What Model was your first car?

Stan Arendts sent along an email with a link to a web page containing brochures from cars manufactured prior to 1990.  The email said:

Find your first car or the one you drove to high school or college; hopefully your car brochure is available. This has to be one of the neatest websites whether you have gasoline in your veins or not. It features the original factory brochures for nearly every American car you have ever owned. Pick the manufacturer, the year and the model. Sorry, no Porsches, BMW's or Austin Healy's.

As usual, one thing leads to another, and Richard Holstad soon enough was waxing eloquently about his 1954 Studebaker, shown here.

Stan, thanks for sharing this link

This was my first car ….1954 Studebaker.  Oh what memories were made in this vehicle.

One night my girl friend and I were at the drive in movie east of Northwood. You know the drive in where the airplanes could fly in, park and see the movie?

Also the drive in where they would use another old vehicle that had a diesel fuel mixture (or whatever they used to kill mosquitoes) in the gas tank. The theatre operator would drive that smoky old vehicle up and down the parking lanes, gunning the engine all the time to maximize the smoke output.

This was done just before the movie started to reduce the swarms of mosquitoes long enough to play the outdoor movie.  It was thick enough oily smoke that one’s clothes would absorb the smell and stay with you long after you left the theatre.

Anyway, my girlfriend and I had one of those teenage tiffs at the movie. I drove that old Studebaker about 80 miles an hour from just west of Carpenter all the way to Northwood a grand total of no more than 10 miles or so.

I would buy re-processed bulk oil to put in this car because it really consumed oil.  In that short distance from the theater to Northwood ---- I blew out so much engine oil going 80 MPH that I and had to replace 3 ½ quarts when I got home …. It only held 4 quarts. There must have been a thick blue trail of smoke behind that car !!! But it was dark out so most likely no one really did see it.

On a separate trip to Mason City, I didn’t have the front hood securely latched down. A Greyhound bus passed me going the opposite direction. The hood flew up and wrapped over the roof …. It didn't fly off but the hood had this nasty concave warp in it from then on --- and I had to wire it down with bailing wire.

On the front ¼ panel just behind the front wheel is a super efficient air vent that was hinged on the door side of the vent. Driving down the highway with that vent all the way open, the air would come across your feet at about the same speed the car was traveling ….. you needed to have a bug screen over the vent because otherwise bumble bees, June bugs, and other large sized insects would be scooped in and impact against your leg with such force it wasn't funny. In Iowa the first thing to rust out was that air vent. Mine got rusted out so bad it wouldn't close anymore. When it was raining or snowing there was a constant spray across my feet from that air vent.

The manual shifter in the column wore out. I discovered that it was just a matter of rotating the stick from the right side of the column to the left side and it could be made to work again. Learning to shift gears with the left hand was quite a challenge for me …. But I did it.

If you need to, you CAN do most anything.  I loved that car! Just look at the body style …. And that was in 1954!  Wow was I ever in hog heaven!

Thank you, Stan, for the memories.

If I'm not mistaken, the drive-in he references here is the old Bel-Air Drive-in located officially at St Ansgar, and cited in an earlier post in this blog.  Click here to read that post and you may understand how Richard may have gotten into a tiff.

And if you have a "favorite car" story, bring it on.  Email nkhs62@gmail.com to share it.

Ready for the Prom?

My brother and I have been revisiting old pictures and gathering stories from our Dad and have  put together a couple different slideshows to tell the family story.  If the kids ever have any interest it will be there for them.

This is a photo I never saw or knew about until sometime last week.  Those who know my Dad will recognize him in his foxy straw hat and double-breasted suit, smoking the heater, and my mother is sitting in the passenger seat.  In a real convenience, the car door clearly swings wide open.  Dad's brother Kermit is standing to the right and Mom's sister Idena is on the left.

Just for a little geographic identification, we're sure the photo was taken at what Mom called "the Old Bisbee Place", where her family lived when they returned from North Dakota.  There's a story about the property in Iowa and in North Dakota, but it goes beyond the bounds of this post. Anyway, the road that you see over Kermit's left shoulder we are pretty certain is the Iowa/Minnesota State Line.

The Bisbee place is about 5 miles East of the Deer Creek Valley Lutheran Church.  Dad's maternal grandparents had a farm on the Minnesota side just across the road from Bisbee's, and he grew up on a Minnesota farm about 3 miles west of Bisbee's.  Dad met Mom at the DCV Church, worked at the Deer Creek creamery for a while after they married, and farmed just west of Deer Creek, mid-point between Deer Creek and the Minnesota farm that my great grandfather homesteaded in 1870.  When I was born in 1944 our family of five lived on "the Old Radloff Place" mid-point between my two grandfathers.  And all these points were on the State Line.

