TRUTH OR FICTION?

  

I recently discovered two photos. Both are dated 1960. I was in third grade that school year, the year my parents and I moved from Silver Bay back to our farmhouse in Harris, Minnesota.  (About two months later we moved back to Silver Bay.) The pic above was taken at the farm. Soon after our move.  

Once Upon a Time... 

Years ago I was writing a memoir about the neighborhoods in my life, especially childhood years in Minnesota – including our family farm in Harris and our years in Silver Bay. Some of past blog entries were helpful as I put together material for the book.

A writer friend read a chapter or two of my stories, and told me I was wasting my time writing a bio -  since I wasn’t famous, who would read it? Her comment turned out all for the best. My favorite books when I was a kid were Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden mysteries.  I dreamed of writing a novel about girl detectives, and put my energy into writing my e-book The Missing Photo Mystery.

 

But now, after posting some childhood photos on Facebook, I’m tempted to return to my memoir. Have hundreds of printed pages still waiting in a file cabinet. But I’m unsure about the project. Not because I’m a non-famous person, but because I’m not sure about the truthfulness of my memory.  

 

The girl in the photo above doesn’t look like a miserable sad-sack to me.  But for years I knew I hated moving back to Harris. I knew my time there was dreadful - riding the bus to school in North Branch, being the new girl in class, living in a farmhouse without central heating. That’s the story I told myself. Here's the second photo I found.

 

I see the same happy girl. Both pics were shot at our farmhouse. I recognize the walls. The place and dates on photos are contemporaneous evidence of that time. 

 

Memory’s a Tricky Thing...

Can we always trust it? Or do we revise memories as time passes? I believe now it was a difficult year for my parents, not me. I’ve woven my parents’ anxiety at the time, and their fears and worries together with my own emotional memories. 

 

If I do return to writing a story about my life’s neighborhoods, I may have to shelf it with other fiction. And here's a possible opening line… “This is not a memoir.” 

 

Third Grade - Campton School

Mrs. Lyson's Class

1959-1960

In September of 1959, I turned eight.  If I'd been born 12 days later, I would have been in second, not third grade.  And graduated with the Silver Bay class of 1970 instead of  '69.


When were school photos taken?  Beginning or end of the year?  I wonder if this was shot in the spring. I'm biting my lip, kinda got a smirk on my face (2nd row, 2nd girl from left).  Makes me think I'm "glad to be back."  By that,  I mean back in Silver Bay, especially back to Mrs. Lyson's class at Campton School.

It was a strange year.  A year full of family tension.  A year that included a move back to the family farm, of months when I rode the bus to school and being the new girl in class.  I could, and maybe I will, build a novel about the events in my childhood during this time.  I have a notion if we had stayed on the farm.. if I had remained a student in North Branch, I would have become a different person with a far different life...  maybe run away from home in high school and joined the hippies in San Francisco.

 

My New Neighborhood

My new neighborhood is Maxton Falls, the setting of my recently published e-book.

Long ago I inherited my sister Karen's collection of Nancy Drew.  She graduated from H.S. when I was in second grade and is the youngest of my three sisters.  Her N.D. mysteries stayed behind after she left home. And I couldn't wait to be able to read them.  In the early 60s I discovered another series with heroine Trixie Belden.  Last year I donated most of my Trixie Belden collection to a thrift store in Cambridge, MN where Mom lives and where my Belden tomes have lived.  I saved the first two of the series as mementos - the covers of these shown below:

 

Trixie and her girlfriend Honey are the girlfriends shown on the covers.  Their neighborhood included the nearby town of Sleepyside.

Jade and Nettie are my girlfriend detectives. I'm happily working on their next adventure.

Narta Ramberg and her Pen Pals

In the past few weeks blog visitors from Europe and Asia prompted me to open a shoebox of memorabilia that includes letters from my childhood's foreign pen pals.

In March of 1961 President Kennedy, by executive order,  established the Peace Corps.  The Corps was authorized by Congress on September 22, 1961.  

I read about the Peace Corps at school in the Weekly Reader.  In the midst of the Cold War the idea of promoting world peace and friendship - Kennedy's words about the purpose of the Peace Corps - seemed a good idea.  But I had just turned 10 - too young to join. However, somehow I read about "Children's Plea for Peace" an organization based at the World Affairs Center at the University of Minnesota.  At least part of the Center's mission was uniting children around the world through letter-writing. Soon I had two foreign pals, a girl from London, England, and a boy from from Accra, Ghana. 

Above is the postcard I received after my pen pal request.  The date on card is 31August 1962.
Alas, I think I only exchanged letter for a year or two.  Probably stopped writing once I began junior high school.


