Shirley's Memories

The following document was shared via e-mail with us in January 2008 by Renee Christensen, who was collecting historical information from her aunts and uncles. It is, in essence, the memoirs of Nana, Shirley Johnson Spencer.

April. 2000

Ever since Mary wrote what she remembers about growing up (I love it and read it often!) I have felt I should put in writing things that I remember. Obviously, being one of the oldest, there’ll things that I’ll remember that the others won’t.

Just out of high school and newly married, Mother and Dad moved to Virginia, Mn., where Dad had a job delivering ice cream. They had a tiny apartment above a store on Main Street. (In Dads later years, he talked a lot about this time). The apartment was sparsely furnished but Morn made it nice, he said. Being young and having no friends there, the days were long for Mother and the highlight of the week was when she could ride the route with him. (The boss permitted this occasionally) and at one particular stop, the candy store, the owner always gave Mother some freshly made candy. But this was a very lonely time for both of them and they moved back to Hill City.

As far as I know, they moved into a small house on Elm Street between Ione and Summit. It was still there when we moved back in 1975 but vacant, and soon after taken down. This is the house I was born in and just as I was being born lightning stuck the house and started some curtains on fire, so Dad was busy putting out the fire as Mom was having me! (That was July 20, 1926 - Calvin Coolidge was president, the average income $2,310.00, a new car - $360.00, the average home $7,750.00, a loaf of bread .09, a gallon of gas .12, a gallon of milk .56 and life expectancy was 54.1 years)!

Our next house was one and a half blocks north at the corner of Linden and Elm -(Across from the Konerza house – in my day the Hankerson house). I remember the house well. It had a big porch, kitchen, dining room, bath, bedroom and living room. In the back yard were three huge apple trees – the apples were good eating and the trees great for climbing. Behind us lived the Huntleys, who owned the printing press and put out a weekly newspaper – The Hill City News. South of us lived the local photographer, John Pilgram. I remember seeing him taking pictures with the camera and much of him under a black tarp. He was a strange man whose yard was a junk pile and his house wasn’t much better but he must have known his photography because some of his photos are still around and they have held up well.

When Mom and Dad came back from Virginia, Dad got a job at the Woodenware Pail Factory but that didn’t last too long as the factory closed up about 1926-27 and the depression was in full swing - times were very tough. I think Dad took odd jobs and he did work at Papas clothing store (more on that later) until it went out of business and he did work out of town for a while. During one of his weeks away someone - I believe it was Papa – decided I should have a short haircut. Jean had beautiful blond curly hair and mine was dark and straight. Well anyway, I got a boys hair cut and when Dad came home he asked whom that boy was playing with the kids!

Papa was an ardent fisherman and because no one had motors, Dad often went with him and rowed. This one particular day they were gone the whole day and Mother started to worry as it got later and later. Finally they arrived with a huge box of fish and I remember how excited everyone was – all that fish meant food and also that was the day they caught the huge fish that was mounted and hung in the lodge of the Hill Lake Resort for or many years, then the folks had it and now I think Ed has it.

There were four children at that time - Jean, Shirley, Dick and Georgia, the little round faced doll - she was so cute! Those of us old enough for school walked, as there were no buses or cars. We girls wore dresses, long underwear (in the winter) and long socks over them. Winters seemed more severe back then with a lot more snow and although we had snow pants and boots our legs invariably got wet, those long johns and socks got baggy and how Jean and I hated that! One washday morning (always on Monday) just before Christmas as we were getting ready for school we were telling Mother all the things we wanted Santa to bring. It was apparently a bad time for her – times were so hard – and that’s when she told us there was no Santa. I’ll never forget that morning - Jean and I cried all the way to school. Ironically, years later I was telling Mom how I remember all the presents under the tree at that house, the exact position of the tree etc., and tears welled up in her eyes as she told me that she made everything under that tree! She was a master at finding a way!

Both Jean and I did baby sitting. I mainly baby sat at the Martin house kitty-corner across the street and I was scared to death of the dark so Jean would take my hand and walk me over there and hide in the bushes until someone came to the door. Once I was in the house I was o.k. Needless to say, when the job was done the run back home was a mighty fast one!