The history we've been collecting and the mapping we have done have rung my bell following my post recently about the transitions from child to parent, from those days to these.  Both sides of my family were friends back then, as this picture shows, because they lived so close together, attended the same church or school, dated each other's siblings, and so on.  The likelihood of that happening today is slim or none, with farms being sized at 700 acres and up, schools becoming county-wide and social life taking on a different turn as well.

There were 16 siblings between those two families, creating many fond memories for me at an average of four children per sibling.  I have flashbacks of a sort now that I have grandchildren in two families and they scream with excitement when the last family arrives for a family event.

Dad still has pretty good recollection on most of these things but I have yet to get the story behind this picture.  It almost looks like they're going to the Prom, although Mom and Dad had to be in their early 20s on this shot.  And she and Idena are not wearing flowers either.

Here's a real aside in this story, recalled because of that lack of a corsage . . .  For all those dances we attended in high school, when it was imperative that you buy a corsage for your date, every guy was concerned about the inappropriate placement of the corsage, because you didn't want to crush the corsage on a slow dance, but you wanted to dance close.  Remember? So the "arm corsage" became an option.

One classmate, whose name shall not be shared here, needed to buy a corsage with a Gardenia flower, perhaps because it was her favorite flower, I don't really recall.  When he picked it up at the nursery he was very taken aback because the corsage was so - o - o - o - o long!  He just knew it would cover her entire arm, and he was flustered as to whether he should give it to her.  Being the fine fellow that he was he could not refuse to pay for it, so there he was, corsage in hand - his hand - and all akilter over the right thing to do.

He wound up giving it to her and indeed it covered her arm, looking as much like a shield as a corsage.  But it was OK because that relationship came to an end, and life moved on.  It's just kind of hard to think that my Mom and Dad, or yours, may have had any of the same awkward situations.  They were just always seemingly above those things, or so we'd like to think.

More from Grade School

Here's another chance to grab a glass of wine, lean back, and laugh at yourself.  Marilyn Weidler sent another handful of photos, the "official school photos" taken each fall, including several of the same person taken over a period of years.  Rather than create a new album with a select group, they're now included in a grouping of 105 photos.  Get that glass of wine.  You can always restart the album. 

Click any photo to go to the online album and view a larger version.

Old News - from 4th Grade

Marilyn Weidler Ulve has been digging deep - and found these "letters" written by classmates during that year.  Shirley Mitchell was the teacher for many of us that year, and these memories will live in infamy.  To view the letters in a readable size double-click the picture and it should take you to the online album where the pages are larger.

Apparently homecoming was just as important back then as it is today since several classmates mention the parade.  Chuck Hendrickson mentions the first game of the year, against St. Ansgar, the traditional opener, and I know that we LOST that game.  In one of my letters I reference staying over with my cousin Craig that Friday night, and for some reason I still remember, clear as bell, standing in their barn while he came dancing into the milking area, with a sing-song announcement that "St. Ansgar won their game last night!  St. Ansgar won their game last night!"

Seven years later we played at St. Ansgar in another home opener, and he snuck out from his wingback position to cut me down from my defensive end position - several times.  I never saw him coming for the first three or four times he did it.  A couple years ago he was sharing the story at a family gathering.  He thought it was really funny.  Ha ha.

a boy and his horse

Larry Holstad

Preparing for a class reunion meant we spent some time looking over old pictures.  One day Lonna laid a photo in front of me and said, "Who is this?"  The bigger question was probably "Why do you have this in your collection?" because it turns out to be, as I guessed, Larry Holstad.

We sent the original photo to Larry and he has confirmed that he is the rider, on a picture taken at his grandfather's farm just south of Austin, MN.  We don't know for sure what year the photo was taken but do know that on at least one occasion he rode his horse to Lake Mills for the heck of it, and perhaps the picture was transferred to Lonna on one of those occasions.

Nobody really knows for sure but all the conjecture is fun.

