My grandfather, Andrea’s Christian Olson Hoel, was born in Tromso, Norway, in 1860. He came to America with his Father Ole, mother Johanna, and brother Gideon in 1890. Johanna died giving birth to their son Olaf in 1890. They made their first home in America at Calumet, Michigan, where Ole worked in the copper mines. The boys also worked there as soon as they were old enough.
Grandfather Andrew left Michigan and went to Northern Minnesota to work in the iron mines. He met and married his wife, Minnie Wirta, at Bovey, Minnesota. He continued working there until their daughter Alice was born. Andrew and Minnie, with baby Alice, moved to Dakota territory. Uncle Simon came to America and settled near Lake Poinsett Dakota Territory it 1873. He and his wife spent their first winter living in a Dugout on the side of a hill southeast of Lake Poinsett. The following year a sod house got built. Simon’s uncle Ole helped him build a stone house in 1880, part of that house is still standing. Andrew came to the Dakota territory to help his uncle Simon on the farm as Simon didn’t have any sons. He had five daughters.
Andrew and Minnie rented a farm near Simons, where they made their home for the next 40 years, and their son Frank, my father, was born, and they had another daughter named Elma. They lived in a sod house first. It was later covered with wood, creating walls two feet thick. Their income from that small farm was not a large amount of, money from selling cream and eggs, a few pigs in the fall, or calves. They usually traded cream and eggs for groceries in town and sold a small grain each fall.
When the stock market crashed, and the banks closed, my grandfather lost all the money that he had saved in the Bank. He was a proud Democrat and incredibly pleased to be an American citizen. It is somewhat ironic that the bank president who locked the doors and kept Grandpa’s money was a Republican. He was also a friend of grandfathers. Those were different times; some democrats and Republicans considered themselves friends and could talk and work together. We cannot say the same thing today as our society has become hostile and hateful.
In 1929 the Wall Street Stock market was making some people rich. It looked so good it was said, “even the shoeshine boy was putting his money in the stock market.” When it crashed, overnight all that money disappeared. It must have gone in someone’s pocket?
Grandpa must have been a forgiving person because he and the banker remained friends. Grandpa didn’t put money -in any bank for a long time. A little cloud hung over their friendship after that. Grandpa had recently sold some cows. He put the check in the Bank the day before the banks were all closed. Did his friend know advanced knowledge of that closing date? Could he have warned Grandpa, don’t put your check-in this Bank? Grandpa being the forgiving and loving person he was, always gave him the benefit of the doubt. He often said, “human greed” destroyed many people.
The controllers of the nation’s wealth may have been planning our future of credit card spending after the banks closed. They now have almost everybody buying with credit cards and we became their slaves. People depend on credit cards for daily existence. Big money actually killed the work incentive in this nation with EZ credit for low-income people. It is going to be hard to get that old work ethic back.
I believe my grandparents got put on this Earth to spread God’s love to all the people they met. Wherever they went to visit, they always brought something with them to give to the neighbors. They greeted everyone with the words “Gods Peace.” They understood and lived to love thy neighbor.
My dad told me about a new neighbor moving into the area one time. The stranger asked Grandpa, “What kind of people live around here? Grandpa asked him, “what kind of people lived where you came from?” The man described different people all had problems. Grandpa said, “You will find the same kind of people here.”
You might say I love my neighbor, but I hate his politics. You can say that and more because you live in America where you enjoy FREE speech. The new Trump slogan is” Rather be Russian than a democrat.” That means you don’t want freedom, that makes you a traitor! Have you served the United States in the military? If you have, you would never make such an idiotic statement. If that is your real feeling, you should not be living here. You should be living in Russia or another country with a dictator, they will tell you what type of politics you will have.
If you live in America, you have the choice to decide which way you want to go. No political party has all the right answers; we must work together for the good of all citizens. Calling each other names belittling others lying about others is tearing the country apart. We must all work together if we expect to have a free society where all men are created equal. Our forefathers would be disgusted with the childish ways and mess that has been created after all the suffering and sacrifice they endured.
The Republican party has Played Dirty politics for decades. They’re running out of tricks in their playbook. They are now trying to scare the voters into believing the Democratic party will turn this nation into a socialist state.
It appears to me that’s what the GOP goal is, control over everything. It’s not the Democratic Party that refuses to work with the other side.
It is a two-way street, but the Republicans have played it is my way or the highway for 40 years. They vowed not to help President Obama get anything done! I feel it is time for those my way or highway Boys to hit the road. Let young people in to run the government, people who will work for the nation’s good, not just the top wealth holders.
The wealth can only trickle down if the greedy loses their death grip on it.
More thoughts for the voters.
There was little or no income in the USA agricultural community in 1929. Credit was not used to buy things. People saved, and every extra Penny they had was in the bank to get saved for a rainy day. Most of these pioneers had nothing when they arrived, so they treasured everything they acquired. You made your way in this world. You did not look for handouts.
The powers-that-be created the Wall Street Crash that closed the banks. The little bit of money the hard-working people had saved got taken away. The GOP still believed you pull yourself up by your bootstraps even after they took your boots. You should; do the honorable thing stay home and die if you get sick or do like the ancient Eskimo tribes. When you get too old to be productive or bring in food. You should walk out alone and sit there until you freeze to death.
In our part of the USA, if you had no money or home, there were poor houses in the 1930s where you could stay. They had no Bathrooms or running water. They maybe had one faucet so people could get drinking water. The smell of human waste was overwhelming and bed bugs were everywhere. My dad used to say people living there lived longer because they remained active, killing bed bugs.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt thought the condition of our senior citizens was bad. He devised the Social Security plan. The Republican party fought against it. They did not believe we should have a social system of any kind in this country.
The Republicans also fought against the Medicare system, but after it became law. They passed a bill ‘in the middle of the night’ that would make trillions of dollars for the drug companies.
We need some new blood, young people with common sense to take control of the Helm of our ship of State. It’s about ready to crash into a rock pile.
The way the Republican Party acts today, they would like to see us join Putin’s Communism they want to control everything. Now they’re using the new flip flop platform. Turn it around, have voters believe the Democrats will turn us into a socialist country. If they flip flop the same lie long enough nobody will know it.
The Republican party has a long track record for the use of dirty political campaigns. I will enclose a quote about one of their young early professional poop peddlers, Lee Atwater.
“In 1988,” Mr. Atwater said, “fighting Dukakis, I said that I ‘would strip the bark off the little bastard’ and ‘make Willie Horton his running mate.’ I am sorry for both statements: the first for its naked cruelty, the second because it makes me sound racist, which I am not.” Reputation as ‘Ugly Campaigner'” “Since being stricken last year, the 39-year-old Mr. Atwater has apologized on several occasions for many of the campaign tactics he once employed and for which he was criticized. But rarely has he spoken in such detail or with such candor as in the interview for the first-person Life article.”
The GOP party leaders giving the marching orders today, spreading lies, rumors and hateful division make Lee Atwater look like a quiet, little Sunday school teacher.
The GOP’s hope. “Voters quickly forget what a man says.” —President Richard Nixon.
