Another Vacation in Minnesota

In the last blog I wrote about Brainerd and its park devoted to lumberjack Paul Bunyan. I wish I had a photo of my mom during our visit to Brainerd.  She probably wore a dress.  I think the picture below was taken on a vacation only a few years earlier.

We were at a gift shop - a Trading Post - somewhere near Aitken or Deerwood.  I would guess my youngest sister snapped the photo which would date it in the spring or summer of 1959, before or just after Karen graduated and moved to Minneapolis.

I think this was the place where Mom suddenly caught sight of a ceramic ashtray souvenir - it was shaped like a coiled rattlesnake.  Like Indiana Jones, Mom has phobia when it comes to snakes (ophidiophobia).   Seeing this "snake" Mom let out a scream.  Karen and I were in another aisle of the gift shop at the time. Leaving Mom in the care of my dad, we aimed straight for the door and went outside, pretending not to know that crazy lady.


Now back to the dress.  It wasn't just June Cleaver.  Moms wore dresses back then.  A photo in an earlier blog shows my mom on our Harris Farm, in a dress while wrangling some goats.