Ice Skating and Blue Laws

For all of us who enjoyed ice skating, this one is for you. The picture is of the river in Thief River Falls. In studying the picture, we can see the First Street bridge in the back ground. We can see that one of the river boats is moored in the center on the opposite shore. This was probably taken from the Soo Line Tracks above. We can see a large area has been cleared. Most of the people skating appear to be males. It isn't like going to the Arena and being one of the first to make an oval on the freshly topped ice. One of many of our precious memories is waiting for Chuck to say 'okay' and zipping on a clean, flat surface. The Arena was a gathering place for skaters on a Sunday afternoon when the Thieves weren't playing hockey. It was a place to go on Friday nights and watch the Prowlers while we banged on the boards with cow bells and cheered our team along. It was where prominent citizen's stood on the board seats next to the wall in their storm coats and beaver like hats and clapped their fur lined gloves together as a way of sponsoring the home teams. Between the twenty minute hockey periods, we would drink burnt cocoa served by Bonnie Dicken's mother made on a big stove in the corner.



The Arena seems to be empty now, I wonder if the skate blade cuts in the floor of the bathrooms are still there as are the ghosts of autographs on the walls. It was been replaced by the Huck Olson Center which has been over shadowed by the Ralph Englestad Arena which seats greater than 11,000 people. Can people simply skate there or is it booked with groups during the winter season?



In the fifties, Thief River Falls had several outdoor rinks. At the site of the old Central School on North Fourth and LaBree, there was a rink and a warming house. The ice was poured in the early winter and as the season went on, it got harder to skate on. Northrop, Knox, and Old Washington had rinks. Frank went to Catholic School but played neighborhood hockey at the rink at Knox. Northrop School, now the site of an apartment building, had a rink. I remember skating on the ice at Washington. All of the outdoor rinks were subject to snowfalls. Although they were cleared, the ice was only perfect once; right after the water froze. The river, as pictured, frozen naturally with ridges. If you wished to skate, you put up with the roughness.

Yet, back in the mid teens, the idea of an outdoor skating rink was founded, it would charge for admission. The city of Thief River Falls raised its head as did the religious leaders of the day. The idea ran smack dab into the Blue Law.


Perhaps we need to look at just what a blue law is. It is a type of law designed to enforce moral standards, particularly the observance of Sunday as a day of worship or rest. Most have been repealed or are simply unenforced, although prohibitions on the sale of alcoholic beverages and occasionally almost all commerce, on Sundays are still enforced in many areas. Blue Laws often prohibit an activity only during certain hours and there are usually exceptions to the prohibition of commerce, like grocery and drug stores. In some places blue laws may be enforced due to religious principles, but others are retained as a matter of tradition or out of convenience. The paper they are written on is NOT blue; it may have been named that because of the rigid beliefs of the blue noses.


Check out the skate law in Thief River Falls in 1916.

APRIL 1916
There is a New Amusement law. Pool rooms open only five hours on Sunday. Bowling alleys and skating rinks to be closed on Sundays

Skating rink for city assured by council
Money to be raised by sale of season tickets

JANUARY 1917
Skating rink to open Sunday, January 7. The ice is located at the corner of Duluth and third and there is a warming house. A season ticket for the coming season will cost $2.50, 15 cents if bought in singles. Children under 14 are free but may not skate after 9 P. The rink will be open from 7:30 to 10 PM.

No hockey playing will be permitted on the rink at any time that the public is using the ice.

Side by side article read:

Rink cannot open and charge a fee on Sunday. City ordinance #150 prohibits skating on Sunday. License also needed to run rink. Penalty for violation is $10-$100 plus or fine of 90 days in jail.

1 11 1917 City passes ordinance to allow skating on Sunday


I know someone is going to raise a fit about movies anytime when they read this. It is dark in the theater, something can happen!!! OH MY!!! No dancing either, people stand too close and it may suggest something else. OH DEAR!!! I know someone who got dressed for church and went out and shot crows until it was time to leave for church, although some states had blue laws against hunting until recently. But ice skating? How can that be morally wrong?