The Republican Party and the Religious Right is positive God has sent Donald Trump to save this country from the terrible Democrats.
I find that hard to believe unless God and the New Religious Right operate by spreading hate through lies, fear, and intimidation.
I have always thought God does his work through love.
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“Jesus alerts his disciples not to be deceived by the false prophets, who will claim themselves as being Christ, performing “great signs and wonders”.
How then should a person who professes to be a Christian live his daily life? Should he try to do things that will hurry up the end? Should you do what is wrong ‘in your own mind’ if you think it will bring about the end sooner? We live in a world controlled by man’s laws and elected officials.
How should that affect the way you vote? Do you vote for people who do not treat their neighbors as they would want to be treated? Is it right or wrong to vote for people who show no sign of loving their neighbor? Human nature prods us to speed up the end-time prophecy? It reminds me of early church history and cold jumpers.
I do not want to jeopardize my place at the cross by voting for what I know in my heart is wrong!
In Christian eschatology, the Antichrist, or anti-Christ, is a person prophesied by the Bible to oppose Christ and substitute himself in Christ’s place before the Second Coming. The term (including one plural form)[1] is found five times in the New Testament, solely in the First and Second Epistle of John.[2] The Antichrist is announced as the one “who denies the Father and the Son.”[3] ” The similar term pseudokhristos or “false Christ” is found in the Gospels. In Matthew (chapter 24) and Mark (chapter 13),
The United States military leaders got told by the politicians in 1959, about the Domino theory, all the countries in Southeast Asia will fall to communism like domino’s if we don’t stop them in Vietnam. We are trading partners with all of them today. President Trump met with North Korea’s Communist leader at Hanoi, “a real slap in the face to all POW’s.”
Communism hasn’t spread very far unless that’s what is happening today by undermining our political processes and causing a bitter division of the people, through corrupt elections. We won’t remain free for many more years when the country is divided by hate groups. We have remained a free Democracy by working together regardless of differences of opinion. The good and survival of all in the “United States must be the goal.”
It now appears as if those days are coming to an end, right, wrong, law and order have little meaning. It may not have been communist conspired but the voters have been brainwashed by propaganda that has flooded all of todays Social Media platforms. The Republican Party destroyed Hilary Clinton’s reputation with lies and robbed her of being president of the United States. Their plan is to now steal the 2020 election the same way. Their goal is to divide and control voters, all for power and profit. God help America.
As a youngster my grandparents Andrew and Minnie Olson attended the Estensen family reunion as often as there was one held in the community. I came across a newspaper clipping from a reunion that was at Lake Campbell near Brookings SD, decided to share this with my blogging friends. I’m sure there are many names for everyone to remember. I recall attending with my grandparents, even as a youngster it was a fun event. My wife and I attended our last Estenson reunion at Renner South Dakota in the early 1970s.
Family reunion were annual events at one time, or as close to annual as you could get. Reunions seem to be out of style in many families today. My wife came from a large family in Michigan and she loved to return to the family reunions in July as often as we could. I realized those reunions were very important to her so we attended often, even though it was a long drive. This year she didn’t want to wait until July so she went to the reunion in April, not to Michigan but that Huge Glorious Reunion where the streets are paved with gold. There is an eternal reunion with friends and family waiting, that is truly out of this world.
Carol, Harlan, Sandy, Elma, Steve, Butch, Karen, Sarah, Luke. Making ice cream with T-Model; Lee and Lyle.
Rev Don Bowers, Rose’s brother.
David Bowers and family
IMG_0050.JPG Marylin Wittkopf, Lydia & Bob Ruttman, Annebell Dolson at Harrison, MiIMG_0053.JPG Rosie Bowers, and her daughter Kari and family.
IMG_0058.JPG
IMG_0061.JPG Marilyn and Shirley Bowers at Gaylord, Mi
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Northfield, MiReunion at Wixom, Mi 1970,s Rose with her uncle Norm at lake Brevort UP
Katie, Andrew, Julie, Brian, Carol, Harlan, Lori, Ryan and Jim Hopkins
Clair Jacobson, Carol, Harlan, Rose, Alice Mackey, Arlyce Jacobson at Poinsett cabin.
I have known this country music legend since we were teenagers and caddies at the Watertown Country Club, near Watertown South Dakota. Sherwin devoted his entire life to entertaining people with real music, Country Music. Listen and enjoy or visit him at one of the places on his schedule
If one of your late ancestors were to come back from the dead and join you for dinner, what things about your family would this person find the most shocking?
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Family Dinner Out
Somebody in our family got the idea a while back that it would be just great if we all got together and had dinner out. Of course, the first question that came up, where to eat? Some wanted to go to McDonald’s, and others wanted a Chinese buffet. We had a few younger ones voted for Italian. One grandson with an Asian wife wanted Japanese sushi. I shouted, “this is getting us nowhere. We are all going to go to Ralph’s Gizzard Kitchen and pull a few tables together and enjoy a family dinner.”
We finally got seated at Ralph’s Place. I ask, “how about ordering.” Each one wanted to order from the menu by themselves. Immediately I said, “No way, José, that is not going to work. It will drain my bank account.” We can all have the special, and I will pick up the check. If each one wants to order separately, we will share the cost. No one wanted the special, as I thought, with a breath of relief. Orders finally were all placed; waitresses started bringing out all the different meals.
Everyone was relaxing and enjoying their meals when we heard some police siren’s out in front. Pretty soon, a policeman walked in the door with this big old fellow, who looked like a lumberjack. The policeman asked, “Is somebody here named Leland Olson.” That’s me, I replied.” The policeman says, “This old geezer was wandering around in the middle of the street looking for a restaurant called Ralph’s Gizzard Kitchen. Nobody in town seemed to know where it was.” Whoever picked this place to eat must not get out of the house much! So anyway, “This fellow claims to be the great-grandfather of Leland Olson. He got the message to meet everyone here for a family dinner.”
I jumped up and gave my great-grandpa a big old hug, you look great, you died in 1925. I started banging a glass with my spoon. Can I have everyone’s attention, “This is great-grandpa Ole Hoel, he came from Canada to have dinner with us.” Sit down and join us. So, “how have things been going with you, grandpa, what would you like to eat?” Salted herring and lutefisk are out of season right now. They have excellent walleye fillets. I heard you always liked fish; we all did. Grandpa said, “That will be just fine, “but I don’t seem to have the appetite I had working in the woods all day.”
I asked, “How long can you stay,” They said, ‘until dinner is over,’ “I thought maybe you could come out to the house and stay awhile.” ‘Well, that is not part of the deal.’ I’m here to have dinner with you and your family, to see how you all look and act.’ “Frankly, I am shocked. It appears like you all have a lot of confusion and bad manners.” “You should be eating at one table in your home.” ‘Grandpa things change.’ He says, “Don’t know why things got to change that much, only been a little over a 100 years or so since I left here.”
So I asked him, “If you’re leaving after dinner, I hope you’re not walking back to Rocky Mountain House, Alberta.” No way, “Walk that far, you nuts? I did it once in 1905 beside my faithful oxen.