Kensett #4 ca 1954

If you attended a rural school, this photo probably has a ring of familiarity.  Marsha Gaarder Hasseler sent it along as a grade school memory for the Reunion.  Here's her description:

This is probably not what you want, but it is the easiest one for me to find. I sent it to some Kensett # 4 friends after Dick Brunsvold gave me a copy four years ago when Bob and I had visited him and Gerd at their home at Torpo.
The photo includes the students and families at the end of year picnic. I guessed it to be 1954 and could err.
Karen Okland is just right of center in horizontal stripes.
Dick Brunsvold is on the left, the "tall" slender guy.
Ron VanSteenburg is mostly hidden on the right side of photo. He is standing beside Norma Berge. She was our teacher for grades 4,5,6. And she continued the following year as the school remained open, but we four had been transferred to town.
I am at the center bottom, faded.
Karen, Dick and I had six weeks of spring kindergarten, then went to first grade in the fall. In fourth grade the VanSteenburg family moved to our area, and Ron joined us, making us the "largest" class.

Marsha, that's exactly what I was looking for, and thanks for forwarding it. Perhaps it will prompt others to find and forward similar pictures.  These township schools were quite popular, probably very inexpensive to operate since children would have walked to them and only one teacher had to be paid, and phased out about the time we were in grade school.

My own experience was a 6-week stint at the Grove Township School, later used by the church for Vacation Bible School and ultimately torn down.  It formed many memories for those who attended for any period of time, and was a social center for the farming community, much like the Grange in earlier times.

If you look at the class history that is reported in this blog (at least for the Northwood kids - Kensett kind of got left out of that document) you will notice new classmates coming in from time to time as the rural schools shifted to the "metropolitan" flavor.  I recall Duane Mielke once saying it was tough to be in school in town because if somebody hit you in the stomach you just could not get your breath.  It's too closed in.

He was probably right.  Marsha, thanks for the memory.

Ode to '57

Richard Holstad has done it again!  Here's a film/photo compilation he's put together and we've added to YouTube.  This is really well done.  If you're receiving this post by email you need to click the link to view it on YouTube.

Donald Woodward McNamara, Part II

Ronald McNamara, on the left
Donald McNamara, on the right, ca. 1962

Just ten days ago the story of Donald McNamara, who attended NKHS from the fall of '63 until he enlisted in March, 1964, was reported on the blog.

Without a complete re-write of that story, suffice it to say that Donald enlisted in the Marines, presumably with his mother's permission, rather than graduate, at age 17 1/2, then died in Viet Nam on July 21, 1967, at the age of 20, three months short of his 21st birthday.

Since the original posting, other NHS and NKHS graduates have been engaged in uncovering more.  They have found that Marv Everhart, '61, is a cousin, was serving in Nam in the Army, was part of the detail that escorted Donald home, and was present at the funeral and burial at Graceland Cemetery in Albert Lea.

Ann Swensrud Johnson, NHS '56, has led the search at the local level and coined the term "Project McNamara."  Through her friend Jan Mielke of Lake Mills, she found the above photo in the 1963 LMHS yearbook, with the twins on either side of Steve Kvale, the fellow with glasses.  Donald and Ronald had been students at LMHS prior to transferring to NKHS, and the photo caption identifies them as Ron and Don Carberry.

At this writing we have no other photos of Donald to share, though Ann has discovered that Marv and the daughter of a half-sister have several - which will allow us to meet the original commitment of posting his photo on the Virtual Wall and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund site, where his military information is available.

Donald and twin brother Ronald were buried at Graceland, Donald with proper military rites, having been transported to an Albert Lea mortuary from Minneapolis.  Thus Northwood was left "out of the loop" if you will, which is not surprising given his short attendance at NKHS, from September '63 to March '64, yet he enrolled as a Northwood resident, and his military records reflect that.

At this point we are researching any connection or commemoration for him at the Northwood VFW.  Marv has a copy of a short obituary that appeared in the Anchor on July 27, 1967, and notice of his funeral service two weeks later, August 3.

If you happen to be standing right now, you may want to sit down for this next part.  The bigger story for all involved in this research came four days after the original post.

We received an email request from a fellow named Shane Edgar, asking if we could provide more information about Donald McNamara.  He had Googled the name, found our post, and sent the email.  We told him we had posted what we knew, and asked Shane, as a point of curiosity, what his connection would be.

His email answer:  I am trying to get some information on him because I was recently told he is my father.

We were all shocked, and our search went into overdrive, resulting in much of the information above.

We have since spoken directly with Shane, who is piecing together his own story, have invited him to meet with several from Northwood and Lake Mills who were connected to Donald in some way, and invited him to meet with several from the Class of '62 during the 50th Anniversay Reunion this summer.