The folks were anxious to get a home of their own and when a house that had to be moved came up for sale they bought it - for $80.00 !!! Grandpa Christensen gave them the property to put it on. The house sat where the highway is now, just east of Ruthies Café. (The highway was further west at that time). And what a job to move it - they lifted it up enough to get huge logs under it, then a team of horses would pull it. When the last log rolled out it would be brought forward and put under in front. It took days! At one point I remember Dad had to spend much of the night up there keeping lanterns lit as a portion of the house was sticking out on the highway. Well, it wasn’t much of a house and it needed a lot of work but Mother was so happy to have their own place. It was loaded with bed bugs – nasty little things that came out when the lights went out – and yes, they did bite. Even hotels had them back then – Dad tells of when Grandma Christensen first came up to this part of the country from Iowa (and reluctantly so) to join Grandpa who was already here, she was housed for a few days at the Pokegama Hotel in Grand Rapids and she would stay up all night with the lights on to protect the children and herself from being bitten. Well, Mom worked hard to get rid of them and finally did. The plaster was falling down in most of the upstairs and there again she was always fixing and patching – calcimining she called it.

We had no electricity for that winter (I have the kerosene lantern we did our home work by), no running water - a hand pump outside and of course an outdoor biffy – what a joy especially in the winter and even in the summer for some one who is scared of the dark! Our heat was a wood stove in the living room and a wood cook stove in the kitchen. We did get electricity in the spring but all other luxuries came much later. A reservoir on the side of the cook stove meant for some warm water most of the time but on bath days and wash days it meant many pans on top of the stove. Mary talked about bath time – yes, that was something! In the winter the tub was set up in the corner of the living room by the stove with sheets over a folding clothes rack for privacy. Mother started with the youngest first, adding hot water for each new bather! Hair washing was also something - all the girls had thick, long hair and that meant more pumping and heating water. She washed us over a big basin and the last rinse was always cold - to close the pores she said but I’m sure she was just tired of heating water and no doubt time was a factor. I can’t imagine how she managed to keep us all clean plus our clothes - God love her - she was amazing!

Speaking of clothes - wash days (Mondays of course) were my least favorite days, especially in the winter. When we’d come home from school for lunch there were always clothes hug and drying everywhere throughout the house. But by the time we got home from school most were dry and folded. Most of our clothes were what mother made or hand me downs – the boys came from the Longs (Aunts Mae and Nellie) and the girls boxes came from the Walkers (Carol) and Aunt Myrt and how excited were when those boxes came!

Even on wash days Mom managed to have a nice lunch for all of us – including Dad who was usually there as he drove school bus, had odd jobs and later on worked at the Forestry Station – which included a large cake (made from scratch) which was devoured in one sitting. Then she’d make another one for the evening meal! She made a huge batch of bread twice a week, which included several loaves, dozens of rolls and often-cinnamon rolls. Mom made certain that we had a well-rounded diet. We had a big garden and she canned hundreds a jars of fruits and vegetables. We picked wild blueberries and raspberries which were always so pretty sitting on the shelves down in the cellar, which incidentally was dug out by Dad and Dick – after the house as already in place! (This was done a bucket at time …the same for the well with Dick being down in the well filling the bucket which Dad would lift up and empty). One year she canned 80 quarts of raspberries alone! That’s a lot of picking (we all picked), cleaning and canning! Besides the big garden we had a cow, chickens and often a pig or two and Dad always did well during hunting season. Mother even canned deer meat to have it later on in the winter. Their only refrigeration was an icebox and that was case until after I graduated from nursing school. (After Don and I met in early 1949 he came up to Hill City to meet the family and he suggested I get a refrigerator for Mom and Dad, which I did – no money, so I was paying on time – then when we got married Don paid it off). Karen Christensen’s dad. Johnny Martin was the iceman – he cut large chucks from Hill Lake and stored them in a shed covered with sawdust. When he would drive in the yard and start chipping a piece just the right size for our icebox we’d all stand around and catch the flying chips!

