tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2695748260936745505.post8311537507794989960..comments2024-02-03T16:24:42.023-08:00Comments on 1410 OakWooD: Two Room SchoolGunnar Berghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17451985764040900726noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2695748260936745505.post-46543342098931443222011-03-14T20:00:00.475-07:002011-03-14T20:00:00.475-07:00Sorry I can't help with a thing. I never went ...Sorry I can't help with a thing. I never went to 131 and was gone from C G until 1955. Maybe some other time I will be able to help. I do enjoy your blog a lot.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2695748260936745505.post-78017558500031492322010-07-15T18:56:05.558-07:002010-07-15T18:56:05.558-07:00Gail,
Drop me a note at: neilmberg(at)gmail.com. ...Gail,<br />Drop me a note at: neilmberg(at)gmail.com. I think Mary Mcmannes (Sprankle) may like to get a hold of you.Gunnar Berghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17451985764040900726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2695748260936745505.post-25042079976431087052010-07-15T18:21:55.320-07:002010-07-15T18:21:55.320-07:00Gail, Good to hear from you. A long time.
Tough ...Gail, Good to hear from you. A long time. <br /><br />Tough to crack the closed C.G. society. My family came a hundred years too late too. I think we were accepted because of the instant status of my grandfather as a preacher.<br /><br />Cracking Hollandale as a non-Dutch would have been even harder. The lines were drawn pretty straight and hard.Gunnar Berghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17451985764040900726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2695748260936745505.post-71053413049238132632010-07-15T12:02:44.569-07:002010-07-15T12:02:44.569-07:00Thoughts on the two-room school house.
It was the ...Thoughts on the two-room school house.<br />It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ... Hi, Gunnar, it's Gail Ravenhorst DeBoer, the one you identified as "another smart one." Not my favorite appellation, but it could have been worse.<br />I have the same photo at home ... My brother Greg alerted me to your blog. I agree with many of your observations and memories of School District ... was it 131?? For me, tho, I remember feeling like I was neither fish nor fowl. Didn't belong ... I lived in C.G. and went to school there, but my family went to church in Hollandale, and I had lots of relatives there. Dad had married a good Baptist girl and she chose to go to his church! (gasp!)<br />One person I don't see in the photo is Audrey Meyers; she lived W. of town on a hardscrabble farm with a big family and hard-working parents. Maybe they moved to CG after the photo, or maybe she was out that day. We were good friends in elementary, I think because we both felt like outsiders. I remember she took a lot of teasing, probably even bullying, from classmates because of her family's rundown farm and everything that went with it. It's hard to judge from this distance of years whether the cruelty was intentional or not.<br />I know she died young.<br />I also seem to remember that she was chosen Princess Kay at the state fair in the early '60s, when I was off in college ... anybody confirm that?<br />Ben Schoon - his dad worked for my dad, and was one of the best truckers he ever had at the tile plant. Knew every farm for miles around! What I remember of Ben was how he struggled in school. I wondered later, maybe he was dyslexic or had another learning disorder? Nobody cut any slack for that, "back in the day..."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2695748260936745505.post-64493128079910525592009-12-25T05:09:16.182-08:002009-12-25T05:09:16.182-08:00Interesting indeed Gunnar.
I grew up in a small t...Interesting indeed Gunnar. <br />I grew up in a small town (NM not MN) but not that small...<br />When I am home, I see some of my old classmates, some of which go way back to kindergarten and 1st grade. Some are my friends, but others I don't care to see. When at Wal-Mart, I dread running into anyone (its the main place to shop in town anymore). I try to be stealthy, and get in and out in a hurry.Mimbres Manhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06764257754905227611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2695748260936745505.post-22220593345684434712009-12-19T23:45:37.192-08:002009-12-19T23:45:37.192-08:00I have absolutely no idea of where any of my eleme...I have absolutely no idea of where any of my elementary-school classmates are. I stayed in touch with a couple of high school and a couple of college friends for a time after graduating. So, my memories of my classmates are frozen in amber in some recess of my mind. In some ways, I envy the continuum of contact you have with at least some of your classmates. Then again, some of those memories are, I'm sure, very painful. But I admire your courage for setting them down in such a public place as a blog.Justine Valinottihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10852069587181432102noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2695748260936745505.post-73474870630393476012009-12-15T17:27:37.818-08:002009-12-15T17:27:37.818-08:00Kurt,
True. But then again, my gene pool is wider ...Kurt,<br />True. But then again, my gene pool is wider than yours, but maybe just as shallow. I'm Danish, Scottish, and Swedish, rather than Danish, Danish and Danish.<br /><br />Be well.Gunnar Berghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17451985764040900726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2695748260936745505.post-92157896701188102772009-12-15T16:46:40.529-08:002009-12-15T16:46:40.529-08:00The shortcomings in your life are due not the size...The shortcomings in your life are due not the size of your school, but to the size of your gene pool. Denmark is a small country and the Baptists in Denmark were a small minority. They all moved a small town in Minnesota and another small town in Iowa where they interbred for generations. There is something odd about seeing the same people at your mother’s family reunion as at your fathers reunion.Kurthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02974875345529293127noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2695748260936745505.post-21812630642976477552009-12-15T13:43:16.109-08:002009-12-15T13:43:16.109-08:00"Babysit?" She never used that one on me..."Babysit?" She never used that one on me. <br />While I'm certain that Ms. Blocker was a good person and probably grew up to be a pleasant, sturdy Dutch woman, I was never that interested in her type. Your problem was that you weren't Dutch. As in, "If you ain't Dutch, you ain't much." We Grovers knew better than to try and "pass".Gunnar Berghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17451985764040900726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2695748260936745505.post-39218983242827856102009-12-14T18:41:50.002-08:002009-12-14T18:41:50.002-08:00What the devil ever happened to Chuck Wedge? That...What the devil ever happened to Chuck Wedge? That SOB ruined the only date I ever had with Sue Blocker, who said as I was taking her home, after I said, Maybe we can do this again, "I'll have to babysit." DexAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2695748260936745505.post-25172139730006818322009-12-14T09:22:05.335-08:002009-12-14T09:22:05.335-08:00Ah, nostalgia. I remember M'sieurs Schoon and...Ah, nostalgia. I remember M'sieurs Schoon and Halverson for imparting some of the dark secrets of adolescence; and the thought of the Jensen sisters still leaves me tongue-tied.Margadantnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2695748260936745505.post-55578797095994554562009-12-13T20:41:17.251-08:002009-12-13T20:41:17.251-08:00Kinda makes me wish I'd stayed at home.Kinda makes me wish I'd stayed at home.Old Nevermorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15974901693954191357noreply@blogger.com