Tie those ice or hockey skates together, put them around your neck and at least in memory, skate as fast and far as you can without Chuck blowing the whistle at you for speeding.

e

The Emil Mellem Family

The picture above is of Emil and Hilda Mellem and their children, Enid, Harlan, and Ervin. Ervin is the oldest, born in 1925, Enid in 1929, and Harlan in 1931.

Emil, 1889, the father was a brother to Nina Anderson Bloom, 1891. Hilda, his wife, was born in 1895. Emil was the eighth child out of twelve born to Pauline and Thorinus Mellem.

Who is this Enid? Why is she being blogged? What does she know that we need to know? Enid is now 78. She has been a big help in identifying the women in the Mellem picture of 1934. When I wrote the “It’s no Bull” blog, she wrote to tell me they did not have a bull on their farm.

She and her husband, Rolland, lived on the Sande farm as third generation small grain and dairy farmers. We lived across the road from their farm. I used bike over with cream cans on the arms of my bicycle to get raw milk for my family, mostly brother Greg who was, as mother said, “a calf”. I didn’t like milk but I liked the Sande family.

I think I would know Enid anywhere. At the time of the farm, she was a mother of four children and helped on the farm. She had beautiful red hair and a great smile. I could understand why my grand parents were so fond of her. In reading old papers, I saw that she did spend time with them. I wondered if that was common. We do know that the Emil Mellem’s and the Benhard Ranum’s lived very close to each other~~One might say they lived on the same side of the swamp.

Enid and Rolland had four children. Gary, the one that liked to grab the cows tails, Lynell, a cute, perky red head, Gail, and Carol The children have had children, and by now, perhaps they have had children. At the time of Rolland’s death their were 15 grand children and 5 great grandchildren.

Evrin, her older brother and his wife, Donna, (nee Hruby), came to visit us in the early fifties when their son, Leslie was little. Leslie couldn’t have been more than 2 at the time and liked playing with trucks on the carpet free floor in the living room. At the time, it was apparent that Ervin and Daddy were close. It is possible that at eleven years difference, Daddy was part of Ervin’s learning curve. I do remember that Ervin was living in Le Sueur working for Green Giant. I liked to imagine he was the poster boy for the HO HO HO commercial. Leslie died in May of 2001.

I caught up with Harlan at the all school reunion a few years ago. He is a darling man with boyish charm. He is highly lovable and is supposed to be the one in the family that knows the genealogy. What do you expect from someone born on Valentine’s Day? Unfortunately, he isn’t great at answering his emails.

What do the papers say about Emil and Hilda and their family?

April 1917
Rosewood News Emil Mellem was home from Langdon, ND last Sunday to bid good bye to his friends and relatives before leaving for the military training camp, where he has enlisted as a carpenter.
Rosewood News Nina Anderson received a letter from her brother, Emil Mellem, that morning stating that he had arrived safely in France. Mr. Mellem enlisted last summer.

1922
Rosewood News Emil Mellem, Mrs. Carl Bloom, Mrs. Peter Mellem and Mrs. Hilda Mellem motored to Strathcona last Saturday and from that place on Sunday in company with the Backlund family on a blue berry expedition.

Emil Mellem has been chosen as entertainment committee head for the Farmer's Club

May 1924
Rosewood News There are three new buildings under construction this week. The construction work on the basement for the T Mellem home which will be moved from the present location south of town to the village has began and the work will be continued under the supervision of Gust Opseth, contractor until complete. Work on the basement for the new 24 x 23 frame two story residences for Emil Mellem on his farm adjoining town the east was also begun by contractor, Benhard Ranum. Ranum will be rushed to completion. Benny Ranum is also remodeling his home with an above ground addition and a full 11 x24 basement commencing work the last week.

August 1924
Rosewood News Emil Mellem from Red Lake Falls and Miss Hilda Hanson from Angus were over Sunday visitors at the T Mellem home with other relatives

December 25, 1924
Hanson Mellem Wedding
Emil Mellem of this place and Miss Hanson whose home is in the town of Numedal were united in marriage at the home of Rev. W Drotts at Viking last Monday afternoon and were attended by Mr. and Mrs. WH Hauglid of Numedal, Mrs. Hauglid being a sister of the bride. The newlyweds will make their home at Rosewood where Mr. Mellem has recently completed a new residence on his farm southwest of the town. The community’s congratulations are extended.

