THE OTHER FARM

THE OTHER FARM: Charlie Berglund came to America from Charlottenburg, Sweden around turn of the century. He and his brother Uncle Al and Pere Anderson, their father moved to Minnesota. The elder family member decided he did not want to stay and returned to Sweden, and we recently met our cousin at a family reunion. Charlie taught himself English by reading the funny papers. And the boys were given the name Berglund by some official. Charlie would have originally been called Charles Pierson etc. I do not know when he met Nellie Rose but according to brother Phil, who has been ancestry.com, she worked as a school marm. At any rate they met and married and lived in Minnesota for a few years. Carl and Dad were born there in Bimiji. Charlie worked for Morrison Knudsen as a heavy equipment operator. During the depression he helped his neighbors quite a lot. They lived in Boise for a while and then he purchased a small farm near Letha, Idaho. He kept a very small dairy herd, about five cows. He did not hobble them and I think he hand milked them. We were not allowed inside the milk barn. The only crop he planted was hay, I remember a bib old haystay and a derrick. We were not allowed to play on that either. They did have a dog, Frosty, large white. I remember stealing dog biscuits to nibble on, not that tasty. Grandma Beglund cooked with a pressure cooker all the time. She never reallt sat down to eat at the table because she was busy running around, adding to plates and sampling from those same plates. Her dentures were loose and clacked when she spoke. She wore a fubulous undergarment with all sorts of closings. She was a large women with breasts the size of di She and Charlie were very social and attended lots of local card games. There were always knitted and starched nut holders. I loved those things. Mom tossed out about fifty of them. I always thought they would be terrific Christmas tree decorations. Nellie had raspberry bushes and she canned them. I remember being served the berries in little depression glass berry dishes. Loved them. When she died, the tossed out dozen of jars ofraggedy looking raspberries. She was Seventh Day Adventist. Grandpa B was a happily lapsed Lutheran as that was the State Religion of Sweden. His philosophy was life a good life. And he did. He helped dig the first irrigation canals in the Emmett valley. I remember that they had a party line and when the phone rang, you would answer to the ring combination that was yours. Grandpa B had a lovely pocket watch that he would let us listen to. He chewed snoose but was very clean aboutit. Nellie drove a 50's Studebaker and fast! The front seat was huge, large enough to hold several grandchildren. The starter was on the floor. Uncle Carl was stationed in Japan after WWII and brought a beautiful picture of Mount Fuji. He gave Uncle Paul a bautiful Kimono doll,pink Kimono to Dad. Mom made it into a pink dress. We both wish she had kept the original. I have many fond memories of the other farm.