It didn’t take much to entertain us …we’d sit on the porch and in rotation, claim the cars that drove by on the highway as ours. As a family we all huddled around the radio on Saturday afternoons in the fall and listen to the Gopher football games – the reception always got poor at the exciting times! When we were too young to be on a team at school Mom and Dad always managed to come up with 10 cents so we could go to the games – school functions were a big part of our lives as was 4-H. We girls made our own paper dolls –we’d cut a figure out of an out of date catalog and then make clothes for it. We had a darling log play house (I suppose Dad made it) that we had much fun in. We had a movie projector – really something for that time- and three movies that lasted about a minute each! Mother made fudge and we charged our friends 1 penny to see the movies and have that yummy fudge. Speaking of that, Mom made the best taffy and we all took part in wrapping each individual piece in wax paper. Skating was the big winter pass time – there was always a rink kept open on the lake. One special memory of mine was one day Jean, Mom and I had our skates over our shoulders, hiking down to the lake when a car with out of town boys kept circling us and talking to us. Mom was so tiny and cute I’m sure they had no idea she was our mother. Brother Ron provided us with a lot of entertainment….the big bedroom upstairs was divided by a clothes closet …boys on one side, girls on the other and Ron would tell lengthy stories about the elephants or the monkeys etc. that he had seen that day! He was something! (Incidentally, when we all came home for lunch instead of sitting down at the table like the rest of the crew, Ron always went to the crib first – generally there was one – to see if the baby needed anything, including changing!). Jean and I advanced to the small bedroom in time - the privacy was great but there was no heat in that room so the winters meant lots of quilts. Many of our quilts, by the way, were hand made by Mother - she even made a mattress once – we older girls helped on that one. (An instructor and supplies were set up in the old Barkel building and several of the town’s folks made one).

I remember one particular worrisome time for everyone……a typhoid fever out break. I had spent much of the day at my best friend, Arly Reinhart’s house and the next day her brother, Ronald, was taken to the hospital and died shortly after from typhoid fever. I was under a loose form of quarantine – there was that dreaded yellow slip on our door and I couldn’t go anywhere but there I was with all the brothers and sisters and the folks! Luckily nothing happened and after a length of time the yellow slip came down. I feel Mom did a good job at keeping us all well --- lots of vegetables and fruits …a well rounded diet as best she could plus the annual “ spring tonic” which she was convinced was very important. It consisted of a big dose of sulphur and molasses (gritty and awful) and Rocky Mt tea (not much better)!

Now about the grand parents------The main thing I remember about Grandpa Christensen was his thick white hair, his white mustache and a clean white cloth under his chin tied on the top of his head ..he had cancer of the throat. He died Thanksgiving Day 1935. We were having dinner at Nana and Papas when some one came to tell us. Before the funeral they had the open casket in the living room of Grandma and Grandpas house high up on a table. I was 9 at the time and cousin Grace asked if I wanted to look . I said no but she boosted me up any way. That stuck with me for a long time. The last paragraph of Grandpas obituary in the paper read “ Not only was Harry Christensen a builder of houses, but also he was a community builder, standing for those principles that made for permanence. He served the village both officially and as a private citizen (Dad suggested that he was a self appointed cop)! He was a friend to all those who stood for the right things and a fighter against the wrong. He lived well his three scores and ten years. His life was well done”. Grandma lived on many years after his death. She was a tall slender lady who wore her hair up in a bun, always wore an apron, made great sugar cookies, had a hearty laugh and her thing was cleanliness. It was a ritual during the summer she would walk to church and after church have dinner at our house. It was usually chicken and always-homemade ice cream. ( We had ice cream every Sunday and also on Wednesdays during the summer and whoever did the cranking got to lick the ladle !).