The story of Donald Woodward McNamara is certainly being fleshed out, with help from players like Ann and Marv, who not only was a cousin but a good friend of Donald, and is himself learning things he did not previously know, along with Amber Carberry, the daughter referenced above.

If anything good has come following the Viet Nam War, this just about has to be at the top of the list. Strangely, there have been so many coincidences that have brought it about including, in shortened format, the following events:

• I had been copied in the past on emails sent to Ann Johnson, and beginning March 10 I connected with her more personally about our parents and family, with a series of email discussions. 
• On March 13, Stan sent the email about the Virtual Wall, asking if anyone knew Donald Woodward McNamara. I forwarded his email to Ann Johnson, and the day following, she ran into Nancy Hengesteg and Vickie Perkins at the Northwood Theater. They knew him, and the story took wings. 
• On March 16, as cited above, the story was first posted, and on the 20th, for the first time ever, Shane Edgar Googled the name of Donald Woodward McNamara. 
• Then, in a bizarre twist, on Saturday, March 24, Shane told me on the phone that his wife's niece, Mary, from the Lyle, MN, area, is dating a fellow by the name of Nathan, who is the grandson of Ann Swensrud Johnson.

What a story. You just could NOT make this up.




Look for additional information and photos to be posted here on the blog as well as the two websites listed above. Donald Woodward McNamara may have slipped through the cracks 45 years ago but we will pay him due respect today. We salute his service.

The Other Guys - LMHS

During the course of researching one of our stories mention was made about the LMHS yearbooks, and since I married a Bulldog and her '62 Yearbook is shelved in the basement next to the Viking '62 Yearbook, I took a chance it might provide the information I was looking for.  It did not, but I did find a horrible historical inaccuracy.  According to their yearbook, copy inserted here, the Bulldogs beat us 7-6 in the final game of the 1961 football season.

Obviously I was horribly offended by this inaccuracy, but Lonna didn't think it was much of a big whoop and asked me who I was going to report it to.  But here it is, check it out for yourself, and then compare it to the proper records of our own Yearbook:

She may not have thought it important today but look at her cheerleading face in this photo,  full of excitement and smiles, in a game against NKHS.  It has to be the game played at LMHS since it's on the stage, and if you look carefully (click the photo for a larger view) you will see David Skellenger on the far left end of the bench, what may be the crewcut of Maynard Midtgaard, and Gwen Hillman poised to cheer in response.

You may recall I once reported that she usually didn't know what was going on in a game, has little memory of the games, and so on, but she did seem to be pretty excited at what was happening at this moment.  And on the next page of their yearbook is this quality photo, full page, taken by a fellow named Bill Bakken.

This appears to be a shot taken at the Sectional game in St Ansgar, won by the Bulldogs 72-66.  Unfortunately, this time they did get the score correct, but some things you can't change.  The scoreboard, barely visible at left, shows the Visitor has 48 points at the time of this tip.  And notice that once again the crowd is standing room only.

Click the photo for a larger view, but if you can't read the caption it says: OUR MIGHTY FIVE!!!  Arlen (Stensrud) takes the tip from Phil!! The Bulldogs topped Northwood in sectional play 72-66 after being beaten by the Vikings twice in the conference contests.  A sad side note - Arlen and Allen Holstad (far left) are no longer with us.

You gotta admit - the rivalry with the Bulldogs was one-of-a-kind.

The Lost Are Found

Everyone wants the long story to get "short" but this one goes the opposite direction.  Merrilee Reid mentioned a while back that she had once stopped with her family in Denver on the way to California (after they had moved out there) to visit with the Loan family.

Kiki Loan was a classmate and buddy who left with his family after 2nd grade.  Long story short (bear with me here) Merrilee tracked him down in Port Angeles, WA (near Seattle), and a couple nights ago I had a long phone conversation with him about all the travels in his life.  As Merrilee indicated in an earlier posting, his health will prevent his attending the 50th Reunion, but we've connected anyway.

Here's where the short story gets long again...   Cynthia Vold Forde, '57, got involved, Richard Holstad got dragged into the conversation, and voila!  We now have a photo of our first grade class with Miss Phyllis Stover as our teacher.  The faces just pop out as clear and memorable as if it were yesterday.  (And I understand why I never thought of Billy Roberts as anything but Billy, as he is named here.)

Miss Stover was a feature of a posting about a year ago, and I encourage you to read that story by clicking here...     And thanks to Richard Holstad who has the world's greatest archive on all things Northwood including the 1951 Yearbook!