“I will be returned to Canada the same way I got here. Something beamed me up. I didn’t have my Derby hat, so they beamed me back down, got my hat, and beamed me up again, then brought me here. I hope they get it right, going back.”
Thanks for supper, it was nice to meet your family. Leland, What did you say you do? Blogging? Never heard of it, “Now logging, I know a lot about log………
Bye, bye, great-grandpa. I love you.
I have always felt a closeness to all my grandfathers. My great grandfather, Ole Estensen Hoel, was born on December 2, 1816. I was born on December 1, 1940. Grandpa Ole Hoel was born on April 28, 1844.
Families throughout this world have become more fractured as cyber societies progress at warp speed. The family unit in the United States no longer resembles what it was in the past. Each generation for the past few decades. Has seen the values change. The ties that bind families together have been destroyed or continue to decline.
It will be a terrible price to pay, but possibly this Coronavirus will help reverse a trend that was destroying the family unit worldwide. No matter how horrible a situation looks. There can always be a brighter side found If we search hard enough for it. A new world of fellowship and brotherly love might be in the making.
I have to laugh my furry little old butt off at times. They talk to me like I’m a person but those two still think I’m a cat! Lee is such a pushover, I knew if I acted real sickly and underfed he would bring me into the house and that’s exactly what he did, many, many years ago. Rose is gentle and filled with love, as every good mother should be, she is my baby.
I worry about Rose, her health hasn’t been very good lately, she is suffering from every lung condition in the books, along with diabetes, even dementia. That makes days very hard for her, so I try to be really nice to her and show her lots of love and affection. I sleep by her feet all night and always sit on her lap in the recliner, she pets me constantly.
Lee doesn’t seem to be the Rock Hudson, she thought she was getting when she married him way, way back. I love to just sit with Rose and I know my presence makes her feel good, which is very comforting to me. She yells at me at times, about not to do certain things but I know she doesn’t really mean it. She hollers, “watch your claws a lot,” while I make biscuits on her stomach, or scratch the furniture. That’s what cats do, for crying ‘meow’ out loud!
Lee is always coming up with special names for me like Dumb cat, or Damn cat, my name is Princess. I have a Royal Countenance about me, everyone can see that. If Rose asks, “Did you feed Princess?” He always says something really dumb, like, ‘have you got an alligator?’ He thinks his so-called Terms of Endearment are really cute. When he does these things I have something special for him. I have the power to make a sore pop out in either one of his nostrils, or both, like an ingrown hair and it will stay sore for 3 or 4 days. I could put a boil on his butt too. He is very fortunate, I did like him a little at one time.
The hair on my back almost stands straight up when he forgets to empty the cat box on time, which seems to be quite regular. I thought he was going to have a heart attack one day, I pretended to do my job next to the Box. I got a big laugh out of that one. He was screaming at Rose, “Your cat is peeing on the floor.” Rose knew better because she knows me and trusts me in a special way. Lee asked, “Why has it been my job to empty the cat box since day one?” You brought her to the house! Why should I be punished for doing a good deed?
My tired, sore old body was still in bed at 9:00 AM today. I had a busy, half scary, long night thinking about our families, my own and my wife’s family, and the many cats our families have had through the years.
This following message came to me in a dream. My mother-in-law passed away at age 80, that was approximately 17 years ago. She did make a promise to me, it was something like this. If there was a way, ‘she would make life very uncomfortable for me, if I didn’t treat her daughter Rose right.’ It was more or less a threat. No, It was a threat, “You be good to my baby girl or you will have no peace and rest in your lifetime.
It then hit me, I brought princess into the house 17 years ago, shortly after my mother-in-law passed away. It surely can’t be possible! Did she come back as Princess? Her hair was snow-white, like the cat. If that is the case she wasn’t in limbo long, that is understandable, the keeper of the gate just looked the other way.
Rose, “I will feed Princess and take the cat box out right now.”
What kinds of experiences stir emotions for the past within you?
Lake Poinsett Nostalgia
The word that was suggested for the one-word prompt recently was nostalgia. It was a photo challenge, but the photos I’m using here are not current. The beautiful lake named Lake Poinsett in northeastern South Dakota is where I will take you on my nostalgia trip. I was born in 1940 and grew up witnessing many changes at the lake. With this post, I hope to take a short trip back down memory lane and recall different things about Lake Poinsett. It has seen dramatic changes in usage, population, residences, year around homes, food, drink, bait and tackle places and a multitude of water level changes.
We lived on a farm less than a mile south of the lake, our parents were Frank and Frances Olson. A lot of time was spent either fishing or swimming in our lives. Our great uncle Simon Hoel Olson built a stone house on the hill just east of the park in 1885, part of it still stands. My grandfather Andrew Hoel Olson helped him farm the land, the Olson name shows on the oldest maps for Lake Poinsett.
Simon Hoel Olson home 1880’s
Tall, virgin prairie grass grew for a mile along the south shore of the lake. Simon and my grandfather cut hay from it for forty years. There is a beautiful state park on that land today, trees and campgrounds everywhere. There is still some virgin Prairie sod where you can find a few wildflowers still growing today on ground that wasn’t plowed after the state turned it into a park. One of those Prairie areas is on a steep hill just south of the tent campground, the other is west of the turn around on the east side of the park, I think some is still virgin Prairie part way to the boat landing. The May flowers were plentiful in that area back in the early days they’re was also wild Tiger lilies.
A few tall original cottonwood trees were growing along the shoreline but through the centuries ice knocked most of them down. An old wagon trail can still be seen in places west from the turnaround almost to the boat landing, it went to the east boundary fence and on for another mile to the Hendrickson farm, what is now Runia’s farm. There were no homes or cabins on any of that land.
Just to the west of the State Park property, there was a very lively, noisy dance hall named Smith’s place. It flourished in the early 1900s. It was a very lively dance hall, where many big-name bands played as they travelled through this area. We knew Charlie Smith, the owner, and his family very well. Their daughter babysat the three Olson boys on occasion. Karlton, Harlan, and Leland.
It was during the time of the second World War. It would almost seem that those who did not go off to do battle overseas did their battling at Smith’s Dance hall. As a young boy I remember a lot of fighting going on at almost every dance.
My brother Harlan was a banker, writer, and collector of artifacts who helped start the Museum at the state park entrance. Harlan loved every minute of it, even the many volunteer hours. He passed away on March 8, 2016. I can see him searching for artifacts on old Heavenly terrain now. I imagine there are some nice artifacts to be found near those streets of gold.
Smith’s dance hall and the property was all sold to the Methodist Church, they may have become the first church to have a beer license. The original dance hall building where Lawrence Welk played still stands, in the same place on that stretch of shoreline. Today it is used for meetings and as a dining hall, which says something about old-time construction.
Arlington Beach, the next place west, was run by a lady named Ann Oburn. This picture is of the Lake Poinsett water slide in the 1920’s. it was located at Arlington Beach, as far as I can tell from looking at the Hills and the trees in the background. I will be glad to edit this story and change the location if it is wrong. Ann Oburn had a few rental cabins, a cafe and a bait house.
Bud Mueller from Estelline gave boat rides at Arlington Beach in the 1940’s. This was his fancy boat.
