WEDNESDAY WORD - Grandmas

I was blessed to grow up with both sets of my grandparents living in the same town, just five miles from our farm.  Both grandmas had birthdays this week so I am remembering them today.

 Grandma Sophia (Stenson) Erickson, was born on April 3, 1882 in Glenwood, MN, 130 years ago.  She married Albert Berger Erickson on Sept. 21, 1904.  They moved to Canada with their two sons, Almer and Milford, in 1912.  Grandpa came to Regina just a month after the infamous tornado of 1912.  That's 100 years ago this summer so I will have to do a special blog to celebrate the Erickson's arrival in Canada.   Grandma bought a Kodak camera before moving to Canada.  She took many pictures of those homesteading days and developed the films herself.  We are fortunate to have this collection of pictures in the family.  Merv has the negatives and I have the black box of pictures that we spent hours looking at  when we visited Grandma and Grandpa.

 Grandpa found work for the Ford Motor Co. in Swift Current and the family made their home there for two years.  Grandma and the boys spent six months of the year on the homestead south west of Frontier, as pioneers were required to do in order to gain title to this "free" quarter of land.  She and the boys would travel the hundred miles by horse and buggy.  Grandpa retired in 1938 and they moved a house from the farm into town.  He built a garage, complete with a shower room and a room for washing clothes.  A small black stove heated the wash water early every Monday morning.  I use that same stove to hold the TV in our farm kitchen.

"Pete" with the boys in the buggy

I stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Erickson for my first three years of school.  There was no school bus to our farm yet so this was the alternative to Dad driving me back and forth every day.  I went home on weekends, except in the winter when roads were blocked.  Frontier School was just across the street so I couldn't have had it handier!  There was just one small bedroom in their house so I slept on their hide-a-bed in the living-room.  It's the one in this picture.

I remember going to church with Grandma and Grandpa at Bethel Lutheran in Frontier.  Grandma would have a cookie or a banana for me in her purse.  In the winter she wore a fur coat.  I was puzzled why the fur was on the outside as it would have been so cosy as a lining!  We sat with the women on the left side and the men were on the right.  We sang out the the small Concordia hymnals.  Some of those songs are still my favorites.  One year Mervin, Alan and I had perfect attendance at Sunday School and were given music editions of that hymnal with our names printed in gold.  I still treasure mine.  Dad thought he should have had the award as he was the one who got us there every Sunday, sometimes through bad road conditions.

I also enjoyed going to join Grandma at Ladies Aid after school, just in time for lunch.  Jello was my favorite.  I wish I had the recipe for Grandma's "lemon soup".  She always had three kinds of cookies in her glass jars that she kept out of reach in a high cupboard.  One jar had the white ones, another molasses ones and the third a sunny boy version.  All were roll out cookies.  Grandpa like Fig Newtons and there was always a metal can of those in the cupboard too.

I don't remember any toys at their house.  I spent a lot of time at the writing desk in the dining-room.  (Sandra has that in their home now.) Grandma saved envelopes from Christmas cards and that was my drawing and writing paper.  First she would cut the glued edges off and use those strips to label the many jars of jam and jelly that she made in the summer.  Grandpa was a great gardener and had many berry bushes in the yard - gooseberry, chokecherry and even some grape vines that grew on the south side of the garage.  The "summer house" was a great place to play with its hammock and the glider with a seat on each side.  That's where Grandma would sit and pick over all those berries.

Grandpa's "summer house" and garage with shower and washroom
Arlene, Grandma, Vern, Marilyn, Aunt Selma and Uncle Almer

We also played with Grandma's button box as well as a can of large one cent coins that Canada used for a few years.  Grandpa had a checker board with Chinese checkers on the other side. No playing cards were allowed!  They had few books but the one I remember, and still have, is a Hurlberts Bible Story book.  Grandpa and I would race to see who could get through it first.  He'd read when I was at school and I'd read in the evenings.


