Growing Up in North Dakota

We lived in a “teacherage” in Hope, a home that was reserved for the superintendent/principal while he was working in town. There were HUGE lilac bushes in front of the house as they were really memorable. Lilacs thrive where the winters get really cold as they do in North Dakota, so these bushes produced gallons of fragrant flowers. Mom picked them and put them in vases in the house.

My bedroom was memorable because it held a real brass bed that shined like gold! I remember there were white organdy curtains at the windows and the walls were covered with pink rose wallpaper. We thought we might take the bed with us when we headed for California, but my dad couldn’t get it

apart. Sooo – I remember the cold especially from living here – don’t know why for sure. One thing I remember was the chapping that you’d get on your calves at the point where your snow shoe hit your skin. My legs would turn raw – oowww! I also remember walking to school and freezing – we’d wear the mittens my amma had made for us and if they were damp at all, the water in them would actually freeze on the way to school. Hope had a tiny downtown, as had all the other towns we’d lived in, and in the winter the grocery store delivered all the groceries as the town residents couldn’t get out to the store. So my mom would call her order in and it would be delivered (kind of like Safeway.com now!).