July 1925 Rosewood News Emil Mellem is doing road construction near Crookston

October 1925Rosewood News A baby boy was born to Mr. and Mrs. Emil Mellem in the Warren hospital.

March 1926
Rosewood News Emil Mellem has been in the hospital in Warren for two weeks with a disease of the skin.

February 1942
A group of young people gathered at the Lloyd Anderson home Saturday evening for string band practice. The following attended: Gene, Betty, and Dorothy Wood, Ervin and Enid Mellem, Chester and Fern Mellem, Oliver and Ilene Rye, Inez Walter Hellquist, Harlan Mellem, Lloyd Rafteseth, and Kermit, Juliette, and Vernon Ranstrom.

Rosewood News Emil Mellem left o Friday for Sherack where he will be employed on road work

1940
1 18 Mr. And Mrs. Lloyd Anderson had visitors last week. Emil Mellem, Enid, and Harlan

March 21, 1940
Ervin Mellem entertained a number of friends at his home Saturday evening. Games were played and at midnight, Mrs. Emil Mellem served a delicious lunch to the group. Those attending were; Adrian, Alton, and Audrey Nelson, Chester Engelstad, Ina and Elna Crown, Alice, Fern, and Chester Mellem, Oliver Rye, Arnold Harvey and Donald Hanson, Wallace and Mavis Anderson, Vernon and Joyce Mellem, Helen, Jean, Betty, and Dorothy Wood, Florence and Victor Hellquist, Gene Hallin, Leona Asasby (sp), LaVerne Bloom, Clifford Rye, Bob Wood and Mrs. Emma Hanson.

May 23 1940
Enid Mellem motors with Benhard Ranum’s to Warren to visit with Mr. And Mrs. Otto Ranum, they also went to Stephen.

February 1942

A group of young people gathered at the Lloyd Anderson home Saturday evening for string band practice. The following attended: Gene, Betty, and Dorothy Wood, Ervin and Enid Mellem, Chester and Fern Mellem, Oliver and Ilene Rye, Inez Walter Hellquist, Harlan Mellem, Lloyd Rafteseth, and Kermit, Juliette, and Vernon Rafteseth.

February 1948
Mrs. Roland Sande and infant son Gary left for their home at Erskine Saturday after having spent a few days with Mrs. Sande’s parents, Mr. And Mrs. Emil Mellem

AprilL 194804 19 Mrs. Carl Bloom was moved back to her house after spending the winter months at the Emil Mellem home

It appears that Nina and Emil were close. She received letters from him while he was in the service. Nina lived with them in the winter while her husband, Carl Bloom was in the san in Thief River Falls.

Emil (4-16-1889 to 1-26-1971) and Hilda (1-6-1895 to 5-29-1988) are buried in South Greenwood Cemetery Block 2, Lot 45, graves 1 and 4. in Thief River Falls, Minnesota.

I have great admiration for these New Solum families. I have not lived in that kind of era where people were connected in such an honorable way. The neighborhood friendships they formed and the help they extended are beyond my wildest imagination.

e

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE STUMP OVER!!!

I am so excited!!! I just got an email from Enid and this is what she says:

From left to right: Lena Nordgaard Larson, Carrie Bergvall, Thorenus, Ella Backlund, Nina Anderson Bloom.

To remind you of who the girls were, pictured are highlighted in green
57 Carrie, (Nick) Bergvall, Texas
39 Ella , (Henning) Backlund, Stratcona, MN and later Roseau, MN
49 Theo who also went by Lena, (SS) Norgaard, Viking, MN She is listed as Larson, she must have remarried.
41 Tina, (Alfred) Carlson, New York . On a farm in upstate New York. Not in NYC.
36 Mabel, (John) Bergland, Bemidji, MN moved to Pontiac, Michigan
43 Nina, (Carl) Bloom, Rosewood, MN


Pete, Emil and Carl. Aren't you glad I am so old that I remember?????Bergvall's came to TRF in about 1936 and we had a Family Reunion at the Carl Mellem place (where Grandpa originally lived) so I think the picture was taken there.

THEN:

I see you had the year 1934 and I think that is right. Tina and Alfred lived on a farm in upstate New York--I even looked in my mother's old address book and couldn't find the name of the town. Her daughter, at one time, lived at Leeds. Also, Mabel lived in Pontiac, Michigan--not in Bemidji. Hope tht helps.

