresh produce, canned or  frozen fruits, vegetables, soups, chicken all cut up so you don't have to butcher it, meals all prepared to put into the microwave or oven, remember all the hard work. 

 
Whether our food is home-grown or store-bought ready to eat, when we sit down at our tables to partake of  the bounty we are privileged to enjoy, let us all remember to be thankful.