In the nineteen forties or early fifties it was purchased by Russ Weiland and his wife who operated it for many years. Russ was the original Evinrude Johnson dealer in this part of the country. His daughter and son-in-law relocated to Weiland Marine, which is now on Highway 81.
West from there were only two or three homes until you got to the little hilltop farm with the goats. Madsen’s lived there. There were only two cabins between there and Mundt’s Resort. Mundt’s had several small cabins that they rented out. There was a farm between Mundt’s resort and what is now Pier 81.
There was another dance hall. It seems like one of the Norgaard boys put the building up, it closed after the War. It later became Wieland Marine on Highway 81 just north of the corner by the Poinsett Cemetery. It was near a gas station, some called Hilltop, others Ann’s Place. She served lunches and usually had a lively crowd, Ann and Clyde served beverages to those with the most discriminating tastes. The place later became Howard Lees, then Ole’s repair shop. It was Gene’s repair until Weiland Marine bought it.
Ernie Edwards moved a building to the lake and started Edwards’s resort, in the late 40s. Edwards served tasty food and later had a motel bar and live music.They had dances through the 60s and 70s, Country Western and Rock and Roll music. They usually had incredibly good crowds. It was sometime in the 1960’s a truck driver must have gone to sleep at the wheel, and he tipped his semi over in Edwards’s parking lot wrecking cars and almost taking out the gas pumps. I can imagine the call that driver had to make to his company trying to explain how he just wrecked a few dozen cars while tipping over at a crowded dance. I was there that night and recall there was a lot of commotion. It was a miracle that no one was hurt, many people were outside. Pier 81 was later owned by Floyd and Nellie Bronstad and Kenny and Helen
Olson.
On the west side of the Lake, there was a resort called Sportsman’s Lodge owned by Nesson’s, the Hawley family was there too, it burned down. It was an exceptionally long large building with a restaurant, they also had cabins and rooms in the lodge that they rented out.
What is now Lakeview Resort was a small resort opened by Ole Mikelmier. It later became Fish Haven, the home of the famous Carp Sandwich. They had a secret BBQ sauce, it brought out the best in a sizable chunk of carp. From Lakeview North, there were two or three homes.
The Grape Farm had no homes until the first one was built right on the point in the 1950s. From there North to Saarinen’s the state purchased part of the shoreline and later sold Lots to private owners. That closed it for skinny dipping. From Saarinen’s Point North there were a few homes because it was close to the highway.
Niteberg’s Resort was just east of the Stonebridge. That highway washed out west of the bridge in the spring of 1969 as flood waters from over a hundred inches of snow came in from the river and Dry Lake.
Nittebergs must have had a couple dozen summer cabins that they rented out along with boats and bait. They also had some carnival rides in the summer months and afternoon roller skating in the dance hall. The dance hall was built over the lake at one time, but ice damage made them move it back to shore. It was a family run business. The brothers John and Clair ran the bar and maintained most jukeboxes, pinball and other game machines in a large area, their sisters operated the cafe.
The Dance Hall was busy and a lively location during the 50’s and 60’s and into the 70’s. There were all types of music, old time music was the most popular for many years, until Rock and Roll moved in. There were many big-name bands playing at Nittebergs Resort in the early years, the Model T and Model A days. Lawrence Welk who was from Strasburg N D played there in his younger days. Miron Florin from Rosholt South Dakota managed the Welk music when Lawrence stepped down.
Leo Fortin’s Orchestra was a regular at Nitteberg’s Stone Bridge Resort for many years.
They had Thursday night dances in the fifties. I recall our football coach Don Jorgenson at Castlewood kept telling us “You Guys are a good football team but just think how much better you would be if you didn’t spend all night at the dance on Thursday night.” He had a good point there.
We danced a lot to Big Tiny Little’s Band who played with The Lawrence Welk Orchestra. He was born in Worthington Minnesota and was a regular there in the 50s and 60s.
Dry Lake was north of Stone Bridge. In the dryer years, it was full of muskrat houses. The Game Warden Ed White with his Smokey the Bear Hat would fire a shotgun to open the trapping season. From what I have heard it was like the Boomer Sooner land rush in Oklahoma. Trappers made a mad dash to claim as many muskrat houses as they could.
The County had a bounty on pocket gophers at that time. It was rumored that some entrepreneurial muskrat Trappers took the front paws from their muskrats and turned them in to claim pocket gopher bounty in the spring. It would take a very thorough coroner’s autopsy to tell the difference between the feet.
When you went east from Nittebergs cabins, there were only one or two houses, the one right below the hill was named ‘The Mouse Turd Inn.” The west side of that hill was steep, just a dirt trail going straight up, many Model A’s some Model T’s, later newer cars had drivers who challenged each other to make it to the top. The dust really flew! Some got sideways on occasion and rolled back down the hill.
The resort on top of the hill was known as Jim Bagley’s place. A long wooden staircase went down the hill to the lake. They also had a café, fishing equipment, and bait. The name was changed to the Hilltop Resort later when owned by Louie Morales and his family. Louie rented boats at Thomas Lake one summer when perch fishing was hot.
Just down the hill, east of the hilltop resort, there were three or four homes before you got to Hammer’s pasture and to the outlet of Lake Poinsett, which led to Stark’s Bridge where flood gates were installed.
There have been several fish winter-kill years when oxygen in the lake got so low most of the fish died. Dead fish laid in windrows around the lake at one time. The worst spring brought out the National Guard with front-end loaders, trucks, and lots of shovels.
The Bakke farm and Cemetery took up most of the east shore. Two homes were on the hill overlooking Prestrude’s Landing. Lots were developed and cabins built to the south of the boat landing in the 1950’s. Goulds opened a beer and bait place there in the late forties, but it didn’t last. The Hansen family only recently developed the next mile of shoreline. Going south from the Hansen development to Hendricksons or now Runia’s there were two cabins.
This was a selfish nostalgic trip around Lake Poinsett. I’m far to young to have nostalgia for the water slide or for the swimming attire. So, I feel a lot younger by taking this trip back just a few years before my time. I thought I would like to share these memories of Lake Poinsett while I’m still able to share them. I’m almost at the end of life’s checkout lane. The changes at Lake Poinsett are hard to imagine if you didn’t witness them. The number of large homes today must reflect great prosperity in this country or ‘something’?
At night the lake and all of the countryside was darker than pitch, this was in 1945, before REA, no all-night yard lights, no electric lights period. We played cards with light from a kerosene lamp on the table. The nights were a whole lot darker, a small glow in the sky to the west was Lake Norden’s lights. The smaller glow to the east was Estelline near the Sioux River. You could barely make out a tiny glow for Brookings. You might say nights were a bonus for ghosts and goblins in those days. On a night with no moon or stars, you best hope your lantern did not go dry. Can you imagine going back to living in those times?
NOVEMBER 15, 2016 / LELAND OLSON HOEL
Swimming attire has gone from one extreme to the other throughout the centuries. In classical antiquity, swimming and bathing were done nude. The swimming suits here from the 1920’s seem a wee bit extreme, the weight of the wet swimsuit could pull you under. Now close to one hundred years later we saw, peered, peeked our way through the tiny weeny, polka dot bikini era, we are back to swimming in the nude again on some beaches.