Still, on the odd chance that someone reading my blog knows or has known these two youngsters of the 1960s, I include my nickname at the time - Narta  - as well as the names of my childhood pen friends:

  Celia Richards  of London, England 
  Richard Amable of Accra, Ghana

More about pen pals in future.

One Reason I Love the Beatles

In early January, 1964, someone tapped on Mr. Zinter's math classroom door to deliver a message from the school office.  My mother had called the school to ask if I could be excused early.  My eighty-three-years-old grandfather was in the hospital.  

Mom and I packed the car and we picked up Daddy at the gate of Reserve Mining when he got off work at three that afternoon.  We drove down to Minneapolis, stopping only for gas. During most of the trip I was squeezed in the front seat of our 1962 Chevy Bel Air between my parents, but I couldn’t seem to get warm.

Between my grandparents’ house and Deaconess Hospital Mom pulled into the parking lot of a Minneapolis Red Owl Supermarket.  There was a payphone on the pavement just outside the store.  I stayed in the car while Mom and Daddy tried to contact one of Mom’s sisters, my grandma or the hospital.
It was a cold winter night. The key was left in the ignition so the heater would stay on.
I turned on the radio and fiddled with the knob for a clear signal.  The station I found was playing a song that I had never heard before.  I stared at the radio.  What was this music? The deejay answered my question as the soon as the final chord ended.  He said it was I Want to Hold Your Hand.  He said it was by a British band, the Beatles.

Grandpa died in his room at Deaconess Hospital the afternoon after we arrived.  His funeral was several days later.

I never saw my Grandma, a stoic Dane, cry at the hospital, at her home, or at the mortuary.  At Deaconess Hospital A nurse whispered to my Aunt Florence that Grandma’s poise and self-control made her “just like Jackie Kennedy.” President Kennedy's assassination had occurred less than two months earlier.  

At Grandma’s house, when I was by myself, I would switch on my celery-green Sears Silvertone transistor radio, aching until I heard the Beatles sing that song again.

The Campton Gym and Phy Ed Class

This morning's paper prompted my returning to that micro universe of my young life - the Campton Gym.  In the past I've chatted about events in that gym: a dance recital, seeing the movie Hemo the Magnificent, a shot clinic.  Today today I'll actually talk about the gym as a place for physical education classes.

In today's Los Angeles Times, page 7, I read this headline: "American just keeps getting fatter, new study says."

This is not a new concern.  In the 1950s President Eisenhower established the President's Council on American Fitness. The next president, John Kennedy, also a veteran, was a big supporter of this council. For those of you in gym class in the early 60s, you may remember a song with the lyrics, "Go Chicken Go."  Sometimes Mr. Gere our teacher would plop the Chicken Fat Song onto the turntable in the Campton Gym.  This song was written as part of the presidential program to get kids moving. Kennedy believed it American children should compete with the Soviets in physical strength as well as science.  

Above is from the cover of a booklet providing guidance for fitness. I found the picture on a website for JFK's Presidential Library.


I hope to write more about gym class in the future - the good, the bad and the ugly.  But for now, I'll leave you with lyrics from Meredith Willson's song, "Push ups, every morning.  Ten times.  Not just, now and then...  Go you chicken fat, go..."

My Poor, Lonely Violin

Last blog was about music and I'll stay with that subject today.

In fourth grade I began violin lessons.  Ah, here my memory fails.  I can't remember my string teacher's name.  But I was in Mrs. Mattson's class.  Here's a photo I posted in a previous blog.

(That's me in the middle of the first row, between Terry Skog and Harold Varney. )

My first string recital was another Campton Gym experience.  The old Campton Gym -  I realize now that in my childlife the Campton Gymnasium was a universe unto itself. There on one end of the gym was the raised stage where I saw my first play, PINOCCHIO.    And there I danced with other little girls who were students of Mrs. Baum (a topic of previous blog entry). For this string recital of beginning players I believe we joined with string students of Mary MacDonald.   I still possess music from the recital - hand-written and then run off a ditto machine.  So faded that I can't scan, still readable although about 50 years old.  The music on this sheet music includes Aunt Julida's Polka and the Merry Widow Waltz. 

My first violin was a small one, a 3/4 size.  Before long I was ready for a full-sized violin.
And here it is, my second violin, newly stringed, but lonely indeed.

I played violin from 4th grade until the final week of senior year.  That was it.  I stopped. Now I long to play it again.  Playing again, even minimally, will require time, practice, dedication, probably lessons and also enormous patience.   In short, it will be a challenge, and one I'm sure to write about another day.