It helps us a lot! I wrote back to tell her I had used Bemidji, MN for Mabel, as that was her address when her sister died in 1926.

There is never a dead end!!! HUZZAH!

Thorinus Mellem family 1905 and 1934

This picture was taken in 1934. On the border of the picture, it states, "Mr. Mellem and children, 1934."
We had decided this picture was taken about 1905, we based our date on Mabel, the child standing between her parents at seven years old.

L to R back row: Ella, Nina, Emil, Carl, Peter, Theo, and Tina
L to R front row: Carrie, Thorinus, Mabel, Pauline, and Thea.


Some of you may be able to say, "OH, that has to be Nina, they haven't changed a bit!" Some of us aren't so gifted. How does one decide who is who? What do you use to make a decision on a picture of people taken 29 years apart?

We know there were three boys in 1905. In the 1905 picture, they are standing in the back from L to R as Emil, Carl, and Peter. In the second picture, we know Emil is in the center because he had a big nose and we can see it. We know that Peter was short. We have a later picture of Carl.

As for the daughters, we know that Thea died in 1926. We know that Nina is L to R in the back wearing the print dress.

That leaves four, although we have identified Nina. Who, out of the following, are left? The picture was cut out of a black paper photo album. To pull the picture away from the backing would mean ruining the original picture. We have to have a better plan.

Let's try to think about it as ages and where they lived.

57 Carrie, (Nick) Bergvall, Texas
39 Ella , (Henning) Backlund, Stratcona, MN and later Roseau, MN
49 Theo, (SS) Norgaard, Viking, MN
41 Tina, (John) Carlson, New York City, NY
36 Mabel, (John) Bergland, Bemidji, MN
43 Nina, (Carl) Bloom, Rosewood, MN

Do any of the ladies look like they are wearing traveling clothes suitable to New York or Texas? Or, to you do they all look like they are in house dresses? Their dresses are all have sit wrinkles, that probably means the dresses were all cotton. There is some breeze based on the collar of the daughter standing next to Thorninus.

In the first picture, Ella looks like she has lighter hair, in the second picture there are two with light hair. Are they blond or are they greyed out?

The lady standing next to Nina in the white dress looks the youngest. Or is she just well preserved? She doesn't have the pear shape of the others and her ankles aren't as thick.

If you were trying to figure out which is which, what would you do next?

In this era of pictures, someone was taking the picture. Is there another picture with another daughter? If so, who? I am going to email Enid and see if she can tell me.

Can you? Will you compare and tell me what you think?

Stumped in Fargo.

A FIXIT AND ENLIGHTEN PAGE

In the blog titled Birthday and anniversaries

Shirley writes:

Shalin is the son of the late Dayle Anderson..(NOT the late Bing Anderson) Bing is Shalin's stepfather.

7. Shalin Anderson (13)Who is this? Shalin is the son of Juanita Hagen and the late Bing AndersonJaeme: Second cousinKelsie: First cousin

In the blog regarding Little House on the Prairie in the Blog for Rachel:

Shirley writes:

Just an inside to this post..Vince and Heather Hagen's house belonged to Edith Ingalls Blauhavitz..(sp) Edie was a cousin of sorts to Laura Ingalls Wilder. Vince and Heather live in Northern Minnesota.

Communication by Mail

In today’s world, the Internet has replaced the hand written letter we may have gotten from our parents. Mother wrote to me weekly when I lived in Kansas. It was the news from the house and maybe a little of what was happening in the town but never advice. Perhaps I never asked anything; perhaps my letters infrequently written, weren’t highly detailed either.

I like to think that in emails, one is a little more specific about the subject on the screen. I like to think that in instant messages or the volley of short emails, one continues until one understands where the person is saying. There is boldness in Internet correspondence that rarely would show up in letters to children, let’s say, 50 years ago.

Two parents wrote two letters to one person.