Growing up "Iowa"

With four grandsons around the age of the two mischief-makers here, this photo connects.  Richard Holstad, '65, and Steve Forland, '64, must have been 10 or 12 years old.  It's a great shot because it's a reminder of growing up and hanging out with friends.

They may have had more deviltry in mind but for the photographer who was watching, Dr. L M Forland, and surely acted out their visions when he left.

In any event, there wasn't much real farming going on in this picture even though it's a farm setting, so it brings to mind the Stan Arendts adventures reported last summer about his experience as a city slicker visiting farms of friends.  Read that story here . . .

In the process of preparing this post Richard happened to send along an additional photo, with the story behind it:  Yes, those are white bucks (in the photo above) and that is a pheasant feather in my hat.  Below is another treasure …. Steve and I were making cheese sandwiches on the campfire.

Steve’s job was to rub sticks together to make the fire. It took FOR EVER to get that fire going.

The moral of the story: you just can't beat growing up in Iowa!

Richard is also the source of a video taken of the boys locker room in the old gym and posted on the blog a couple years ago.  The trip down memory lane spawns a recollection of the mischief that goes on in the locker room.  The posting includes several comments about that "split level" hole that allowed a look out across the playing fields.

View the video here . . .

When Trees Were the Right Height

The Old High School - on the Corner

A New Building - with Shorter Trees

With no political offense intended, there is no doubt that for the Class of '62 the trees were clearly "of the right height" in comparison to today's version.  City codes have probably changed, too, since the original trees were outside of the sidewalk in what is probably city right-of-way.

The old gym, pictured below, is scarcely visible on the new photo since it was taken from the same approximate location as the original, and new buildings block the arch view on the west end, but the arched roof can be made out behind the blue roof of the new building.  For those who haven't been in town for a long time, the view below seems more like one taken of a building unknown.

The "Old" Gym

What Are Mothers For?

This photo was one in a series of those emails about remembering the 50s and 60s, and although it is designed as a generic, it does conjure up some memories of the role of the woman in those days.  If she wasn't working the cash register as pictured, she was probably doing the family grocery shopping.  Few indeed were lawyers or high-level executives.

Primarily she was still the homemaker, although many worked out of the home, perhaps moreso by necessity as a single mother, or a farmer's wife who worked "out of the home" without leaving the farm.  Working mothers of classmates outside of those two examples were probably the exception and not the rule, although the days of Rosie the Riveter had a huge impact, and the value of a second income became apparent.  Men who were ever the chauvinists may or may not have welcomed that progress.

In spite of the work schedules of women, meals were still consumed as a family unit because the multiple options offered by the school district had yet to shape family lives.  Without girls sports, and only one boys sport per season, time was manageable.

Consider today's family with the youngsters going in 40 different directions for so many potential activities. Next year's NKHS football team will be aligned in an 8-man league with most opponents 90 miles away in the Cedar Falls-Waterloo area.  That, of course, is minor compared to the travel required in states like North Dakota.

Jackson Brunsvold, AHS

The seniors of '62 had one sport: boys basketball.  Here in Wisconsin families today split their time between boys and girls basketball, boys and girls hockey, wrestling, cross-country skiing for boys and girls, Alpine skiing, Alpine snowboarding (read more below), and probably others that we've missed.  Hockey in particular is quite an expensive sport often requiring hours committed to fundraising, weekend events, and widespread travel.

Today's mother is probably busy working to help to fund the travel they undergo.  And dinner as a family?  Forget it.  Not that either scenario is "right" or "wrong," make your own judgment and acknowledge . . . things have changed.

A note about the photo inserted:  meet Jack Brunsvold, a nephew of our own Richard Brunsvold and his sister Chris Brunsvold Hoigard ('65), and grandson of Ann Sandberg Johnson, NHS '57.  A resident of Ashland, WI, on Lake Superior, he is the 2012 Wisconsin High School Snowboard Boardercross Champion, winning the event on Saturday, February 18.  His event took him all of 22.56 seconds!  His proud grandmother passes this along.

The Jefferson Highway Garage in Kensett

Photo Courtesy of L M Forland Family

Photo Courtesy of L M Forland Family

These photos are taken at the Jefferson Highway Garage in Kensett, established about the same time Highway 65 was built to run the north-south length of Iowa.  The Top photo was taken facing north and the other was facing south.  Here is the story behind the photos as told by Stan Arendts:

That is a picture of my grandfather, "Doc" Arendts. My father and grandfather were partners after WW2. The original Jefferson Highway Garage was established in the 1920's by my grandfather and as I recall was the oldest Ford dealership in the state, at one time. Huso was a competiter in Northwood as was Pritchard in Mason City. Prichard was a friendly competitor, Huso, not so much.