Music Matters

I suspect this is the first of many essays about music experiences in Silver Bay. 


First of all, I'll start with the music classes we had in elementary school because the other day I found myself singing Sweet Low, Sweet Chariot while doing dishes.  No idea why that popped into my head.  But I do know when and where it came from - classes with Miss Godich (or Goddich?) at Campton Elementary School.  How lucky that we had vocal music classes in elementary school - maybe 2 or 3 sessions a week. And music books.  Besides a handful of old spirituals like Chariot I recall learning folk songs about the Erie Canal and that sweet gal Betsy from Pike.


But one of the first songs I remember learning from Miss Godich was "You'll Never Walk Alone" from the musical CAROUSEL.  "When you walk through a storm hold your head up high..."  Do you think we realized we were singing about more than a winter blizzard?  Maybe we did.  Miss G. was an awfully good teacher. About that same time she taught us a three-part round with three simple words - in Latin.  Dona Nobis Pacem. 

Until next time... give us peace.

A Bit about Julie London

So when the alarm rang a few mornings ago at 6:30A - the alarm being an I-pod set to shuffle - we woke to Holly Cole singing "Don't Smoke in Bed" from her album of the same title.  Ms. Cole is a Canadian chanteuse - kind of jazzy a times, sings with a small combo, a song stylist.

Anyway, what does Holly Cole have to do with Julie London?  Both are singers let's start with that.  Some people may only know Julie London as Dixie McCall on the TV series EMERGENCY, 1972-76.  I didn't see many episodes of that show.  As far as TV,  I remember her television commercials for cigarettes. Thanks to my 8th grade English teacher, Mr. F., I gleaned that the lady had, let us say, sex appeal!

In 1964-65, eighth grade for me, cigarettes were still advertised on TV.  Memory failure here - I recall Miss London wearing a long, satin gown and standing by a piano.  Internet research tells me she was wearing a tight sweater and standing by beside a warm, inviting fireplace.  Anyway, she was a curvaceous beauty with an ample bust line.  In a low, breathy voice she pitched the glamour of Marlboro (quite a contrast to the Marlboro man).

Now to my eighth grade English teacher.  Mr. F. was an ex-marine (a veteran of Korean war maybe?), a football coach and a very big man.  On occasion he'd reveal his softer side.  He'd perch on the front edge of his teacher's desk and, propping his feet on the seat of a chair which he'd pulled there for that reason, share anecdotes.  He was relaxed and chatted as if talking to his buddies.  Sometimes the stories were about his days as a Marine. Occasionally these stories led to him murmuring... "Julie London..." as we students of English sat there rapt and engaged.  A vibration filtered through the classroom.  "Julie London...," he'd repeat and then draw imaginary smoke into his lungs from a cigarette I could almost believe was in his hand.  "Julie London... what a babe."

At some point we had a music cassette of one of her albums.  And on it was "Don't Smoke in Bed" which always evoked the memory of Mr. F.  Alas, the cassette melted in a glove compartment.  But I learned today that the song is available for download on her album Around Midnight and feel compelled to buy it.  The song was written by Willard Robison and has been recorded by many a songstress including KD Lang, Peggy Lee, Liza Minelli and Nina Simone.

Other trivia I gleaned from internet search: 
Miss London's work included 32 albums.
She died in 2000 in Encino, northern part of Los Angeles, and is buried in Forest Lawn next to her musician husband Bobby Troup (he wrote the fabulous and famous song Route 66).  Ms. London and Troup were both cast members on EMERGENCY!  The show was produced by Jack Webb (of Dragnet fame), Julie London's first husband.

Oh, and don't smoke in bed.  Don't smoke at all!

HEMO THE MAGNIFICENT

Awhile ago I wrote about my hometown not having a movie theatre and that sometimes we watched old movies at the Kelley High auditorium on weekends - sponsored by the Letterman's club, the Science Club, Future Teachers, etc. to raise money.

Today I'll write a few words about  Hemo the Magnificent.   After a too-large meal, or when I'm over-tired by too much exercise (a rare experience), or when I'm just trying to do to many things at one time - I flash on the picture of a frantic telephone switchboard operator in my brain.  The image comes from Hemo.  Each year - 4th, 5th and 6th grades (early 1960s) we sat on the polished floor of the Campton Gym to view this movie.  For those who haven't seen it, it's a funny and educational film about the working of the human body - particularly the heart.  It's a combination of live action and animation - I would say a film way ahead of its time. 