“Last Saturday afternoon I went to the farm and picked up a big load of wood for the Heatiola and also for the stove in the basement. I had a big job because I had to make a road in the woods wide enough for the hay rack. I left at 1PM and it was dark when I got back. I got the whole load sawed during the week so I have some of it in the barn and the rest I put in the basement. I was going to get another load today but this morning I had Martin Swenson help me wire the garage for that heater I put in the car and also put in a light. I also got Mom’s new clothes line ready. I used five inch steam pipe and put cross arms on them and set them in cement. Mom and Judy painted them with aluminum paint.

Two weeks ago Sunday night, the 16th, I saw a big fire some place west of here. I drove down to the track and saw it was burning close to the track. I then drove out there and found it was about three miles west of Viking. Then I went home and tried to get some men to go with me but Martin Swenson was not home. We called Elmer Olson in Warren and couldn’t get him. Then we tried Art Swenson but neither was he home. Then I called Victor Ranstrom but no luck. Then I called Hjalmer Aaseby and I got him and Roy Copeland to go along. We took the motor car and went out there. Of course, I called the dispatcher first and he said there were no trains.

When we got out there it was burning a large piece of ground that hadn’t been farmed for years and it burned about 1 ½ miles along the track. There were six telegraph poles burned off before we got there and we put out the fire in quite a few. Then we also had some ties burning which were put out with dirt, we were out exactly two hours and 40 minutes which is what we are allowed on call. Hjalmer and Roy cleared $7.83 and they were quite happy about it.

When we started out we had a weak battery on the head light so the light didn’t show up very good. Hjalmer said I’m sure glad I don’t have to depend on you to steer this thing but I took a new battery along so we made out o.k.”

The letter continues with praise for the receiver attending church. The writer states attending church is more important than anything else. Especially if one goes with an open mind and heart to receive the word and do as it tells us. “We are trying to remember all you kids everyday in prayer as we want the very best for you all.”

It is signed May God bless you and may you put your complete trust in him. Dad

Mother’s write differently and Mother’s no matter what, are always in a hurry so they abbreviate. I am grinning as I think of abbreviations as the fore runner to text messaging. Mother's ask questions.

This letter is written on the same day.

“We got your letter Thurs. & didn’t go to TR yesterday to get Cashier’s checks so I’ll send you a personal check. If you have trouble cashing it & need money right away, call collect to us & we’ll wire you some. I’m going to town Tues. and will for sure send you the balance of $100.00 then.

Say, did you get the pkg with your brown sweater, Bible & cookies? You never mentioned it so we’re wondering. Would you like to have me send some cookies & rolls sometimes or What???. Another thing, do you want Daddy to get you a pass from Duluth to Mpls & then home, or what.

Daddy is getting the garage wired now. Sure would be nice to have a yard light too, someday. Maybe some day we can. Even a light right on the front of the garage would help a lot.

Murv was over last nite. They’ve been fencing. He’s going to apply for disability payments under the Social Security. The Drs claim he’ll never do the work he’s used to & won’t be able to work for a long time, so they told him to go ahead & they’d fill in the necessary blanks.

Your BC & BS payments amount to $20.50 for three months. You will be paid up to Dec 1. We will help you out on those & when you start working you can pay us back OK??? The BS is $7.05 for three months and the BC is $13.45 for 3 mon. & it was taken right from your old policy only now you have only 70 days instead of 120 days like at P&W.”

In a letter written the following Tuesday the mother says:

“I’ve got a few minutes before Rye’s are coming so will write. We are going to town today to change over the bonds and then Murv is going to apply for Social Security.

We took ... to the Dr. yesterday. She’s been sick since Sat. she had pains but wouldn’t admit it to the Dr. She figures you have to be real sick before you can tell a Dr.. He said it could be a cyst on an ovary or else the appendix. She stayed over with Margaret Ellingren last nite. I wonder what they were up to.

Do you want me to mail you your gray gloves?

Did you get the box with the watch band, the Bible, and the cookies????

Did you get your $25.00 check cashed?

Did you go to hear Beverly Shea on Sunday?

Bye, Bye write real soon. Love

The mother wrote often, we wouldn't have known that unless the child kept the letters. However, to know her, you would understand she was a letter writer and communicated with her children on paper often. Was she from the era of writers or was it just that she cared about her kids and wanted them to know it?

