Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
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Some of our friends and relatives had the unpleasant surprise of waking up on Christmas Day to NO ELECTRICITY, instead of stockings hung with care. How devastating, especially if you were in charge of the dinner of the day. This was the time for remembering, remembering how great-grandma might have made dinner for all of the family on any day of the year, let alone on a day of festivities and lots and lots of family. Oh, of course, grandma probably had the luxury of a wood or coal burning kitchen range. If the wood pile ran low, you could...
We are down to the final countdown for preparations for Christmas. And I am so guilty of procrastination this year! Not even a Christmas card sent and NO, I am not going to resort to Facebook greetings, even though I do enjoy seeing them on FB. Some of us do have a tendency to hold on to old time customs. It has been fun to watch some of the young kids perform for Christmas programs and I remember the programs held in country schools. You could count on some pretty good skits and verses being said and done. The advantage country schools had...
While driving to town the other day, I was listening to the news concerning the issues at the University of Massachusetts concerning the flying of OUR American flag. So many “remembers” flooded my mind: memories of my school days, when each day started with the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. We all STOOD each morning, facing the wall or area of the room where the flag was displayed. Hand over heart we recited the Pledge. Remember, my generation was born during or shortly after World War II. The flag had real significance to each and eve...
It is the season of gift giving. Do you remember receiving US Savings Bonds for Christmas and Birthdays? Not many of us thought of the value of this gift, probably because as kids we preferred something much more tangible. It seemed to be the thing for grandparents to do for grandchildren. So following tradition, I decided that was what I needed to do for our two new great-grandchildren, thus prompting a little research. I haven’t really decided that there is much value to this anymore. My opinion only, but I did discover that as early as 1...
Do you ever drive down the streets of your town and remember all of the businesses that used to be? I didn’t spend all of my early years in Glasgow and I don’t remember all the business that used to be, even in the early 60s, however I do have some friends that remember a lot of them. Now, I credit their good memory to the fact that they may have had jobs that required delivery at the residence or building. We have had daily newspaper delivery, I think from both Courier and State daily papers. Then grocery stores delivered a lot of gro...
There are days when my mind just cannot dredge up a memory from the past that I haven’t already touched on, this being one of those days. Since it is hunting season, along with the knowledge that Brian Austin has reopened his meat processing shop for the season, I have thought of days in the past when many people did their own meat processing. I am willing to bet that there are still many out there that can relate to the times they spent boning and wrapping meat, or maybe you got to have the job of grinding meat for hamburger or sausage. M...
Remember a time when you could find almost everyone’s phone number in the local telephone book? One of my readers commented on how frustrating it is to find a phone number for someone now that everyone has cell phones. O.K. if this person is reading my “Remembers,” it does give you a clue to the generation, BUT the point is; just how do you find cell phone numbers, especially if you are not really up on all the new technology. I think that I understand why these are not provided in a phone book as even I have an idea of all the various companie...
Recent news articles concerning internet scamming of sites that a lot of online shoppers use makes me remember earlier days and methods of shopping and banking. First, I am sure that our parents and grandparents could never have visualized that we would one day order so many necessities for our lives with just the click of a button. Of course, past generations had the convenience of mail order catalogs, but that required the accompaniment of a check. Checks couldn’t be used in a scam like our credit and debit cards of today. Of course, the s... Full story
Do you remember the Halloweens of your early years? The years before you could purchase a “cool” trendy Halloween costume and had to come up with your own ideas? Some kids didn’t have a mother that was into sewing and arts and crafty stuff, so it was not uncommon to see a lot of ghost costumes. However, if you were one of the lucky ones, you had a mother or grandma that would come up with some really clever costume ideas. It was always fun to attend the school Halloween parties (this happened in country schools anyway) and see all the neat...
Do you remember when all baby portraits, boy or girl, were taken with the child wearing a dress? Of course that was the day before colored photographs, but I have often wondered if those garments were colored or white. My thought is that the dress might have been worn for baptism and was white. Thinking of the generation, it might well have been used for every baby in the family, unless you happened to have multiple births. Both my husband and I come from a family of savers and I have had the occasion to see these delicate white dresses. The...
I was remembering the other day just what a thrill it was to get to spend time with some friends of my folks. These people lived some distance from town and didn’t have all of the conveniences my family did. Since living without these conveniences wasn’t something I had to do on a daily basis, I considered it an adventure to get to stay there. The first thing was no running water. Now this was not the only home I was in that had a water bucket and dipper located close to the outside door, but I was always in awe. Those were the days when you...
