Spring Storm

 

Under a headline that read: "Winter Comes Again; Power Lines Broken" came this little article -

Our Livestock Trucker

 When I was a young lad the sight of one of Clark Douglas’s trucks rattling down the washboard gravel roads and raising a great cloud of dust was a common event. If memory serves he had a fleet of five trucks, four large straight jobs and one smaller one. Clark did the 4H members a big favor those years of Achievement Days in Lisbon and the Corn Show in Enderlin because he would haul our animals free of charge.

The news item from April 9, 1942 gives some idea of the size of business with area stockmen. The holstein heifer I’m holding was one of those Clark hauled for me. It was a nice heifer which the judge at Achievement Days commented highly about after placing it in first place, about 1954 (?).

To the Old Home Place

 The day before the Germans from Russia convention in Mandan convened we drove south to the St. Gertrude area and the land where her grandparents settled and raised their family, Mary’s mother among them.  

Mary points to the only remnant of foundation where her grandparents Frank and Catherine Fergel built their house and raised their family, Mary's mother among them.

Mary with her cousin Francis Fergel who now has the property.

A portion of the Dog Tooth Hills where with some imagination you can see the jawbone of a dog.

Sports Article, 1942

 When in Bis-Man this past week we spent time at the ND Heritage Center archives. I looked through papers from my year of birth and came across this gem. In it you will find your parents’ and grandparents’ names. The writer of the article knew how to spin straw into gold even though we read where the boys lost every game in football and basketball. Enjoy!

RANDOM THOUGHTS - Friday, July 11, 2025

 On this day in 1925, Babe Ruth made his major league debut with the Boston Red Sox as a pitcher beating the Cleveland Indians … Why is success usually measured in dollars? … Is baling wire still a thing? … Some day you will be one of those who lived long ago … Forgive your enemies; it annoys them … Waiting for the Ken Burns PBS program “The American Revolution” … It took fourteen days for news of the battle that inspired the poem ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ to reach England; now - instantaneous … It’s a good thing people can’t hear what I’m thinking … Is there another dimension out there where we run and cavort? … I like the first line in Conrad Richter’s The Sea of Grass: “That lusty pioneer blood is tamed now, broken and gelded like the wild horse…” … The picture shows two Sea of Grass books. I’ve read one and can’t wait to get into the other one … 

1957

 Recent tornado activity brings to mind past seasons of dangerous storms. But to describe those storms in such terms that every bit of the horror and confusion can be understood by others is impossible. No amount of space on a page can explain it fully or accurately. The following poem describes my experience with a tornado in the best terms I can summon.

At chore time one afternoon the boy of fifteen stood

wondering under roiling green clouds that filled

the low sky with some angry dispute.

One cannot forget the color of the clouds,

that green color.

He’d not seen such before.

But he was here to feed the hogs

and turned his attention

to the task while swatting

at mosquito hordes that rose

and clouded the sultry still air.

The brawling sky found no limits

and fought beyond its bounds,

stumbling toward Fargo.

News coverage in 1957

did not tell us what happened

in some coherent sequence

until the next morning. Roving

reporters had not rushed to the scene.

Several days passed before they

assembled and reported the facts

that ten people died.

Enderlin-Sheldon-Anselm

 I drove to Enderlin-Sheldon-Anselm area yesterday. Along Highway 46 some of the tornado damage is very evident. Across the road from  the Doug Kellerman farm where some buildings flew in the wind, the shelterbelt now holds great quantities of torn pieces of tin from those buildings hanging in the trees or laying scattered about. Closer to Enderlin quite a large plot of twisted and splintered  trees sat in disarray across from the Pfaff place where the house was destroyed.

Curious if I could find the spot on the Soo Line where all the railroad cars rolled off the tracks, I found it near its crossing on the Sheldon road.  About twenty heavy duty lowboy trailers sat on the edge of the gravel road. The machines they’d hauled here had been unloaded and were  trackside working to set things back in order.

The nearby farmsteads  showed extensive damage. The buildings once known as the Larson Brothers place had lots of broken trees and branches scattered about. On the south side of the road, friend Ralph’s old place took a heavy hit. I wondered how the wind made the roof of the large quonset building look like a giant fist had  squashed  it down, making the building unusable except for scrap. 

Then it was on to the Anselm Trinity Lutheran Church for the Dale Kaatz funeral where he filled the sanctuary with people saying goodbye.