What goes around comes around, with nostalgia or Murphy’s Law.
Was there a toy or thing you always wanted as a child, during the holidays or on your birthday, but never received? Tell us about it.
Thanks for the suggestion, Jen Rosenberry!
There was one thing that I always wanted as a kid but never received. Many birthdays and Christmas days came and went, but what I was searching for was never there. I could understand that they were relatively expensive, and it was just something that children in lower-income families didn’t get to play with often. I was fortunate to have a friend George Hestead whose parents even had a big sailboat. I hope I didn’t become friends with him because he owned Lionel Train sets. He had the most massive train set I have ever seen. It got spread over one whole room in his house. I can hardly describe it, almost enough track to get to Chicago. He had depots, bridges, tunnels, railroad crossings, flashing lights, smoke coming out of the engines. It was indeed awe, inspiring site for my young mind. I spent a lot of time at his house. He didn’t mind letting me share in his wealth, and it was a lot of fun. It would have been easy to covet that neighbor’s trains!
In 1949 my brothers Corky and Harlan and I rode the passenger train from Bryant to Watertown with mom. My love for trains made that a particularly, memorable day. We later learned it was a special day for sure. Our parents were in the process of getting a divorce. Our big house got sold, we said tearful goodbyes to our pigeons. Mother soon moved us to Watertown. That was a monumental change in lifestyle. We learned to tend a large garden before doing anything else, and do some cleaning and cooking. Cloths washing water was pumped by hand and heated on the gas stove in a washtub with lye soap cut into it. Harlan ran his arm up to the elbow in the ringer one day. Mother suggested we use more care after that.
Watertown was a busy railroad center. I soon concluded, I now had my train set, full size. We would go down by the tracks and play around the different trains while switching cars and being moved around, and changing engines. Oh, what a time I had! We occasionally hopped a ride, hanging onto the side of a car and riding for a way, that was quite an adrenaline rush. As we got braver, we rode out to the edge of town then jumped off before the train got going too fast. We walked back to town, walked everywhere in those days. A lot of men were out of work and hopped rides on trains everywhere. There was a hobo camp near the river, north of Riverside Park. They were mostly a friendly group and shared their meager meals with us.
We were living in the days before electronic games and TV, so we made our entertainment. One of my favorite places was the old roundhouse, where those big steam locomotives got turned around and sent back in the other direction. I would crawl down and hide underneath the turntable and watch all the action going on up above. Those were exciting and scary times. The railroad people were always trying to chase us away, but I think they probably concluded. Those kids don’t have much to go home for and overlooked some of our presence there. We were always careful. I remember any time we crawled underneath a train to get across the tracks. We were very, very careful. My brother and I still have all of our legs today, and some reasonably unusual memories.
One of the railroad workers who lived next to the tracks was Sherwin Linton’s father. When he was motioning for me to get away from the trains, he didn’t realize that little hooligan would later become friends with his son Sherwin.
Ice got harvested by a large crew at Lake Kampeska all winter. There was a huge ice house at the lake and another one in town. They supplied ice for everyone during the long hot summer. Both were popular places to play on hot days. Ice got cut into huge blocks then stored in the ice houses with layers of sawdust in between.
Mother rented a house on the south side of Lake Kampeska one time. That is when I met George and his prized railroad system. We started to caddy at the Country Club, that’s where I met Sherwin Linton. He was the only caddy with a guitar. That old Tennessee Flat Top Box has served him well. He still maintains a tour schedule plus plays at county and State Fairs. At 80 years young he appears energetic and still plays great.
I love my trains but will stay away from the tracks when I see
When I started writing my blog on WordPress in 2014, I considered it a way to communicate with people around the globe. We started blogging during those days, hoping it would help bring the world closer together through electronic media and the Internet. Communication is now instantly done with people around the globe. One thing we’ve all learned through the years. This world is constantly changing, and usually not for the better.
I hope blogging also helped lead to a prayer group praying for our planet’s survival. Prayer usually has good results for all involved, whether for health issues or global issues such as global warming and concern for our fellow man all over this planet. That’s why I decided to share the different countries my blog has gone out to.
My health is deteriorating. My blog will only get written for a bit longer. Hopefully, some bloggers worldwide will become part of prayer networks, I need your prayers. Thank you.
Click your mouse pointer on the following link to view a list of the countries.
I exchanged messages with a lady from Amman, Jordan. We exchanged prayer requests with each other for several years. Now that my life is going sideways and I’m living in a nursing home, I tried to contact her, but I can’t find her WordPress site anymore. I hope she’s fine and doing OK. She was living on a corner of a rooftop in Aamon, Jordan. Her son was trying to get her to move to a different location, but she seemed determined to live in her small living space on the roof. She was away from the shooting in the streets.
There are many pictures and stories relating to life in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan USA and the Great Lakes area. It has an excellent history of shipping on all of the Great Lakes and also has a submarine named Silver Sides which is a floating museum. I hope you enjoy it. I put this link here, so people around the World can sample it. You don’t have to subscribe to it through the mail you can subscribe to an online subscription.
Start your new year reading one of the best suspense mystery novels you will ever have. You can read it, or you could listen to it on Audible. I hope you enjoy it.
I wasn’t taller than Harlan, I was standing on the seat with my feet out of water.
I like the story by Woodswoman Netty Bramble about the duck hunters floating duck blind. In the September-October issue of the U P magazine. That sounded like an educational, and exciting excursion, something that might have happened in my younger days. I’ve always loved the Upper Peninsula and wished I had lived there. Now in hindsight, if I had been there as a child I no doubt would have ended up out in Lake Superior. That would have been a real disaster! With my experience building rafts and assorted floating devices I no doubt would have ended up in Chicago. I guess that wouldn’t have happened either, I never would have designed anything that could have remained afloat for that distance.
The opening of the duck season really got us kids’ juices flowing. I recall one night we wanted to make sure we were there early enough, when the bird started to fly, we slept by the water in my uncle’s old duck boat all night long. That was another boat with limited floatability time. But it was on a shallow Slough where the water was only about five feet deep at the deepest.
My cousin used to tell a story about his dad. They were out hunting at first daylight. A moth came by right in front of them, thinking it was a duck he shot a moth, I believe that might have been the first time that ever happened
My grandparents had an old wooden fishing boat in the 1940s they left that boat at the Lakeshore all winter long and just pulled it up so the ice wouldn’t bother it. Lake Poinsett is the largest natural lake in South Dakota 17.8 square miles. The depth of the lake varies it is close to 20 feet at the deepest places. If a strong wind comes up, you must have a good-sized boat or you going to have a very rough ride. South Dakota winters vary but we can usually depend on about nine months of winter and three months of tough sledding. That old wooden boat sat there drying out all winter long. I was just a kid at that time, but I was scared to death to go on the first fishing trips, it leaked so bad, that the bottom of the boat could have just as well been a screen door. In the 1940s that lake only had half a dozen people around it. Today it’s Wall to wall homes around the complete lake. I don’t think you would leave your boat out all winter now.
