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My grandfather Owen Brady and my aunt Patricia one cold North Dakota day the 1930s
For Christmas of 2012 he made a gift to the family of these memories from his early life in North Dakota.
One of the thoughts that has been floating through my head as snow arrived in Minnesota was the way children were taken to school in those days. I was too young to go to school but I do remember riding with our dad in a kind of shed on skis, with a little stove to keep everyone warm. I really don't remember going to school as much as the ride home. I think I remember him talking about next year when I would be in school.
Another memory that keeps coming back is about a time Mom and Dad left my sisters on the farm to take care of my younger brother Jimmy while I got to go to Devils Lake with them. We didn't leave Devils Lake until after dark. I got to sit on front with them. Our mom was unhappy about something and Dad was trying to cheer her up - he was very happy about something else. When we got home Dad had to go out to the barn to milk the cows and do the chores. They had bought me a pair of white farmers gloves in town. Mom let me wear them as I went out to the barn to help with chores. Being it was dark I ran into the barbwire fence and got blood on my new gloves. I can remember crying a lot, not because of the scratches but because I got blood all over my new "farmers gloves."
The last memory on the farm was when Dad was so sick he couldn't get out of bed. There was a snowstorm but Mom thought she should call someone to come to the farm to get Dad to a doctor. Dad said not to that. Harvey Rice, the mailman, would be along any minute and eh would get the help that was needed. Dad was taken by sleigh to the closest train station to be transported to the Veterans Hospital in Fargo. I was told they had to put my Mom and Dad in the mail car. It was heated. But he could not be in the regular part of the train because they didn't know why he was so sick. That all happened during the winter of 1939-40, which started a whole new life for all of us in the little town of Crary.
Jimmy and I loved Crary; our sisters didn't feel the same way. I didn't mean for this to end on such a dark note...but that's the way memories go.