Grandma Bertha (Urangseter) Haaland was born on April 4, 1881 in Urangseter, Norway, 129 years ago today.  She married Hans Martin Haaland in 1902.  Grandma arrived at Ellis Island, NY with her three children, Marius (Morris), John and Camilla, on April 24, 1911.  Camilla got so sick on the journey that Grandma thought she was going to die and would be buried at sea.   Grandma's sister, Inga Branden, was with her. They travelled to Fingal, ND where the Branden family had moved a few years earlier and Grandpa had come the year before.  The Haaland family moved to Canada in 1914 and settled SW of Climax, SK.  Grandma and Grandpa retired to Frontier in 1950.

It wasn't as much fun to visit this Grandma and Grandpa.  When we went there as a family, the adults would sit and visit in Norwegian and we would be left to entertain ourselves.  We would get Dad to read the Ole and Per cartoons in Grandpa's Norsk newspapers.  He would translate them for us.  Grandpa also had some picture books from Norway that we would look at.  Our favorite was the one with pictures of the naked statues in a park in Norway!  I got to see those statues on our first trip to Norway in 2005.  We had such a good opportunity to learn Norwegian, but it was mainly used to "shut us out" and no effort was made to teach the language to "us kids".

A favourite picture from Grandpa's book
(taken on our visit to Oslo in 2005)

Grandma Haaland loved to quilt and I still have the quilt she gave Howard and me for our wedding.  I had to put a different back on it as it worn out from use.  The top is special as I remember many of the prints that she used, leftover fabrics from dresses worn by mom, my aunts and some of mine too.  My mother did a lot of sewing, was a perfectionist at it and the inside had to look as nice as the right side.  I still have many pieces of clothing that she made for me.  Maybe they'll be in quilts someday too.

Hans and Bertha Haaland Family 1967
back row - Helma, Hulda, Camilla, Ruth, Marie
front row- Herb, Hans, Bertha, John
(Uncle Morris died in 1944)

I remember the special drink that Grandma would give us. She would pour the juice off a jar of plums that she had canned, add some water and serve this in pink Royal Lace depression glasses.  When I went away to Teachers College in Regina, Grandma gave me two of these glasses.  My roommate and I used them for "everyday" and they survived.  They became part of my collection and I now have a set of six servings of Royal Lace, thanks to Grandma starting me off and giving me a love for these once "cheap"glasses, now collector's items.

Pink Royal Lace glasses

Now I am blessed to be the grandma and roles are reversed.  I'm loving it and enjoy our seven grandchildren, who live within an hour or two of the farm.  I am looking forward to the arrival of an eighth one but this one won't be nearby.  He/She will be a little Norwegian and is due to arrive the end of August to Todd and Kristy in Kristiansund.  Maybe I will finally learn some Norwegian, from a little grandchild!

 I am starting to gather up my things for the move back to the farm next week.  Yesterday Howard and I went to the optometrist to have our eyes checked. We'll both be getting new glasses.  On Monday I went to see Dr.Katie in Weyburn to have my blood pressure checked (it was good) and to get prescriptions filled.  We are ready for spring!

I also want to congratulate my cousins, Helen (Olson) and John Knox of Lethbridge, Alberta.  Tomorrow, April 5, they are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary.   Grandma and Grandpa Haaland celebrated their 65th in 1967 but I think this is the first couple in their family to celebrate their sixtieth.  We hope you are the first of many!  Esther (Moen) and Maynard Gulbranson aren't far behind as they will celebrate their 59th in June.  Doris (Moen) and Marvin Murray will have their 58th in Sept.

I don't have any special plans for Easter weekend.  The LCBI choir from Outlook will be at Trinity, Estevan on Easter Monday at 7:30.  I'll be taking billets so look forward to having a full house that night.

A blessed Easter to all as we remember the death of Jesus on Good Friday and then celebrate His day of resurrection on Sunday.  We will greet each other at Sunrise Service with the words "He is Risen" and the response "He is risen indeed".