One year before the lake froze there were hundreds of thousands of geese out in the middle. My cousin and I had a brainstorm we would camouflage an old rowboat and float out to where the geese were and shoot about 1/2 a boat full. Luckily that boat didn’t leak, we had barely gotten started on our Kamakasi Mission and the geese got up and flew away. Later it dawned on my feverish duck hunting brain. What if the geese had not left and the wind had come up and blown us across the lake? High waves could have tipped us over out in the middle into ice-cold water. I must think there are guardian angels on special detail looking after half-witted youngsters.
We lived in Watertown SD for a while the Big Sioux River runs right through the middle of town. We did have a variety of floating devices there, and most of them used discarded rubber inner tubes with holes in. It was our good fortune to have Grandpa old T-Model tire pump. You might say we graduated from bailing out water with a can to pumping tubes with tire pump.
Before we reached the age of hunting ducks and pheasants, we still built floating devices. I recall one of the first ones my brother and I put together. We used some big old railroad ties; I suppose we were thinking bigger is better. It got quickly assembled on the edge of a sand pit near the railroad tracks. We should have realized it was a sand pit so it must be deep water. We got it built then pushed it off the shore. There we were, submerging like a submarine. We were on our way down to visit Davy Jones Locker; we realized way too late that creosoted railroad ties are not very good flotation devices. We both abandoned ship and scrambled off, we then realized the sides of the sand pit were straight up and down. We both looked like a couple of frantic Beavers trying to find traction to get out of there, the sand just kept sliding under our feet.
Pheasant hunting rings outdoorsman’s bells in different ways. We had relatives from the lower peninsula come out pheasant hunting for several years. They loved
to come out here for the pheasant shooting on the Prairie, and pheasants were plentiful in those days before the raccoons and skunks got into the nest so bad. We were having breakfast where they camped at a nearby State Park. They had a big deer hunting tent they used up in the UP when they were at home in the fall, it looked like a government field kitchen. They had a fancy stove and everything for their deer hunting trips. The one guy I recall was a veterinarian, I don’t remember what town he was from, northwest of Detroit. The guys were talking before the magic shooting time of high noon, later in the season, it’s 10 AM. One fellow said Doc’s wife said, “he got so excited yesterday getting ready for this trip, I don’t think he got that excited on our wedding night.”
Will Ketcham certainly reminds me of a warden we had, he even wore the original Smokey the bear Forest Service hat. My parents frequented the only resort on the lake for Sunday morning refreshments quite often. Our Warden Ed white would come over and make small talk with us boys. There were 3 Olson boys at that time. He would visit for a while and then quickly say, “did you catch any fish last night.” We learned very early to be wary of visiting with the Warden. Using gill nets kept many families alive during the depression days. If you had a good nylon net, with proper care it could last for decades.
The law frowned on nets with big wrinkly foreheads. Mr. White suspected our family because we had a grampa on the north side of the lake and our family was on the South side. All the barn walls had rows of nails for hanging nets. Ed White was a famous well-liked man, the one that replaced him was a different story. He could not catch my uncle and his friend one night with a net. He saw they had a broken seal in the car, so he radioed the highway patrol they got stopped a short time later with a broken seal. That guy didn’t win many friends he did influence his enemies.
During the dry years, we had one lake that had thousands of muskrat houses on it. Warden White opened the trapping season by firing his shotgun. All the trappers were lined up along the highway on one side of the lake when he shot the shotgun in the air. it resembled the Boomer Sooner Land rush in Oklahoma. They had rules, you had to open the house set a trap, and close it back up before you could claim it with your flag. Trappers were an honest group and they respected each other. That was during the dry years. Pocket Gophers increased by a trillion-fold everyone’s land was full of pocket Gopher mounds. The counties all got together and put a bounty on pocket Gophers. You needed to bring in the front feet from your pocket gopher to claim your five-cent bounty. The muskrat trappers had been around the block a few times and they knew It would take a very good forensic scientist to know the difference. So, a lot of courthouses paid the five-cent pocket Gopher bounty for muskrat feet.
The last floating device that I built with my own hands was when I was supposed to be a grown-up young fellow. We were renting a house in Sioux Falls South Dakota add the landlord liked me because I did a lot of work for him on the house. He had a Shop Smith in the basement, I decided I would use that and make myself a flat bottom duck boat. I had an 8-foot-long duck boat not quite four feet wide. I sealed all the seams with fiberglass. I spent most of one winter working on that boat. it was a really fun project. I thought about the doghouse I built first in the basement, I had to remodel part of the roof in order to get it out of the house. I did measure to make sure the boat would fit through the back door, but I found out I needed a lot more muscle than I had to get that boat outside. I used that boat for many years hunting ducks also I did a lot of muskrat trapping from that boat, it paid for itself many times over it would float in about 4 inches of water.
After I started feeling some old age showing up I bought a Chesapeake Bay retriever. She was the best dog I ever had, she made me a nervous wreck when she was just a pup. A diving duck got her attention it would dive and swim further out. That duck had my dog completely hypnotized. It’s just like the duck knew exactly when to come up when the dog was ready to turn around. The duck led her into the middle of the lake, finally, I couldn’t see the dog anymore. I went back to my pickup thinking so much about my new dog. Pretty soon she came back, all that ice water never bothered her a bit. She had one bad habit I had trouble with her, the first duck she retrieved she would climb up on a muskrat house and have the duck herself. You have a lot of memories of a duck hunting dog.
My brother shot a green-winged teal one time it came down in some tall cattails. I told my dog to go in and fetch the duck she plowed through the cat tails and came out with a young Mallard. It was a young duck not quite big enough to fly yet. I sent her back in three different times and she brought out three little mallards. Finally, she came out with my brother’s teal, he scratched his head and said I can’t believe it. I’ve never seen anything like that before.
John Mackey is the son of Arnie and Alice Mackey. His mother Alice was my Godmother. I have talked to people who claim infant baptism is unnecessary because all babies are going to go to heaven anyway. I seem to have a little different view of that idea. When a couple is sponsors of a baby being baptized, they confess before the congregation and the Lord that they will pray for that baby. To guide that life to keep it in the faith and the family of God.
When I was about 50 years old Alice told me she had been praying for me my whole life. I had lived far away from Mackey’s for many years. She could Just as easily forget about me; I never saw them very often.
I realize my life walk took a lot of bad detours and I ended up on the wrong road often. I would like to think her prayers turned me around and got me back on the right path on many occasions.
We must never underestimate the power of prayer. My life has been rather unusual in many circumstances, I survive through God’s Grace and the power of prayer.
John Mackey a lifelong friend loaned me this book that his aunt had written, it is an excellent read for all ages. If you grew up on the prairies of the Dakotas in the Twenties’ 30s or 40s you will relate to this book well. She does an excellent job sharing her experiences as a youth on the farm. She survived the diphtheria epidemic that took her little sister. The trials and tribulations those pioneer families faced would challenge and test the patience of Job. Most of them kept their faith through dozens of life-shattering events.
To give you an idea of how well this book is written, I’ve had to stop reading several times to wipe the tears from my eyes so I could see the print again.