When I got my drivers license, I became the "gofer" and made many trips to other dealerships in the area to get parts, etc. I was very well respected among the group due to my family's longevity in the business and history of fair dealing. The garage was named after US 65, which was originally known as the Jefferson Highway, much like US 30 was the Lincoln Highway.

I could add that the building blew up twice, both caused by natural gas leaks. After the first time, the gas company added "aroma" to the odorless natural gas, to assist in recognizing leaks. The first explosion injured Johnnie Olsen, a Northwood resident, who was a mechanic. It occurred during the day and was caused by Johnnie lighting a cigarette.

The building was rebuilt and business continued. The second time was after my father sold the building to a Mason City hot-rodder, who used it as storage and a place to work on his cars. The second explosion happened at night and no one was injured. As far as I know, the building was not rebuilt. Maybe he didn't have insurance?

I have a lot of fond memories about that place. Spent a lot of time there and created many projects.........a wooden car, go-carts, tandem bicycles, flagpoles, hot rods, bazookas, sleds, etc.

Stan's memories are hopefully being shared with his offspring, totally unedited as he would demand.

The name "Jefferson Highway" may be unknown to many outside of Kensett, but the story is told in this History of the Interstate Trail provided by the Iowa DOT.  A different photo is included in the DOT report, of the Iowa/Minnesota marker commemorating the completion of the highway in both states in 1930, sitting along Hwy 65.  I have passed the marker and noticed it hundreds of times and never knew what it was.

The cigarette explosion reminds of a story told probably by Don Faris or possibly Maynard Midtgaard, of a service station worker who for years threw his cigarette butts into a pail of used oil, with nary a problem . . . until one very warm day when the oil was warm enough to combust.  The lesson, of course, explained the ingredients required to cause fire.  (Why in the world do we remember such trivia as a story like this?)

Coach Buddy Mounts Today

From the Yearbook - Taken in the Chem Lab

Larry Holstad forwards this information:

A follow up to the Coach Mounts posts is that I visited him about a year ago. He resides in San Antonio, Texas is actually retired from teaching and coaching (because of hip replacements and not because it was his choice) and is raising 2 different types of dogs. He had 5 sons of which one played in the NFL and 4 have been in coaching also. If you recall the oldest of the 2 when he came to Northwood was Ricky and I believe he still lives in Des Moines. Randy was the next boy and I can’t remember but it seems like they had a third son before they left but I do not recall his name. Also if you remember he had a brother that came to live with him for a year, Skip. He had some problems but he shared with me that he eventually went into the service and served our country , received numerous honors and passed away a few years ago. He mentioned a number of times that he probably didn’t treat us very well but reflected good things about his days with us. Just thought I would throw that out there. It was certainly interesting times back then.


Indeed the times were interesting.  The comment from Coach Mounts that he probably didn't treat us very well might be in reference, at least in part, to the time that we lost to Forest City and he thought we should go home after the game since we lost, and NOT go to the party he correctly suspected was scheduled at Ann Bergen's house. Read more . . .

Homecoming Candidates 1959

Donnie Holstad and Donna Flatness Fridley, '60

Thanks to Bonnie Mack Wopperer for doing some investigating and reaching out to Donna Flatness Fridley to uncover the occupants of this car in the '59 Homecoming Parade.  Bonnie originally had it all pegged right, and Donna confirmed in an email to Bonnie:

It is me with my good friend Donnie.... Mom and Grandma did make my dress, I just loved it and yes I did feel so pretty in it.

But I did not win, Julie Nelson won---I remember feeling so bad for our class for not making it a clean sweep, as we did have the largest class,but the Deer Creek kids were a real close group. We won the best float and King Donnie. I was happy for Julie (pretty gal). 

I can't make out for sure but it might be Dennis Carnes in the middle...the others (Craig Ensign driving and Harry Rogers on the right) are right... Anyway it was a great day and night (I think we won the game also) The old pictures are great, lots of good memories.

Julie Nelson was the sophomore candidate, and second consecutive Homecoming Queen in the string of winners from the Class of '62.

Old News from the Anchor

Miss Mantz - correcting papers, as typical.

