Dresses my Grandma Christensen Made for Me

My mother's mother, my Grandma Bertha Christensen, came from Norway alone at age 24 and was a professional seamstress before she married. Pictured here are three of my favorite dresses she made for me, Judy Stahl, when I was growing up from about 1950-1960. They are somewhat faded but show the artistic eye she had for color and style.

Grandma taught my mother to sew who taught me. I made most of my clothes in high school and sewed a lot for my children. I still sew a little for myself and for my 2 yr.-old granddaughter Tosya and also enjoy making quilts.

I loved these dresses as a child but had no appreciation at that time for the extremely meticulous workmanship she put into them. All the seams were overcast by hand (before zig-zag on sewing machines). The brown dress has a cord at the waist, hand sewn buttonholes, and tiny pink flowers with green leaves embroidered on the collar,skirt, and tie belt.  The tiny pink rick rack on the skirt, collar, and sleeves of the pink dress was sewed on by hand.  A black and white photo of Grandma and me is shown below with me wearing the pink dress.   I wore the dress with the burnt orange cummerbund from junior high into high school as it had a wide hem that could be let down. 

 

There Should Be No Trash Left Behind!

This past summer I have tried to commit to walking to the City Park every day except Sunday and I have done pretty well except for a couple of weeks when I had some back trouble and another time when I fell and hurt my hand and knee and was laid up for a little while.  

It's about a half hour walk and on my way there is a large visitor's center parking lot.   High School kids cruise up and down Main St. and use it as a meetup place.  It is strewn with litter every morning so I pick up the junk and put it in the nearby dumpster.  I usually take along a plastic grocery bag as there is often enough to fill it up.  This is often the first place tourists visit in town and it's certainly giving them a bad impression unless cleaned up a bit so I have taken it on as a little service project to do on my way. 

It surprises me what one can find left behind from these nightly carousers!  Of course, there is the usual debris, fast food containers, and cans every morning so I pick up the junk and put it in the nearby dumpster.    But then there are items that I find especially disturbing to find on a parking lot in the middle of town.   Large unexploded fireworks, a sports bra,  eight packages of Coricidin Cough and Cold pills, cards advertizing for "girls $45," etc.  I talked to the police about over-the-counter Coricidin and they say it is being used as a recreational drug gives a high without being detectable later.  It's so sad that kids in this small town are engaging in such risky behavior!  

A couple of times I have seen that someone has changed the tire on their car and left the old tire there for someone else to deal with and have left oil containers from when someone changed their oil.  Somehow, this littering is due to a failure of parents to teach basic responsibility.  I know it was instilled into me when I was growing up that it was wrong to throw even a gum wrapper on the ground as only slobs did so because it makes work for others to pick it up.  And even when the dumpster is only ten feet away, apparently some are too lazy to use it!

But, while picking up litter, sometimes a person can find useful things and I fear I am beginning to become somewhat of a scavenger.  Some of it has been in that parking lot and some of it in or along the way to the park.  

So far this summer I have found $4.18.  In one place there was about $2 worth of pennies on the ground!  I scraped them together with my foot and filled up my jacket pocket. I have found such things as a leather cell phone holder, several good pens, two metal water bottles, a retractable dog leash, small stuffed toy dog, a 25 ft. extension cord, a remote control, metal coffee thermos, and two nice copper-bottomed saucepans with lids.  People often put things out on the boulevard for trash day and one day I found a bedside-type table with drawers in pretty good condition.  I came back and got it with the car.

At the City Park I have found some disgusting things which I have disposed of by handling them with a plastic bag--a large fish with the head on lying on a grill by a picnic shelter, dirty disposable diapers on the playground, a smashed watermelon, etc.  Someone dumped a pile of charcoal from a grill on the grass.  I told a park worker who said he would clean it up as I couldn't.

Twice I have found kids' shoes by the playground but left them on a park bench as perhaps someone may retrieve them.  They were gone the next day so they must have.  

And today, of all things, I found an empty bottle of Ensure at the visitor's center parking lot.  So  are the senior citizens partying up there too now?   Soon I'll be finding cast off Denture Creme packages, lost hearing aids, and canes!