While I am still able, I want to send a message to those I leave behind. No matter what happens in your life, never give up, or admit defeat, keep up the good fight, because life is the best gift you will ever receive. Love it, hang on to it and cherish it.
When I was 23 years old in June 1964, I had a car wreck and ended up with a compression fracture and dislocation of my spine at T-12 and L-1.
Sisu is a Finnish concept described as stoic determination, tenacity of purpose, bravery, resilience, or hardiness and is held by Finns themselves to express a national character. It is generally considered not to have a literal equivalent in English. I am happy and proud to be 97% Finnish
I spent three months in the Sioux Valley Hospital at Sioux Falls SD on a Stryker frame. My right leg did not move for over two months. Thankfully Physical Therapy workers continued to work with me despite my resistance and wanting to quit. They prodded me on when I didn’t have the courage to do it myself. After I had been there about a month, I started taking myself to therapy lying face down on a gurney with a cane in each hand that I used like ski poles. I took myself clear to the basement physical therapy department. The Stryker Frame was designed so the patient could be turned every four hours.
You can learn to eat with your food right below your face. After you get turned the top half of the frame comes off. I took myself to physical therapy face down on a gurney with a cane in each hand, like sky poles after about a month.
Dr. Robert Van Demark took bone from my hips and fused it into my lower back a month before I was released from the hospital. I wore a full-body cast for eight months. It went from my hips to the armpits. I was afraid it might start getting a little bit nasty underneath so I devised a way to use two coat hangers, I would slide them up inside of the cast, then hook a clean t-shirt on and pull it down into the cast. I had lost considerable weight by that time. I never had any problems developing insects or worms underneath that plaster shell.
You can learn to eat with your food right below your face. After you get turned the top half of the frame comes off. I took myself to physical therapy face down on a gurney with a cane in each hand, like sky poles after about a month.
I got out of the Sioux Valley Hospital in October and then spent a year with an aunt and uncle the Wayrynens recuperating. I tried selling insurance and a few other jobs before I went back on Highway Construction and started bouncing around in a truck again.
Syringomyelia
I got married to Rose Marie in 1970. One simple ‘I do’ turned me into a husband, father of four daughters, and grandfather to a newborn baby boy. I was driving a truck in Arizona in 1970. One night driving with the window open, the cool air on my arm felt like needles hitting it. It wasn’t long after that I could not tell hot from cold with my left hand.
Paralysis started on my left side at that time. By 1985 I was completely numb on my left side from my waistline to the top of my head. A straight line just like the Joker has. I was not diagnosed with Syringomyelia until 1985. I was going to the Veterans’ Hospital in Sioux Falls. The neurology doctor had no idea what was wrong with me. He felt sure it was some type of stroke.
The Lord does work in mysterious ways, a young lady intern who had just learned about SM was in his office that day. She told the doctor she thought I may have Syringomyelia, ‘he had never heard of it.’
The next week I was in the VA Hospital in Minneapolis having a drain or shunt put in my spinal cord. At that time when I sneezed or coughed it shot pain to the top of my head, so I would almost pass out. The left side of my tongue was even numb, so I was even biting my tongue when I ate. They put a drain shunt in my spinal cord that moved the fluid to the outside of the cord but still in the spinal column. I am very thankful the pain from sneezing and coughing disappeared after the shunt was put in and, I quit biting my tongue. If that young lady had not been in the Neurologists office that day I no doubt would have gone to be with the Lord many years ago.
In 1985 after the first surgery on my back, I started having problems with my left shoulder. The head of the humerus bone dissolved between the months of October and November of 1985. One month the bone was solid, the next month it was gone. That is called a Charcot Joint, that was brought on by all those years of paralysis
I have lived since 1985 with no joint on my left shoulder. I continued to use it as much as I could, even carrying firewood into the house with it without having the arm connected to the socket. The Neurology Specialists told me shortly after the shoulder went bad it could not be replaced because they were sure it would never heal right. So, I told them I think we better just leave it alone. Pain has always ridden shotgun with me.
They became intolerable, so I just let them grow. I had to wear a stiff neck collar for 7 months. They cut a vertebra in half and took it out. Then used a Roto-Rooter tool to clean around the spinal cord. After they got done with that, they used bone bank parts to hold it all in place.
They put a steel plate on the front of my neck to hold my head-on. It has six screws in it. I got sent home three days after that surgery. My throat was still raw from the breathing tube, to help get pain relief I drank water until I washed all the sodium out of my system. I ended up in another hospital again having seizures from the low sodium level. A few years later I had another low sodium level that put me in intensive care. I had to go to a nursing home and learn to walk again.
It does appear like my whole life has been spent in physical therapy departments. This year not too long before Christmas I fell and broke a nice rack of ribs on my left side which put me in the hospital for 10 days. I finally decided I cannot take care of myself, so now I reside at the Hendricks Nursing Home in Hendricks Minnesota. The people here are great, we should all thank the Lord for young people willing to do these jobs.
I can still walk a little with a walker. But the Lord is right there holding me up all the while. The neurology doctors can find no reason for me to still be walking, I will try to continue confusing them by walking from my room to the dining hall. Most doctors have never heard of Sisu!
This is a genuinely wonderful place in a Norwegian community, they took in a wayward Finlander. This might be where the last chapter of my life will be written. I wanted to get a note out to let everyone know that things are going well. I will hopefully get on the Internet on occasion. I’m sorry for not calling people with my cell phone, that cell phone and I have some type of problem having an understanding relationship with each other.
Nursing Home Care
I have been In the Hendricks Nursing Home at Hendricks Minnesota USA for the last four months, everybody in the place, except possibly the cook and the maintenance people have seen my, wrinkled old rear end, ‘many times.’ The first thing, when you come to the Care Center. leave your modesty at the door.
It takes a special person to take care of these old worn-out bodies like mine. I’m glad there are people out there willing to take on the task. In a way, they are angels sent from heaven.
We just got through over a year of the Nasty Coronavirus, the nurses should have been paid extra wages for working in such dangerous situations. What are the results of the virus? The loss of 900,000 lives and the loss of thousands of nurses. Some got burned out, they could not handle it anymore, being eyewitnesses to slow, agonizing death and suffering. The whole world needs a lot of young people to come forward, and possibly some retired nurses to return to their calling.
The demand continues to grow for all levels of caregivers and will continue to get further out of control. As more and more Gulf War Veterans with missing limbs are going to need care. The government continues to sit on its hands and do nothing. In the 1960s there was a program called the Peace Core. America’s younger people could serve their country without joining the military service, by serving in the Peace Core. Spreading goodwill overseas by teaching poor Nations how to produce what they need better and improve their standards of living.
Instead of doing their duty in Washington, lawmakers deregulate nursing homes allowing gangsters to take control of them and steal the money they need for operating. This is a damn disgrace, Rich gangsters with busloads of lawyers fleecing the old people. Law enforcement can’t do much if there are no state and federal laws to protect nursing home residents and workers. Many nurses nursing homes in the state of South Dakota have been driven into bankruptcy. These crooks will lawyer up and never go to jail.