Nana and Papa were a darling couple! They had a clothing store (Fitzpatrick and Richard) on Main Street - about where the post office is now and the lot west of it were two stores with apartments above. They lived in the one above their store. It was very neat as I remember (Nana was a neatnik too!) and they had very nice things - furniture, china, sterling silver etc. Nana was a stickler for manners and spent much time with Jean and I teaching us how to set a table, how to sit “like a lady” etc, etc. Papa was a fun character – always laughing, telling jokes – sometimes in French - a very gregarious person. His store was mainly for men … it existed during Hill City’s “hey day” …the pail factory was in full swing, there were 3 grocery stores, a meat market, 2 motels, a tailor, a doctor. a theater , livery stables, railroad, etc but he did carry shoes for the family. One 4th of July he gave a pair of shoes as a prize for one of the races. He was pretty safe knowing that one of his grand kids would win! Jean did win but right at the end of the race she fell and skinned herself up quite badly. I remember running down to the store with her - she got a pair of shoes and so did I! Nana and Papa lost everything during the depression and moved to St. Paul where he took a selling job traveling the state for Josephine Novelty Co. It was very sad to see them in this tiny one room apartment on Dale Ave - it was a location Nana liked because she could walk to the Basilica every morning for mass. Papa got to Hill City quite often and how we loved it when he did .. he had a certain whistle, which meant “come on and we’ll go for a ride!” He was such a fun person! He developed cancer of the colon and was one of the first to have a colostomy at Rochester. When I decided to go into nursing, it was Nana and Papa who thought I should try for the top school - St. Mary’s, and when I got my rejection letter “ too young (I was only 17) and from too small a school but come down if you’d like to talk to us about it” it was Nana who said that I should take a bus to St. Paul, she’d meet me there and we’d go down to Rochester and talk to them, which we did and I was accepted! It was a few years after I graduated that Papa was very sick in a hospital in Midway. I was back in Minneapolis at the time. Nana would stay with him all day and I would take care of him at night. One night when I had finished bathing, shaving him, changing the bed. etc he awoke from a coma that he had been in for days and said “ Hi sweetheart - lets say a prayer” we did, he went back into the coma and died that morning when Nana got there.

For someone who was just going to jot down a few things, I have really rambled on ! So I’ll wind it up by saying that I’m really proud of Mother and Dad and how they managed with that large family. They never took any government hand outs (wouldn’t think of it!) - they just managed! As though they didn’t have enough to do, Dad was city clerk for many years and I remember Mom making mittens for the kids on Dads bus route who had none plus she was always active in church things. They passed on to us important things like respect for others and accepting responsibility. We were taught right from wrong - just one look from Dad and we wouldn’t do that again! We all ended up responsible adults with good work ethics. We had jobs growing up –( here I go again ) Of course there were the normal chores around the house – weeding the garden, picking berries, helping with the young ones, taking care of the animals (only the boys milked the cow – Mother insisted that the girls never learn ), pumping the water, etc, etc. Plus there were “outside “ jobs - Jean and I started with selling apples, then delivering mom’s home made cottage cheese to customers (I must say Jean did it - I just tagged along. She wasn’t afraid of anything and I was so timid). We had a paper route, sold popcorn at the theater, baby sat and I worked at Schoen’s Drug Store plus we all made money racing on the 4th of July. When I was 15, friend Lucille Lathrop and I decided to try to find summer jobs in Duluth. The folks said fine, but if I found one I had to stick it out the entire summer. I was lucky to find one right away but Lucille didn’t and went back home. So there I was, working for a family with 3 kids – doing all the cleaning, baby sitting, cooking and baking (including bread and pies!) for $5.00 a week. I spent my entire first paycheck on a new bathing suit – my first brand new one! Jean was in Duluth the first couple of weeks I was there, finishing up a drafting course, and we only got to see each other once. It was a good experience but I was really happy when the folks came to pick me up at the end of summer!

So --- we had hand me down clothes, didn’t have our own bedroom or an allowance but I feel we had much more and I am grateful to two very strong and dear people, Edna and Lindsey. And I’m especially grateful to Mom, who by example, passed on her deep faith and love of God to me … Thank you Mom …you were, are and always will be …my HERO!