Mom Visits Karst Ranch in 1941

The other day I was scanning some of my mom's old pictures into the computer from before she was married when she and three school teacher friends from Minnesota visited Yellowstone Park in 1941.  They stayed at a dude ranch called Karst Ranch in some log cabins in the mountains.  

I Googled the place to see if it was still in existence.  Sure enough, it's still there, although the name has changed to Karst's Camp.  It is southeast of Bozeman, MT, about halfway between the northeast corner of Yellowstone Park and Bozeman.  

I also found a website of the curator of a museum at Montana State University and sent him a few of the pictures showing the buildings, a walking bridge, and thatched roof building, etc.  I told him that the dates on the back of the pictures seemed to indicate that they visited about the last week in June of 1941.  An email soon returned with a picture of the guestbook for June, 23, 1941, that my mom Anne Christensen and three friends Esther Wachter, and twins Anna, and Cora Neumann had signed!  Imagine their signatures still being preserved there after all these years!

I remember Mom telling me that on that trip it was the first time she had worn slacks.  They did do some horseback riding so suppose slacks were necessary.  The ones they wore had wide baggy legs.  But most of the pictures showed them in their best dresses, hats, and even purses out in the wilds of Montana!  Mom is second from right on a  horse in picture below and in a light-colored (white?) dress on a fence and atop a thatched roof. It must have been difficult to climb up that ladder in a dress!  In this day and age, it does seem comical to see them so dressed up, but back then women wore dresses almost exclusively so I suppose it seemed normal to them.

Some notes on Karst's Camp from online sources:

Karst's Camp was originally a dude ranch that was founded in 1901 by Pete Karst. He was awarded the property because of back pay that the Cooper Tie Company owed him. Karst built a cabin and eventually built twenty-five cabins to accommodate one hundred people. In 1937 he installed a rope tow for use in recreational skiing. Karst's Camp eventually hosted a local bar and brothel for the local miners. Karst operated this resort of sorts for fifty years and eventually retired.

The original cabins are still standing and are occupied today but the ski lift and the camp no longer exists. The mine can still be reached by a short trail that travels up into the hillside behind the camp site. This area was one of Montana's unusual present day mining ventures - an asbestos mine.

Another article:

This genuine Old West ghost town is the remains of one of the region's earliest dude ranches, and features original buildings and the entrance of an old asbestos mine.

Developed by Pete Karst around 1901, the ranch at one time bustled with summer visitors eager to see Yellowstone National Park and the surrounding rugged environs. Karst was given the land as back payment by his employer, the Cooper Tie Company. He first built a cabin for himself followed by a total of 25 guest cabins. Karst later put in a tow rope for skiers – long since vanished – as well as a bar and brothel for the local miners.

At its peak, Karst's ranch saw up to 600 summer visitors. Today, only a few of the old cabins remain surrounded by a modern-day subdivision, but access is easy to this beautiful canyon in the Gallatin Mountains. Visitors can take a peek at a few of the original cabins, enjoy a short hike up to the old mine, and imagine the rugged conditions both residents and tourists must have had to endure to appreciate Yellowstone Country 100 years ago.

Location/Directions
Located between Bozeman and Yellowstone National Park, near Big Sky on Highway 191. Call the Big Sky Chamber of Commerce at (406) 995-3000 or (800) 943-4111 for more information.

Hours/Seasons
Accessible year-round, but it's easiest to visit in the summer.

Fees/Costs
Free

Another source:

Directions: Karst's Camp is located in the south central area of Montana. It is between Bozeman and Yellowstone National Park, near Big Sky on Highway 191. Although currently home to residential and commercial cabins, Karst's Camp is the original location of the old mining camp.
Karst's Camp
Big Sky Chamber of Commerce, Big Sky, MT 59716

Summertime--and the livin' is busy!

I always think of that commercial in which people are depicted on a hot lazy summer day lying in a hammock sipping an icy glass of lemonade.  But summer has officially begun and there's not going to be much lazy lemonade sipping!  Here in ND everything possible must be done in summer when the weather and time off from one's job allows.  We forget that summer months are the same length as those of other times of the year but we must pack it all in.

We are having a bathroom built in the basement right now.  The plumber is down the basement shoveling some dirt.  He had to use a jack hammer to break up some cement to find some sewer pipe under the basement floor.    It seems that he found more pipe that must be replaced and more jack hammering must be done--but this can be done later as we would have to move BOTH of the freezers for him to do it.  The whole business is so dirty.  Dirt is tracked up and down the stairs.  I guess there is no use cleaning it up until he is done.  

At the same time, Duane has put up sheet rock in the third bedroom upstairs and I have started the plastering of seams.  The garden is starting to grow and is needing attention.  Recent rains have caused the lawn to need mowing.  In a few days we will be going to see our kids.  I'm struggling to get over a cold by then.

Actually I do remember lemonade summers.  We did lie in a hammock and drink lemonade (at least a few times) when growing up during the summers at the lake in Minnesota.  Actually, a lot of the time, as kids, it seemed as if there was "nothing to do" and most of our time was spent fighting boredom.   I wouldn't want to go back to those days--oh, maybe for a day or so--but do enjoy having plenty to do.

Memorial Day

Memorial Day is coming up.  This is a picture I took last 4th of July towards evening when I was going out to take the flag in. 

Our JBS Chapter inquired about.having a float in the upcoming Memorial Day parade but were told by the VFW that no political floats were allowed.  Our float was just going to say "The Constitution is the Solution!" with our two JBS banners on front and back but apparently they didn't approve.  Isn't that what our troops are (at least in theory) fighting for?  Oh, well.  We decided instead to wait to have a float in the Rally in the Valley parade later in June and/or the 4th of July.

Pain!

It has been such a trying few weeks--actually most of May.  I was finally feeling pretty good after having recovered from the excruciating pain of a pulled back muscle.  So after a couple of weeks I thought it was time I got some exercise again so walked down to the City Park.  When I was turning around to go back home, I stumbled on a piece of cracked up sidewalk and slammed to the ground, bruising my knee and shoulder somewhat but especially hurting my left arm.  I must have landed on it and sprained it.  At any rate, it is still hurting but may be somewhat better.  At first I wasn't even able to type.   Luckily, I didn't break a bone but at the same time, it has put a crimp in my activities. 

But, looking at the bright side of things, I couldn't do much so ended up looking up quite a bit of genealogy on the web.  Mostly I found census records for relatives.  I also wrote some letters to Congress and sat down to read the book Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy which had been given to me for my birthday by our son Eldon and wife Yulia.  My husband finally helped me plant the garden.  I couldn't handle a hoe yet.  I had made seed tapes for all but the beans so that made planting easier.  He also helped me with changing on the bed.  I suppose, I have gained a little more appreciation for how useful my left hand and arm are, if only to hold a dish while I wash it.  I should be thankful just to be able to do certain things and not take it for granted. 

In the meantime, I had an eye problem.  It seemed as if I had something in my eye so went to the eye doctor and got some antibiotic which she said would help a blocked tear duct.  I guess it is better.


And then while contending with my injuries, I contracted a cold.  It came on very gradually with only feeling achy for a few days, then a slight cough and lung congestion, then sinus and nasal drainage and more lung congestion.  Today I am feeling almost back to normal. Colds are hard on me.   Hopefully I'm going to be OK to visit our kids in a few days down in Mitchell, SD.  I'd hate to miss seeing them, especially Roger and Rosie since we see them only a couple of times a year.

Haiku

This is my haiku that won 2nd place in the contest in the Barnes County Independent newspaper.   Haikus are pretty short.  You have to get as much in as you can.  The first line has to be 5 syllables, the 2nd 7, and the 3rd 5th with the 1st and 2nd lines rhyming.  All three lines in mine rhyme so perhaps it isn't quite done right but suppose that can't hurt.  :) My prize was  $10 gift card at Pamida.

Spiderly necklace.

Pearly dewdrops hung in space,

Fragility, grace.