Monday, February 17, 2014

EWGS Writing Contest

 Well I guess I should tell my story, I was born in Spokane at Deaconess Hospital, one of the few EWGS members that still lives where he was born. I am pretty lucky as all four of my grandparents lived close to Spokane. My mom and both of her parents were born in Missouri. My grandfather was a carpenter working for the Rock Island Railroad, and in 1918 he moved his family to Spokane and became a switchman for the Great Northern railroad in Hillyard.
My dad and his mom were both born in Minnesota, and his dad was born in Denmark to a tailor. You have all heard the story of the three brothers that came to the US and one went west and was never heard from again, well FIVE of the Hansen brothers all came to Austin, Minnesota from Denmark and one went to Minneapolis and was never heard from again. Four of the brothers never left Minnesota, but my grandfather was a wanderer, my dad said he was always looking for the greener grass somewhere else, but was always a farmer. My dad grew up in Columbus, Montana, and later came to north Idaho to work in the logging camps. Soon after that his parents came to north Idaho and homesteaded a stump farm near Blanchard, Idaho.
I asked both my parents several times how they met, and they would smile and change the subject. I know my dad was working in Hillyard at the Studebaker dealership and he lived in a boarding house near by and my mom was working as a soda fountain worker in a confectionery shop near the Studebaker dealership, and my dad liked milk shakes, but I found out they knew each other before then.

No comments: