A Kuehn Life 1947 - 1960

"Sometimes when Ozzie and I were on our way home from the school on Fridays we would stop by the bar in Souris, where we got to know the owner, Walt Kuehn.

"Walt and I got married in 1946. Jack was born June 4, 1947. We lived in an apartment above the bar until we bought a house. We lived in Souris until 1950.

Walt's Bar: Grandpa Jonas Dravland, Uncle Ozzie Dravland, ?, ?, Aunt Alice (Dravland) & Neil Sivertson, ?, Mom, Jack, Dad.

"There was an incident where a man was killed while drinking and driving. Our Pastor said we should find some other business. When a chance came up to buy a grocery store in Antler, we decided to sell the bar and move there.

"The grocery business was a lot more work, but more satisfying. We also sold dry goods and bought cream and eggs. We had to test the cream and candle the eggs. In Antler we lived behind the store. Dan was born Feb. 7, 1952 and Herb was born Aug. 8, 1953. Walt was president of the town's Commercial Club. In 1954 Antler celebrated their 50th Anniversary. Walt was busy helping plan all of the events. We made a float for the store and had it in the parade.

"There was no Protestant Church in Antler, so all of us who weren't Catholic started a Community Church. Mr. Miller, who was a Nazarene minister, was our pastor, although none of us belonged to the Church of the Nazarene. I played the piano for church and the choir and Walt sang tenor in the choir. The boys always had to sit in the front row in church. Sometimes our choir would travel to other towns to sing.

 "In 1958 we decided to move to Granville, ND which was a bigger growing town and there was a grocery and dry goods store for sale. When Garrison Diversion was going to get started it was supposed to turn into a much larger city with all the surrounding farms getting smaller and using irrigation. Now, in 2000, it still hasn't come to that area. We remodeled the store there and built an attached apartment to live in. It was a nice friendly town, but too close to the competition of Minot.

"After having two heart attacks, Walt decided to get out of the grocery business. Rev. Haeger of Arthur and the head of the Good Samaritan Homes said he would train Walt to be a manager of a Good Samaritan Home. Walt traveled around visiting different homes and trained in Hastings, Nebraska for awhile.

"I stayed home with the kids and minded the store while he was gone. After selling the store to our competitor in Granville, we packed up everything. Before we were going to leave for the Good Samaritan Home in Minnesota that Walt was going to manage and I was going to be the matron, we decided to go visit Alice and Neil and Ozzie.

"After a day of visiting friends and relatives from the Bottineau and Carbury area, we went to bed. During the night Walt had his last fatal heart attack. This was in May, 1960. After the funeral at Turtle Mountain Church the boys and I stayed at Alice And Neils for the summer.

"I applied for and was accepted for a job in a department store in Bottineau and found a small house for sale. Vernon and Eunice suggested that before I made any definite plans, I should come to Moorhead, MN and check out the opportunities there. I stayed with them for awhile and checked around for jobs available.

"I went to Concordia College and talked to Amy Erickson, the director of the Food Service. She said she had been looking for someone like me to be a secretary and bookkeeper. A friend of Vern's was selling his house, so I bought it.

"This was August of 1960. In order to make ends meet, I took in roomers and rented out the garage. I had 3 roomers in the basement and 2 on the main floor. The boys and I slept in the rooms upstairs."

(Editors note: Ann must have had a whole host of angels looking after her because she was able to buy a house, across the street from Concordia College, without a down payment and get a job all in one weekend.)"

from The Ann Adeline Dravland Story on dravland.com

Later 1942 - 1947

"When I got to be a Junior in High School I had to go to Bottineau for my last two years. My Junior year I stayed with a girlfriend's family. The next year I stayed above the Candy Kitchen with several other single women.

"I worked at restaurants for my board. I worked at the Steinmeir Cafe and Rosie's Place. At Rosie's I did everything from cooking, waiting tables, and shopping to taking care of the ration books to get our allotments of sugar, coffee and meat.

"I remember V.J. Day (victory over Japan). I was waiting tables at Steinmeir's. They were running short of hamburger, so I had to run over to another cafe to borrow some. That was when the news came and every one was celebrating and opening bottles of champagne. It took awhile for me to get back with the hamburger, but nobody cared.

"The summer between my Junior and Senior year I went to Seattle to stay with Vi & LeRoy and baby-sit Cheryl while they worked at the Boeing Aircraft factory. Evenings, LaVonne, LeRoys sister and I would sometimes go to the PX to dance or play ping pong with the soldiers on leave. We would take a bus there and back. We would enjoy doing our patriotic duty! I also liked going to White Center to rollerskate.

"After graduating from high school in 1944, I went to Minot State Teachers College and after 3 months got an Emergency Teachers Certificate. There was a shortage of teachers because of the war.

"During our Graduation exercises, they announced there was a phone call for me. They were calling from home and said I should take the next train home as mom was sick. When I got to Carbury Ted met the train and told me mom had died. She had gone into a coma two days before she died from encephalitis, which was an epidemic that year. They hadn't told me because they wanted me to finish school and there wasn't anything anyone could do for her.

"The first year I taught in a country school in the foothills of the Turtle Mountains. It was close enough so I could stay at home. I had 8 students and 8 different grades.

The next year I taught at a country school near Landa, ND, with about 13 students.

"I lived there in the school in a part that was curtained off. I kept the fire going in a pot belly stove. I enjoyed teaching and especially the programs we would have for the parents at Christmas. Ozzie would come and get me to take me home for the week-ends."

from The Ann Adeline Dravland Story on dravland.com

Map of north central North Dakota

To follow places mentioned in Ann's stories, here's a map of the region where she grew up. Click to enlarge:

I'll be hitting the road Monday or Tuesday to attend the funeral in Moorhead.  I'll try to continues posting as I travel.

Ann's Childhood, part 1 1927 - 1937

Ann Adeline Dravland

"I was born January 13, 1927 in Bottineau, ND. My parents, Jonas and Theresa Dravland, lived on a farm about 2 miles from Carbury. This is the same farm which my brother Vern and his wife, Eunice now own. I was the youngest of nine living children. I was named after my grandmother, Dad's mother, Anna, who died shortly before I was born.

Jonas and Theresa (Utgaard) Dravland

"I always thought my middle name was Adeline until sending for my birth certificate in 1980. My name was given as Anna Telma Dravland. It looked like my fathers handwriting, so evidently he wanted me to be named Telma, but my mother had other ideas. I had it legally changed to Ann Adeline after finding some school records and with an affidavit from brother, Oswald.

The Ole Dravland Farm

"My oldest recollections are of Grandpa Ole Dravland holding me on his knee, calling me Lis (little) Anna and telling tales from Norse mythology. My favorite was about 2 kings. One had 12 daughters and one had 12 sons. The 12 daughters were captured by a giant who lived on an island. The 11 oldest sons of the other king tried to rescue them without success. Finally the youngest son goes to the island and discovers that the giants strength is contained in an egg. The son finds the egg, taps it and the giants arm goes limp. He cracks it and the giant falls down.

"'Finally, he slaps his hand down on the egg, crushing it and the king falls dead.' As he said this, Grandpa slapped his hand loudly on his knee to illustrate. "Then the young prince rescues all the daughters and the brothers marry them and they all live happily ever after." Some of the songs he sang were Kjerringa med staven (the old woman with the cane) and Nikolina.

"Another happy recollection is of some of the foods that Mama used to make. I always liked grot, made with milk and flour, eaten on a plate with a pat of butter and brown sugar in the middle. My older brothers and sisters couldn't understand why I liked it so well. They said during the depression they had it for almost every meal.

"When Utgaards (mamas brothers family) came to visit, we would always have their favorite, rommegrot. This would be made with cream instead of milk. The butter in the cream would float to the top. This was a real treat. Another favorite of mine was raspekake. This was potato pancakes made with a piece of side pork fried in the middle.

"At Christmas mama made lefse, fatteman, date filled pinwheel cookies, and other delicious foods. Making lefse was a big project. Mama would roll it out and dad would cook it on top of the range using a long wooden spatula to turn them. They were about 18 inches across.

"This was the real Norwegian type lefse, not the Americanized type made with potatoes. The milk lefse had to be dried and was kept in a cold place and taken out as it was used, then it would be sprinkled with water, wrapped in a dish towel until it softened and was ready to eat."

from The Ann Adeline Dravland Story on dravland.com