Sometimes I have a one-track mind when it comes to remembering, so I will continue with more memories of early school days. A lot of you will remember starting the school day by being one of two that had been assigned the duty (or privilege) of raising the flag. Sometimes the assignment was on a daily basis and other times weekly. I know that the students had this privilege rain or shine, freezing cold, or lovely warm sunshine. I am sure that the same students were on duty at the end of the day to lower, fold, and put the flag away until the ne... Full story
School is now back in session for all schools. Remember when school started after Labor Day? Most of us cannot go into detail about the week or days prior to that first day, especially when we were in the early years of school. I remember getting to sit down at the kitchen table with catalogs, Sears, Aldens and Montgomery Wards, going through pages of dresses, trying to make a choice. (Oh, yes, dresses only back then). Mom had a budget amount (dictated by my dad I am sure) that each of us girls could spend. That included any new under-clothes w... Full story
The thought came to my mind the other day just how much my generation’s lives were affected by our parents and grandparents. All of those crazy little things like ironing, even though we now have no-iron clothing, being aware of how much water we might be wasting as it runs from the faucet (remembering the days you packed it in a bucket from the well), always scraping the cooking pans and serving dishes clean, (I am not sure if that was to not waste food, or to prevent your dishwashing water from getting so soupy). Never throw away any f... Full story
Harvest is upon us and we see combines and semi trucks any time we venture away from our city environment. This makes me think of a picture I have of a “grain train” heading to Glasgow from the North Country. The picture was actually taken about 10 miles north of Glasgow in the early 1920s. I would guess these people were in the second or third day of their trip. This stopping place had a barn that would hold 100 head of horses. The total number of horses on this particular run was listed at 194, and the total bushels of grain were 5,811. Mos... Full story
I am trying to remember something of interest to ramble on about, but after all of these years it is getting harder and harder. Maybe I have forgotten more than I remember. However, I was thinking about sauerkraut the other day. I know that a select few out there still make their own sauerkraut, but this is for those that haven’t given any thought to how it is made. I have a vintage cabbage or slaw cutter stored in my basement, just in case I might need it someday, Ha! Anyway, I think these were used by many homemakers around this time of y... Full story
Do you remember when Social Security Cards expressly stated on the front of the card that they were not to be used for identification purposes? It is hard to believe that we did not have to have that number memorized, and to have ready access to it for everything that we did. For all of you born in the mid-forties, you might want to dig out your card to see if your card does in fact state that it is not for I.D. However, I am not going to recommend that you tell your banker you can’t use this for identification, especially if you are hoping t...
Last week my memories concerned the marketing of pigs, at least to some extent. Do you remember when almost all farmers and ranchers had a small bunch of pigs on their places? Most rural housewives had a slop pail sitting somewhere near the kitchen area. You all remember the term “slop the hogs” and that is exactly what the slop pail was for. All edible scraps went into the slop bucket, things like potato and other vegetable peels and trims, as well as fruit spoils, etc. This was truly the days when nothing went to waste. If you couldn’t eat it...
It’s almost fair time and time for all the 4-H, FFA and open class animals to come to town. With this in mind, I decided it was a good time to share a story told by one of our deceased friends. Keep in mind, this is a remember and in no way meant to be a suggestion. As the story goes, this acquaintance was telling about showing or marketing a pig. It seems the pig did not weigh what they had anticipated, so it was decided to feed it some coal slack, which of course caused a temporary weight gain. Those of us that have a few generations on us m...
This past Independence Day Weekend, I chose to spend the three days at home alone. This seems to come about as the years go by and we choose not to put on a swimsuit to enjoy the long weekend. Might be because most of us no longer have bikini bodies, but that is not the point. Anyway, The evening of July 3 I found I was exhausted after a long, hot day outside. Coming to the house I decided that my choice of relaxation was a hot shower and a glass of ice tea. The lure of TV, Facebook, or the Internet didn’t even suffice. I chose to sit with m...
I am going to deviate a little this week to reminisce about class reunions. Do you remember the first school reunion you attended? For most that was the 10th year after graduation. Sometimes those first reunions make a memory that helps get us all excited about the next big reunion, or those memories may make us decide never to take in another reunion. The Opheim All-School Reunion was held this past week. All-school reunions are so much more fun that a “class” reunion. I do realize that I am talking about a small school and very small classes,...
The picture of the automobile featured on “Yesterday’s Memories” in the last issue of the Courier elicited a few comments from a couple of readers, which in return jogged some of my own memories. I definitely do not remember when automobiles featured carbide lights as headlights, but I do remember hearing about them when I was a kid at home. For those of us that have never seen them or used them, you might compare them to a kerosene lamp. Can you imagine the amount of light that was generated as you headed down the trail on a dark night? I real...
Last week’s holiday made me do a little research, which I don’t ordinarily do. Even with all of our present-day methods of finding answers to questions, I was unable to establish when Memorial Day expanded; becoming a day that we remember all of our deceased loved ones, not just Veterans. Understand, I personally think remembering our loved ones on Memorial Day is great! Some of us remember calling this day “Decoration Day.” I did find that this custom started as far back as the Civil War and expanded to include other battles. The 30th of May...
I had been trying to come up with a “Remember” for several days now, but had drawn a blank. Then I remembered reading Parker’s article, "Grumbling About Millennials." I would like all of the millennials out there, who just might read this section, to know that grumbling about the young generation is nothing new. You all have instant communication and the Baby Boomers had only a “party” line to do their venting on. Remember when all the young girls wore their pants so tight that you thought they were a second skin? Or the fact that women wor...
School will soon be out and kids will soon need to be entertained. Remember when we spent the summers playing hopscotch, kick the can, some version or the other of baseball, Anti-I-Over, or tag? What about Hide and Seek. Do the young ones still do that? Maybe you could get Mom to pack a picnic lunch and you and a friend could wander off for the day. Of course, that was back in the days you didn’t even think of child abductors (or if you did, you might have one of those thoughts that Moms have. Thinking if someone took them they would return t...