January 14, 1987 - two teachers at Northwood-Kensett schools have resigned effective at the end of the current school year.  Eileen Mantz, who teachers computer science and mathematics, and Diane Groon, who teaches German and English, have resigned their contracts.  Both resignations were accepted by the board of education. 

An obituary  for Eileen Mantz was published in the Northwood Anchor in 2001.


January 11, 1962 - patrons of the Carpenter Consolidated School district favor reorganization with the St Ansgar - Grafton District, according to a recent ballot.  Out of 270 ballots mailed, some 196 ballots were returned and St Ansgar had 104 votes and Northwood-Kensett, 92, for a small margin of victory for St Ansgar.  

Beginning of the end for the NK School District?

January 14, 1937 - Moving his office equipment to Britt by truck early this week, Dr. C. T. Bergen has taken up his active practice t that city with Dr. B. F. Denny, old established physician and surgeon of Britt, with whom he has formed a partnership.  Dr. Bergen was located in Northwood over three years.  

The blogmaster will need confirmation from someone that this is the same Dr. Bergen whose daughter Ann graduated with the class of '62, apparently after a move back to Northwood.  According to class history, Ann became a classmate in fifth grade.

Musician, Jeweler, Businessman, Promoter

The newspaper clipping on the left was marked as being published in 1955, celebrating the clock that was built by L T Dillon, he of the 1936 Band Concert.  Notice the archway on the left  indicating the entrance to the old Northwood Bank Building, and Mack Drug was somewhere in this vicinity.

Richard Holstad has pointed out that the clock was moved to the south side of the street where it still stands today, photo below.

Bonnie Mack Wopperer ('60) gave a great more detail about Dillon, his relationship with the Macks, and his work in the drug and jewelry store as well as his musicianship:

L.T. Dillon was a very special, influential man in his day, and his contributions to that community are almost countless. I can still see/hear him walking from the fron of the store to the back while whistling some John Phillips Sousa  song and almost marching to the beat. He loved his music. I'd go so far as to say it was the love of his life! L.T. also owned the watch/clock repair shop in the back of the drug store and employed a watch smith (isn't that what they called people experienced in clock repair?), named Bob Helgeland. Bob was a kindly man, forever a bachelor; spoke somewhat broken English and lived with and cared for his elderly, ailing mother until she passed, I think in '58 or '59. He may have been German as well. 

L.T. was the licensed pharmacist under whom my father was able to work as a druggist & dispense medications. I'm not sure how that worked............maybe LT instructed my father and my father was eventually certified or something, but he never did go to school to obtain a pharmaceutical degree. Back in those days, it was legal to do that; it certainly would not be today! Think I also told you that LT instructed me on the flute (it was actually HIS flute; on loan to me until I bought my own). I outgrew any desire to play that instrument, much to the disappointment of both L.T. and my father. I didn't want to play in the band, so I stuck with piano and organ (electric and pipe) exclusively. L.T's. flute was returned and there was never a need for me to purchase one.

Regarding L.T. Dillon's background and musical instruction.........I'm afraid I don't know anything OR I have forgotten it, if I ever did. But now that you mention it, I seem to recall someone (maybe my dad) saying that L.T. was self taught. One may be blessed with the gift to play a musical instrument or sing a song "by ear" but L.T. could read music and that doesn't just happen naturally...........but it wouldn't surprise me if he taught himself.

I'm not surprised that the Northwood School Band, under his direction, won the competition. He was a perfectionist...........a driven man........very goal oriented. He wanted the best for his students and his energy was contagious......I think they tuned in to it, if you will.

Bonnie lists herself as a "Soda Jerk" in the family store on this photo, held in the collection of Richard Holstad, who asked her to sign and date it for posterity when she confirmed that it was she behind the counter.  Click on the photo for a larger image.

Straying from the story of L T Dillon, the days of the soda fountain may be well gone, along with the fabulous syrup that Bonnie mentions. Seems there were several in town including Mack's, Connor Drug, Veenkers perhaps, and Young's Paramount Cafe. Must have been a substantial need for all things sweet!

The Gildner-Johnson Red Light Mystery - Solved

The NKHS Blog team put its crack researchers to work to uncover the real mystery behind the Gilder-Johnson Red Light.  The primary issue is whether the light in truth existed or was just another case of hometown lore?  And if it did exist, where was it located?

Richard Holstad and Bonnie Mack stayed awake nights trying to track down/recall the truth, and at last the full story is available.

The subject came up on the blog site months ago regarding the red light mounted somewhere on the corner of the Gildner-Johnson clothing store in downtown Northwood.  The light was allegedly controlled by the telephone operators whose offices were half a block south on the same side of the street.