A few years ago I put the title into the Amazon search site.  I learned it was released on videotape in 1991.   Reading some of the reviews that had been posted on the site, I  learned that  Campton was not alone in showing this movie so often - that baby boomers across the country viewed Hemo the Magnificent at their schools multiple times - and loved it.  


 

Paul Bunyan, a Ghost of Minnesota Travels Past

Weather's in the 80s this week.  The tomatoes are planted in our little patch.  So I decided to take a memory trip to  summers past.

I do believe the old Paul Bunyan Amusement park has come and gone.  Relocated elsewhere in or near Brainerd, I believe.  Can it be as wonderful as the park I remember?  I don't know how he did it, but Paul B. actually knew me by name!! And me with such an unusual name, too.  But then, he was the hero of tall tales.

Here I am on a statue of Mr. Bunyan's dog.  The dog obviously got in the way of some tree felling and was unluckily sewn together by someone who needed to pay more attention in Home Ec class.

I would guess the photo was taken in the summer of 1960 or 61.

Besides Paul's hearty welcome, my strongest memory regards a talented chicken.  It shared its cage with a tiny piano. If you put a nickel in a slot, corn was released through a shoot into the pen.  The chicken, now paid, would play for you.  Nothing fancy, of course.  The hen's repertoire, no doubt, was small.

By the way, can anyone tell me the name of Paul's doggie???

A Bit of History - 1966

Looking through my scrapbook and box of memorabilia for a blog topic I came across a photo torn from an issue of the Silver Bay News.  What I found interesting, though, was not the picture. (It was a photo of my United Protestant youth group).  Because of all the attention on Medicare this year, what caught  my attention was the news article on the reverse side of the paper.

I folded the paper to include a scan of date but it's hard to read.  It's March 16, 1966.  Basically it's an article to inform people over 65 that they can sign up for the new Medicare program in Two Harbors, at the Iron Dock Hall.  The official beginning of Medicare: July 1, 1966.

The Class of 1969 was in 9th grade.  My classmates will remember that few people in Silver Bay at that time who were over 65.  My dad was older than many fathers in our class, 40 when I was born, and only 54 in 1966.

After a few minutes of historical research I can offer you a few other 1966 tidbits:

Oscar for Best Picture:  SOUND OF MUSIC

Grammy for Best Record:  A TASTE OF HONEY/Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass

First Episode of STAR TREK: September 8
(This same year CBS decided to pull a broadcast of Hitchcock's film PSYCHO because of excessive violence)

Boston defeated the LA Lakers. (I rarely watch basketball but I do live in L.A. and it's NBA playoff time. The Lakers won last night.  I saw some of the second half of the fourth quarter.)

All for today.  Next time: articles from another newspaper, the SILVER SCROLL.

Something about the Silver Bay Laundromat

I realized yesterday that I had this photo saved in my cell phone memory.

Yes, it's an old vending machine.  I saw it at Famous Dave's in St. Paul, not far from the airport.  Bill and I were stopping by last summer for food to take to my mom's.   I am almost sure it's the same candy machine that was in the S.B. laundromat.  In seventh grade, when I lived on Banks Blvd., I was two doors away from Sue Elam. The two of us would walk together most days, up to Kelley and back. After school we often strolled into Malmo's Drug to buy penny candy (2 pieces of licorice for 1 cent).  For a nickel that spring of 1964 we could buy bubble gum that had a Beatles card inside the wrapper (still have those cards).

But, occasionally, Susie and Narta would go to the laundromat instead of Malmo's.  The candy vending machine there sometimes had Forever Yours as one of the selections - a candy bar only available at Malmo's or grocery stores in the 6-bar variety pack (with Snickers and Milky Way?).  But more exciting were those afternoon visits to the laundromat when, in one of the little windows of that vending machine, we saw a piece of paper with a hand-written note that said:  "TAKE A CHANCE."  Some days, willing to live with risk, one of us would drop a whole dime into the machine and take that chance.  And, with luck, we'd get a stack of Rollos!

Update:  Sue has reminded me of our other favorite "take a chance" candy bar, ZERO.  Read her comment below.

Fall 1968 - Kelley High School's Cross Country Champs

In previous blog I wrote that I have in my possession a scrapbook of senior year, 1968-1969.  Here's a scan from a Duluth newspaper article I saved dated Sunday, Sept. 22, 1968.

From left toe right:  Ron Rude, Mike Hanson, Randy Rolando, Larry Sornberger, Jim Koehler, Bob Fedderly and Steve Whittaker.