Our elected Washington lawmakers always get hung up on budget issues, if keeping the national debt down is their goal. Why do they continue to give bigger tax breaks to their billionaire friends?
They could possibly move a Mars expedition to the back burner for a while. That shouldn’t be too complicated. It will not surprise me one bit if they start talking about making a trip to the Sun. I see a real clear picture of Congress arguing the technical ramifications of a solar trip. Do we really have to go at night, or can we go during the day too? Wisdom continues to wane in Washington!
While God was putting this wonderful world together, he did have some problems arise. Shortly after he created the lemmings, he became concerned that they had no will of their own, they seemed to follow and imitate each other even if that meant jumping into the ocean and drowning with the other will lemmings. That must have broken the Lord’s heart. He decided right then, that when he put humans together, he would use all of his power to make sure they were all individuals and were going to have their own character, their own personality, and the will to do their own thing. Not follow the leader like lemmings but use their own minds and judgment to better themselves. He did such a great job on humans he even surprised himself. There were no two people alike on this entire planet.
That brings me back to living here at the nursing home I’m approaching my third month here now it is an education that you will not get anywhere else in a school system. It’s a one-of-a-kind experience with the human personality and how the different personalities intertwine with each other and make everything work. It is truly amazing to witness this. I am not trying to be critical or put anyone down. I just want to share some of the things that go on. I realize this could not happen without the Lord leading the whole program and the dedicated staff that makes it all happen. They go out of their way to keep the residents occupied with things like puzzles, arts and crafts, bingo, and movies talking about travel so people can visit and exchange their travel experiences.
When the weather gets warmer the residents can sit outside and enjoy the fresh air and watch all the different birds that come to the bird feeders There is also an aviary in the building with beautiful little birds in it, and there are two aquariums in different areas and large screen TVs for people to watch DVD movies on, or to watch Church programs on Sunday. There is a protestant and a Catholic Church service each week
The food is usually excellent, and each person has a choice of different items that they can order when they get to the dining room. People are encouraged to walk to the dining area if they can. Some people must be pushed in their wheelchairs to eat but most of them can walk with a walker, a few with just a cane, which is quite remarkable if you are in your 90s. The meals are usually particularly good. There is exercise equipment for the residents to use and they are also physical therapy schedules for those who need physical therapy to regain the use of their limbs.
One sad piece of truth is that I have come to realize there are very few visitors coming to see the residents. I know everyone has busy lifestyles and schedules, but it should not be too hard to work on a visit with a loved one from your family.
I suggested to some of the nurses that they remind me of cowgirls. Just before each meal, there is a Roundup to get the residents from their rooms to the dining area and help those that need help eating or ordering their food. There is always a concern of someone falling when they go from their Walkers to sitting in the chairs, so it’s a big responsibility three times a day during meals.
Some residents seem to go out of their way to get attention from the nurses. One thing that comes to mind is there are a few with stern, mean-looking faces like I might bite you! I thought the only way you could get a mean-looking face like that would be if you spent an entire lifetime sorting feral tom cats.
I do not think there are very many occupations that could create a situation like that unless it might be driving a school bus. That was not a genuinely nice thing to say.
Usually, when the nurse gives one of these angry-faced people a hug ‘a big smile’ comes out on their face, that is the goal of having that unhappy face. We all crave and need some attention, and humans need to feel cared about. I came from a family where our dad never hugged anybody, except maybe my mother. I was very thankful to have a grandmother that was a hugger, when she hugged you, you knew you had been hugged. I see different residents who have their own unique way of getting that needed hug. Children will do lots of things to get attention, it is just natural for us to continue that trend as we get older.
If you try to get out the door a buzzer comes on to warn the nurses to be on the lookout. S0me like to open a door and look out to get some fresh air, I have not done that yet, but it sounds like a clever idea to me. There are a few residents who simply refuse to use their walkers I can understand that independent feeling that they cherish, and they want to hang on to it. Using a walker is not a sign of weakness, but many think it is. It’s protecting yourself from broken bones. There are a few residents who walk up and down the hall
We just got through over a year of the Nasty Coronavirus, the nurses should have been paid extra wages for working in such dangerous situations. What are the results of the virus? The loss of 900,000 lives and the loss of thousands of nurses. Some got burned out, they could not handle it anymore, being eyewitnesses to slow, agonizing death and suffering. The whole world needs a lot of young people to come forward, and possibly some retired nurses to return to their calling.
The demand continues to grow for all levels of caregivers and will continue to get further out of control. As more and more Gulf War Veterans with missing limbs are going to need care. The government continues to sit on its hands and do nothing. In the 1960s there was a program called the Peace Core. America’s younger people could serve their country without joining the military service, by serving in the Peace Core. Spreading goodwill overseas by teaching poor Nations how to produce what they need better and improve their standards of living.
Instead of doing their duty in Washington, lawmakers deregulate nursing homes allowing gangsters to take control of them and steal the money they need for operating. This is a damn disgrace, Rich gangsters with busloads of lawyers fleecing the poor people. Law enforcement can’t do much if there are no state and federal laws to protect nursing home residents and workers. Many nurses nursing homes in the state of South Dakota have been driven into bankruptcy. These crooks will lawyer up and never go to jail.
Our elected Washington lawmakers always get hung up on budget issues, if keeping the national debt down is their goal. Why do they continue to give bigger tax breaks to their billionaire friends?
night, or can we go during the day too? Wisdom continues to wane in Washington!
While God was putting this wonderful world together, he did have some problems arise. Shortly after he created the lemmings, he became concerned that they had no will of their own, they seemed to follow and imitate each other even if that meant jumping into the ocean and drowning with the other will lemmings. That must have broken the Lord’s heart. He decided right then, that when he put humans together, he would use all of his power to make sure they were all individuals and were going to have their own character, their own personality, and the will to do their own thing. Not follow the leader like lemmings but use their own minds and judgment to better themselves. He did such a great job on humans he even surprised himself. There were no two people alike on this entire planet.
When the weather gets warmer the residents can sit outside and enjoy the fresh air and watch all the different birds that come to the bird feeders There is also an aviary in the building with beautiful little birds in it, and there are two aquariums in different areas and large screen TVs for people to watch DVD movies on, or to watch Church programs on Sunday. There is a protestant and a Catholic Church service each week
The food is usually excellent, and each person has a choice of different items that they can order when they get to the dining room. People are encouraged to walk to the dining area if they can. Some people must be pushed in their wheelchairs to eat but most of them can walk with a walker, a few with just a cane, which is quite remarkable if you are in your 90s. The meals are usually particularly good. There is exercise equipment for the residents to use and they are also physical therapy schedules for those who need physical therapy to regain the use of their limbs.
One sad piece of truth is that I have come to realize there are very few visitors coming to see the residents. I know everyone has busy lifestyles and schedules, but it should not be too hard to work in a visit with a loved one from your family.
I suggested to some of the nurses that they remind me of cowgirls. Just before each meal, there is a Roundup to get the residents from their rooms to the dining area and help those that need help eating or ordering their food. There is always a concern of someone falling when they go from their Walkers to sitting in the chairs, so it’s a big responsibility three times a day during meals.
My Mixed Blog 
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