Notice the wood pole in the bottom right of the photo below carrying an array of phone lines which undoubtedly emanated from the nearby telephone office and spread out around Northwood up and down the alley ways.

The story goes that if a Northwood resident called the phone operator with a trouble call, Mel Horgan, or the officer on night-duty would see the light and promptly check with the telephone office to see where and what the trouble was.  At the telephone office, there were live operators in charge of the switchboard 24 hours a day.  (The phone system back then is a whole n’other wonderful story of its own.) 

It goes without saying that this was the time period before 2-way car radios or cell phones. It is pretty sure that we had a fire siren that would wake the whole town if the emergency was that great.  In today’s jargon the light can be thought of as a very efficient, totally silent, very high-speed, communication interface link between every telephone in Northwood and the Police / Emergency Department.

Some Northwood trivia fans claimed “no knowledge” of the light. They contend that it is difficult to believe that Northwood was ever that unsophisticated.  But the “simplicity” of it all seems to resonate …. simply sophisticated. No moving parts.  Of course during the daylight hours the system wasn’t very effective.

But Larry Patterson’s Christmas Eve story about spinning doughnuts, in his car, in the fresh snow, on main street proved how effective the system worked at night.  Mel nabbed him, he went home, and Mayberry never knew the difference ….. except the operator’s switch board lit up like a Christmas tree for a short time.  

Comments on the subject ranged from, “Yah that’s a likely story”, to “We lived on the farm so we’d never see it”, to “There definitely was a light but it’s function was not generally public knowledge”.

It was a fun subject for awhile on the blog site, however, it was never really proven or disproven.  The matter was dropped and essentially nothing more was heard about it for many months …… until now.

On Dec 23rd Bonnie sent a frustrated message stating that the red light subject was taking far more of her attention than she could afford to spend.  She needed to get packed to leave for the Christmas Holidays with her family ….. but the red light subject kept surfacing, even in her subconscious.

She thought she could see something “curious” in the photo ….. if the photo were just “a little more clear.”  I was chuckling to myself because I have been hooked the same way when in pursuit of some detail like this.  But I had no idea that she was working on this riddle the whole time since it was first brought up to her.

I figured that this woman needs some satisfaction or it was going to make her crazier than she already is.  So I recommended she get herself packed and ready to leave …. In the meantime, I volunteered to enlarge the part of the photo that she was interested in .….  Then I would send the close-up to her.

It seemed to me that Bonnie needed to “let go” of this pursuit for a few days …. at least she shouldn’t lose any more rest over it.  Many people had already looked for the light and not found it …. I would humor her. Maybe she would have taken off by the time I returned the photo for her.

It wasn’t necessary to “zoom in” very much (see the photo below) and THERE IT IS!  Right along the roof line in the top left corner of the photo.

Click Photo for a Larger View

It is amazing how in the world the rest of us have not seen this before.  Looking at the photo now IT IS OBVIOUS.

The mystery is solved!

-- Richard Holstad, assisted by Bonnie Mack

L T Dillon - Entrepeneur

Richard Holstad keeps feeding information about L T Dillon and the 1936 National Band Contest.  The exploits have been reported previously and at some point the numerous photos along with a recording made by the St Olaf Band of the song played in contest by the NHS Band will be posted by way of YouTube.

In the meantime, take a closer look at the above photo.  Click on it to open a larger view in a new window, then look carefully at the band members themselves.  They're all cut-outs!  According to the clipping at the bottom of the photo, it was made by L T Dillon, composed of individual photos of the various members munted on a base and placed on a small stage, thus "manufactured" by Dillon because the school in 1936 did not have an auditorium - and this apparently was the closest facsimile of a performance setting that he could come up with.  (The gymnasium used by the Class of '62 was built and occupied AFTER the National Contest.)

Pretty ingenious, that fellow.  He also is the photographer for the photo below, as reported previously in this blog.  Unable to be in the picture, he made it there as an inserted image in the upper left corner.  This almost makes you laugh, except for the picture of determination and dedication that he embodied as a "part-time" instructor for a national champ.  You may not find a more entrepreneurial spirit.

The band held a reunion in 2006; what a joy it must have been for those players to get back together again!

Keep your eyes on this blog for more information and stories on this group.  Many of them would have been parents of the Class of '62 or that era.  A son of one of the members, Richard has been reaching out to others to solicit their memories and photos as well.