Highland Prairie
(a.k.a. the Otto Mindrum farm, ’38 – fall ’41
and the Obert Erickson farm, fall ’41 – spring ’43)
We had learned to know many good and dear friends during those three years but the crops had been disappointing. When Palmer’s uncle Otto offered his farm for rent (it was the farm where Palmer had grown up), it was very tempting to accept and go back to the old farm and neighborhood on Highland Prairie.
The Sunday before we moved, the Oak Ridge congregation and close neighbors gave us a farewell party.
Otto and his two teenage daughters were to live in part of the house. Everything was strictly on half shares. The eggs and milk were divided at the barn. We used from our share for our family.
The old Mindrum farm was located close to the Highland Prairie Church. The previous year they had organized a Sunday school. The pastor asked all children over six years old to come and practice for a childrens choir. It worried Frieda. She wasn’t quite six. She told the pastor, “I’m only five, but I’m just as big as Gordie.” Gordie was a neighbor boy. The next fall Frieda joined Arne and the twins at the one room Sandsness country school. Six lunches to prepare. Paul and Alf met the bus going to Rushford High School.
In the summer there were four weeks of forenoon parochial school at Sandsness school. Alf went to confirmation instruction and was confirmed at Highland Prairie Church. Paul and Alf belonged to Luther League and Norway-Go-Getters 4-H Club. A neighbor lady and I had the job of draping the altar rails with purple cloth before every funeral. Palmer opened quite a few graves. One year I was elected to be a delegate to a Women’s Missionary Federation Convention at a North Prairie Church. I had never taken notes or given a report before but a friend helped me with it.
When a church conference was held at Highland Prairie Palmer bought a devotion book “Walking with God.” The daily devotion and Bible passage was only one sixth as long as the Norwegian had been. We tried to be all together after supper, but school activities interfered sometimes.
When Paul and Alf were little Palmer had bought a hair clipper set so I could practice on their hair. Palmer didn’t trust me to cut his util the Depression made it necessary. A neighbor on Oak Ridge asked if I would cut his and his four boys’ hair. Even after we moved, when their hair got too long they came and visited us and got their hair cut.
It was raining the night Paul graduated from high school. Water dripped through the roof of our car while driving the eight miles to town. After the ceremonies Gunhild took pity on us and invited us to her home for refreshments until the rain stopped.
That summer our first fledgling left the nest. Paul’s uncle Ole, or Dr. O.G. Landsverk, offered him the opportunity to attend college where he was teaching if he would come to Virginia, Minnesota, and help him with the house he was building for himself and his new bride, the former Nordis Rothnem. It brought tears to see the empty chair at our table. We missed Paul. He had always been so dependable ever since he was a little boy.
It had been pleasant to renew friendships in this neighborhood but some controversies about farming arose. Palmer is one of the most honest, truthful, and trusting men I know. I trusted that he would be treated in the same manner. But he was sometimes disappointed.
Before we left Highland Prairie, neighbors, relatives, and friends gave us a surprise farewell party.
We moved temporarily to a small farm on Oak Ridge. This new farm was two miles out on the ridge from the Oak Ridge road and school. The house was a mess. A good cleaning, paint, and wallpaper turned it into a pleasant little home. We had no close neighbors here but the mothers of the Oak Ridge congregation got together every Sunday afternoon for couple hours and taught Sunday school lessons to their children. I had Ellert, Frieda, and two other girls in my third grade class. There were 25 children in all.
When we rented the farm it was with the understanding that we kids would run down the hill [to Highway 16] and catch a bus to Houston. But there was a question on where the line was between school districts. They sent out some people to determine the line. It turned out that only the kitchen was in the Houston district, not the bedrooms. So Houston didn’t want to take us. But we were so far from Rushford it would be expensive for them to send a bus out for us. So the two districts made arrangements and we went to Houston.
Frieda Mindrum Nowland
We had a good year. We bought a piano. Ellen took some lessons. Frieda picked up what Ellen learned. Quite often they skipped away to play and got out of washing dishes. I loved to hear them play. They exchanged slumber parties with girl friends. The children joined the Cushion Peak Echoes 4-H Club. After a year I joined the county homemakers again.
Paul decided to give up college and enlist in the Army Air Force. He hitch-hiked home for a short vacation. How good it was to have all eight of us together again. We had heard rumors that our two big boys were courting girl friends. Alf graduated from Houston High school in the spring.
Next chapter: Money Creek
Margit Mindrum 