For a brief moment, I wanted to sit down and hand write a letter to each of my children. My son says he has gotten four letters in the mail from me since he left college. Imagine, so few you can count them. That reminds me the first of the month is here and it is time to write snail mail to those special people in nursing homes!

e

Rachel Zoe Anderson

Rachel Zoe Anderson

October 1, 1966

11:55 PM

7 lbs 5 ½ ozs

19 inches long

1. Rachel was born in Thief River Falls on a Saturday. Her grandfather, Stanley Ranum, took me to the hospital at 8 o’clock in the morning. I was to be induced. I would be instructed to walk about to get labor started. Her dad was in the Army Reserves and was at basis training. He would fly in from Texas in the early afternoon. We would walk and talk and play double solitaire until around six in the evening when labor started. In that era, once labor started one was confined to bed. Our healthy baby daughter was born near midnight. This blog is dedicated to her.

2. She wanted to ‘break in’ her white wedding shoes. She wore them to an all city garage sale and walked on rugged ground. She received, as her plight, tendinitis, and the bride wore tennis shoes with pink ribbon for laces.

3. After playing outside in the summer, she came in and announced she had “rain under her hair”.

4. As an infant she was rocked as she lay on a pillow in my lap and coo-ed.

5. She liked to be read to. It didn’t matter if she could read it better and faster. We read Tom Sawyer on vacation one year. She was old enough and had a vivid imagination enough to write a book herself.

6. On the afternoon of Christmas Eve, I took her and her brother to T G & Y and let them select a toy each. She bought Jane West and Bud bought Johnnie West. They each had a horse. . Jane’s body, except for her hands and face where aqua. Thank goodness they didn’t ask for the accessories. Jane and Johnnie went on vacation one year. Rachel and Bud used them as road graders in the Isaac Walton Campground.

7. Rachel liked to design her own clothes. She especially liked to pick out buttons. She would not be rushed as she looked at each type of button carefully before selecting the perfect ones. She was taught to take a part of the fabric on the bolt in her hand and crunch it up, if it wrinkled, it was not something we would buy. She generally picked out pastel colors.

One summer all she wanted was bathing suits. She lived in them. I suppose she was maybe five. One suit was green and white check with a little heart on it. Oh, yes, she was specific about those embellishments too.

8. She did not do well in large crowds. One time we went to Kansas City to see a baseball game. It was Royals Kodak Camera Day. One could go down on the track and take pictures of the players. She was bogged down in a mass of knees. The problem was solved when her dad put her on his shoulders.

9. Rachel helped a Danish girl named Lotte learn how to read in English. When they had the program, Lotte read with a bit of a Kansas twang. I think it was first grade.

10. A third graders mother told her that she, as a kindergartner, she answered the phone better than her child.

11. She memorized vast amount of lines without much effort. She often got the biggest parts because of it.

12. When we got the VIC 20 computer like thing, Rachel was interested in making computer programs for it. The first video game we had was Pong. She and Bud would go to Montgomery Wards and play it. Later she would have a hand held game called Merlin.

13. By her birthday on October 1, she generally knew what she wanted to be for Halloween. She only repeated once; the bride of Frankenstein must have been really intriguing. October first was also the first day of cat dittos handed out in second grade. The teacher was alarmed at Rachel’s rainbow cats by the middle of the month. I explained to the teacher that when you hand out the same ditto over and over, children with imagination are going to look for ways to refresh it.

14. She and Allyson Downs were good friends for several years. One year, she gave Allyson enough cards to get Allyson to 45 years of age.

15. Rachel had the crappy cars. One had to have the fly wheel banged on regularly. For another, she carried bottles of water to cool the engine off.

16. A long time friend was Renee. Her parents wouldn’t let her ride in Rachel’s cars. That was okay, Renee’s car got them two and from without a phone call to say, “My car won’t run.”

17. She liked to get her feet wet and make “seat pots” on the sidewalk.

18. It was near Christmas. She was really little. We were going to go into the music store. She stopped just at the threshold and said, MESSY. She would not budge.

19. Her first word was BATH

20. She liked to ride her Pokey Pony on the hardwood floors at the apartment. Her father, who worked graveyard at the time, had a hard time sleeping to that.

21. She liked to visit her cousin, Lynelle and play with the kittens hidden in the barn. Lynelle was part of the wedding party when Rachel got married. Her brother, Bud, was a usher and her other brother, Ryen, was her personal attendant. The only way Ryen would wear a bow tie was clipped to one side of his collar.