More about Movies at Kelley

I wish I could include a visual aid here.  In my senior scrapbook (yes, I kept and still have a senior scrapbook) I possess a piece of paper that advertises the showing of "Forbidden Planet" on Saturday, April 19, 8PM in the Kelley auditorium.  The ad was printed by hand except for a paragraph at the bottom which was photocopied from the film catalog.  The single sheet was then copied on a ditto machine. Ah, the fresh ditto paper.  I can almost smell it.  Anyway, the print is so light purple now I can't do a readable scan.  The film's stars are Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis and Leslie Nielsen.

The question is why would I keep such an item?  On the top I have handwritten a message to myself:  "Have this... WHY?"  No idea when I might have penciled this note. I would guess at least 3 decades ago. Haven't looked at this scrapbook in at least that long.

I have a dim memory of seeing "Forbidden Planet" at Kelley. Here are some other films I remember seeing there:

THE TIME MACHINE (Rod Taylor and Yvette Mimeux. Must have been popular.  Seems like I saw it at least 3 times at Kelley.)

WHERE THE BOYS ARE (A favorite. Also with Ms. Mimeux, I think. It's still not available on Netflix and I don't think copies are available.  I wonder why. Summer break in Florida.  Some funny stuff and also very serious.  Paulette Prentiss is in it.  I loved her.  The lead actress later gave up Hollywood and became a nun.)

BUTTERFIELD 8 (with Elizabeth Taylor. Mentioned that in previous post)

FLUFFY (Comedy with Tony Randall before the Odd Couple.  He has a pet lion that scares everybody.)


OPERATION PETTICOAT (I still like this Cary Grant movie.  All those bras being stuffed into torpedoes, remember?)

To my fellow S.B. graduates:  if you remember seeing any other movies, please leave a comment!  I do realize we weren't always there to watch the movies. When you're a teenager there's nothing like a dark theater... even if it is the school auditorium.

First Day and Last Day of School - Silver Bay - 1956 and 1969

September 1956:

Place:  Our cabin in Silver Bay Trailer Court.
Event:  Ready for my first day of kindergarten, Campton.  Mom made my dress.  The white "thing" she called a pinafore.  It had pockets. The dog is Boots.  I've written about him in other blogs.

And this is Bill - first day of school. Edison Blvd. Silver Bay.   My future mother-in-law, Ruby, kept a very organized album with many of his childhood pics.  The date on the photo is Nov. '56, but she wrote in the album that the first day of kindergarten was September 4.  His teacher was Mrs. Backlund.

June 1969:
Must have taken a camera to school the last day at Kelley High.  Bill took this photo.  "Narta at her empty locker."  Sigh.  I cried many tears at graduation. I recall only a few days when I did not want to go to school. 

And I wonder who took this photo with both of us in the Kelley cafeteria.

Cafeteria food: Remember tomato soup?  Grilled cheese sandwiches? Bean burgers?  And mashed potatoes with huge dollops of butter and a rectangle of "meat something" that pretended to be Spam?

I decided to abandon my Campton experiences for a bit and write about Kelley - in honor of my friends who went to Mary Mac and/or Kelley for first grade through sixth.

Fifth Grade Memories - Campton School

I wanted to find my fifth grade picture of Denise Manzer.  She was in Mrs. Jauhola's class with me and a close neighbor - she on the upper end of Charles, me on Banks across from her end of Charles.  I will write about Deenie once I find that photo.  Meanwhile, here's a pictures of Mrs. J:

I thought Mrs. Jauhola was a real stylish lady.  I believe the ensemble in the pic was robin's egg blue - a matching skirt and sweater.

Mrs. J. absolutely loved art.  We spent hours and hours for weeks and months constructing paper mache dinosaurs or, in my case, an extinct mammal, the woolly rhinoceros.  The project never seemed to end.  On the last day of school before the Christmas break Denise and I carried home quart jars of gooey paste used for the project.  We buried the jars of goo under the snow in our backyards. If left in the classroom it would have rotted during vacation.  Once vacation was over Denise and I carried the jars back to the classroom and the art project continued.

Fifth Grade: A World Outside Silver Bay Intrudes

The Japanese earthquake, the tsunami and the nuclear reactor crisis all bring up memories of fifth grade, the year I learned the term radiation. Mrs. Jauhola's class.  Campton Elementary.  Silver Bay, Minnesota. School year 1961-62, during the Cold War.

Here we are:   Mrs. Jauhola and her Fifth Graders, living in the safety and comfort of Silver Bay and reading about bomb shelters in the Weekly Reader.  One day Mrs. Jauhola warned us about snow.  We should not lift our heads to let the soft white flakes fall onto our tongues.  The snow might contain radioactive particles.  We could die.   The world, suddenly, was a more dangerous place.