22. She mastered a home photo processing enlarger at home in the bathroom with the windows covered with black bags. Sometimes all three of them were in the bathroom at once processing pictures.

23. Her long blond hair was washed in Ivory Dish Soap and rinsed in Downy Fabric Softener. A hint from a clerk at the T,G & Y Store.

24. Rachel and her friends liked to play a game called Light as a Feather. They would kneel around a person laying on the floor and with two fingers each lift the person off the floor while chanting…light as a feather.

25. Rachel was heard saying, “Will you drive me, I can’t angle park.”

26. JINX! Buy me a Coke!

27. Wanna split a Magic Wok?

28. His name was Scott. She called him Sottie and he called himself Cottie. They were four.

29. She attended Small World Nursery School and First Presbyterian Nursery School.

30. She would read all her books before we got home from the library. There was a 10 rule limit and that is all that fit in a beer flat. The head librarian suggested she was ready for books with chapters.

31. She would be sad when her friends got cold and went inside. She had an Arctic Cat snow mobile suit and was still warm.

32. The lilac bushes were on the east side of the house under her window. She liked to have the window open so she could smell them. She also picked the old blooms off the Petunias each day which made them bloom more and look healthier. She learned his from her grandmother with the magic bag.

33. She acted as a chauffeur for Bud when he was not old enough to drive to a formal dance in junior high.

34. She was given a beagle puppy for her third birthday. She named the dog, Jubilation Boxcar. When Jubal was thirteen, she had a stroke. Dr. Lewis told Rachel to bring her home and love her. The dog had a leaky heart and lots of arthritis in her spine but never let on. When you went out side she would greet you with her warble.

34. One of the games she liked to play was concentration. She and the neighbor would play it for hours. The cards got so bent up they were matching by the bends. They were not happy when I backed them with new heavy paper.

35. She and her friends liked to play Little House on the Prairie at recess in elementary school. The Little House books at the school library were sort of reserved for the older kids. The librarian was a crusty old woman and wouldn’t let Rachel check them out. I talked with the principal about it. She suggested that Rachel read to the librarian, proving she was able to read the books. That Christmas, we bought her a complete set.

36. She was one of fifteen first grade Brownies were taken to Ballad of Black Jack in Baldwin, Kansas. The ballad is given along with the Maple Leaf Festival in October. The girls went to the bathroom in pairs until the intermission. After that, we went to the park and played with the acorns. Baldwin has more oak trees than maple trees.

37. Rachel played with the Bonham kids who lived in the house north of us. The kids ran in and out of the houses as a group. Rachel had been going to Bonham’s for sometime when Carl, the father, asked her why she never talked to him. She told him that she had been told never to talk to strangers. He introduced himself and after that she always said hello.

38. From old notes. Rachel took debate in high school. She was telling me the other day that the kids in her debate group liked her to read the oral material because she could read so fast. I used to stand outside her door and listen as she practiced her affirmative speech; she talked fast but with understanding. The first year was oil, F-15, and Arabs. Her partner was Allyson Downs. The next two years she debated with Allyson Marquis. (The subjects appear to have been solar energy and criminal placement for insane). The notes state she spent the second semester of her senior year making a film to show new debaters. She had a black case on a suitcase traveler filled with index cards. She called it/them, her OX BOX.

39. Ser e a na moss car is the sun worship yoga move she practiced in 1987. Our mantra was Pepsi.

40. It was decided that we would order the Nancy Drew Series for Rachel. The books would arrive one at a time on a monthly basis for two years. The series cost $34.95 plus postage and handling. I dutifully paid for all of it in four monthly installments. The mailman delivered the last 22 books all at once; she read them all by the end of the week.

41. Rachel did four winters of gymnastics with the Park and Recreation Department Every Saturday in the winter, we would take her auditorium. One winter she had a green tie dye body suit with green leotards. This is when she learned to twirl on the bars. When she was taking gymnastics and Bud was taking tumbling, they had a long time feud on who could get closest to the floor while doing the splits. Who got the closest? I will never tell. I will tell you what I told them, “You guys are the very same”.

Happy Birthday, Rachel!!!