Foreward

by Jill Isakson

In the following pages you will read memories my Grandmother Hylma Uglem Isakson remembered of her childhood, family and friends. My father, Gale Isakson is the caretaker of the original book. It is a plain yellow spiral notebook, 80 sheets and cost all of $ .98. It starts out with a list of the descendents of Torsten and Johanna Uglem on page one, and all 80 pages; front and back are filled with a very familiar handwriting. It amazes me that there are not scribbles anywhere in the book. Every piece of paper I have lying on my desk or in my purse has notes, phone numbers etc written all over them. Hylma bought this notebook to write her memories in and that is what the notebook was used for. Obviously there were no small children around to want a sheet of her paper to draw on or teenagers needing paper to finish their homework assignment. At the time Grandma wrote this I am unsure if she was living at Hillcrest Nursing home in Hettinger, North Dakota or was still living on the farm in Perkins County, South Dakota.

In the last pages of her book, Hylma tells of marrying Ike Isakson in 1926 and that her Ma and sister Esther weren’t happy about her rushing into this marriage. Although I never heard her complain, I think she probably wish someone had talked her out of it at times in her life. Ike was a stubborn Norwegian and living around him wasn’t what I would have called pleasant. At least that is how this granddaughter viewed him. Hylma writes about the lack of luxury in her Ma’s times. A life of luxury was not in store for Hylma either. Household items were simple and very basic. She never had a driver’s license or drove the car that I knew of. I remember she washed clothes in a wringer washer and hung heavy overalls out to dry long after washers and dryers came into existence.

Ike and Hylma had four sons, Jerome, Gale, Danny and Kendall. Grandma used to say she had one too short (Jerome who stood around 5 foot), one too tall (Kendall, well over 6 foot), one to fat (Danny, we called him Big Danny because of his size and our younger brother was called Little Danny) and one too skinny (Gale, she wouldn’t use this same description today).

Ike and Hylma moved to the farm in Perkins County in 1929. They borrowed $1,000.00 to purchase the place from Annie Isakson, (Ike's cousin) and lived there till they moved to the nursing home.

As many of you know Jerome, his wife Carol (Lefebre) and their 2 adopted children LeeAnn and Mark died in a car accident in 1965 on Easter Sunday while heading to Ike and Hylma’s for the holiday. At the time of his death, Jerome worked for a TV station in Bismarck, North Dakota as an electronic technician. I read somewhere in the family history that Jerome was a dwarf. I just want to clarify that he was a short man and for some reason did not grow. But his body, limbs, hands etc were all of proportional sizes and I don’t think he was ever considered a dwarf.

Gale and his wife Joyce (Mundahl), currently live in Great Falls, MT. Gale worked for JC Penney Company for a number of years accepting transfers and promotions to Montana, Wyoming, Montana, Utah and finally settling down in Choteau, Montana where they owned and operated Isakson’s Department Store for a number of years. After selling their store Gale went to work as a service manager for a John Deere dealership in Choteau. They have 4 children, David (Augusta, MT), Jill (Great Falls, MT), Jolene (Spokane, WA) and Danny K., (Choteau, MT), 11 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren and a couple of more on the way.

Big Danny never married but came home to farm after Ike retired. (I don’t remember Ike ever working hard enough to retire from it). Danny developed health problems and lived in Hettinger, North Dakota up until his death in June of 1998. While Danny was ill and unable to get about, he kept himself busy crocheting. I asked him once where he learned to do this and he said his Mother had shown him years ago and when he could no longer get around he had someone pick up some yarn, some needles and a book on showing basic stitches and was able to take it up to occupy his time. He made Afghans and sold them in a local consignment store. He told me that he liked working with wool yarn, but I’m sure he was partial to wool since he raised sheep on the farm.

Kendall has done trucking and construction work throughout the state of South Dakota. The last we saw him was at Big Danny’s funeral. He had married Karen Christiansen from Hettinger, North Dakota but divorced after a few years.

During the summer of 1974 I went to South Dakota to spend some time with my Grandparents and Uncle Danny. My husband, Les Hodgskiss had died of cancer that spring and I probably needed some place to go just to get away. I was having trouble sleeping at night and Grandma gave me a stack of old calendars that she had jotted notes and information down for the day. The various information included weather reports, who may have called or stopped by that day or noted the current price of eggs, cream, aspirin, mentholatum or what ever she might have been purchasing that day. I remember one entry in particular was 10 years earlier in June/July of 1964. My brothers, David age 12, Danny age 6, my sister Jolene age 8 and I was 11, were all staying with my Grandparents and other relatives in the area due to a flood in our home town of Choteau, MT. Grandma had purchased Jolene and I a package of “anklets” at the J.C. Penney Store in Hettinger, N. Dak. My first thought was why did she worry about that $1.25. My second thought was, she only raised boys doesn’t she know what girl things cost. Now you have to remember that I was 21 years old when I read this and money meant nothing to me…But the more I read the more I realized she was keeping a history of the cost of basic items. Now those 3 pair of anklets today would be $8.00 or more.

The Mendanhall piano was such a joy to read about. The piano sat in Grandma Hylma’s small living room. She taught piano to 2 generations of folks in the Duck Creek Area of Perkins County, South Dakota. When visiting there in the summers we always looked forward to the neighborhood kids coming for piano lessens. You could always tell when she had a piano student coming because she would put on her best dress, and run a comb through her hair, give it a twist and pin it up, While one family member was with Grandma doing their lesson we were having fun with the siblings, hanging out on the big old swing set. Of course we were probably telling stories back and forth trying to impress each other, after all they were the country kids and we were the kids from the city. (Or at least a small town of around 2000). The Mendanhall piano now sits in my living room in Great Falls, MT. And my plans are to pass it on to my niece Callie Isakson-Allen (David Isakson’s daughter).

My sister Jolene Isakson-Allen still has the porcelain head doll, Lillian Victorian Lane Grandma writes about in the chapter This Old Women Was Once A Little Girl. It now lives in Spokane, Washington. It seems to have survived all these years as Grandma raised 4 boys and Jolene has raised 2 boys so there was never any little girls wanting to play with it.

As a young girl I remember getting my first taste of Tums from Grandma’s kitchen. Grandma always kept a package in the corner cupboard of her Hoosier cabinet. Not knowing what they were, but thinking they looked like mint candy, I took a couple and headed outside to share my wonderful find with my sister. With-in seconds we knew it wasn’t a sweet lifesaver and we headed around the house to spit it out. I don’t remember if we fessed up to eating it for fear we had taken something we shouldn’t have or if we stayed awake that night for fear if we closed our eyes we might not ever wake up again because it was poison. My brother David spent several summers on the farm. He tells the story of coming in from outside and seeing a jar of lemonade on the counter. After filling a glass and taking a big swig he made a quick dash for the sink and spit it out. Grandma was upstairs cleaning and David went to the stairs and hollered, “Grandma what is that jar of stuff on the counter?” Grandma softly answered “Potato water”. Oh how nasty that must have tasted. Of course I do remember the time my Grandpa caught us in a wheat field crawling around flattening the wheat to making a house of rooms. The only reason he could see us is we all had hooded sweatshirts on and from the house he could see the little points of our heads bounce up and down. We could hear him yelling quite loudly as he was coming toward the field. Luckily we could run faster and headed for the house. We knew our Grandmother would not let him do to us what he was threatening. He reminded us for years of the acreage we had trampled down. I’m sure it wasn’t more than ½ a football field. Ha!

Of course anytime you ask any of us what we remember most about our Grandma we would probably tell you about her good cookies in the cookie jar, never a lack of desserts around, the smell of fresh bread baking, her love of music, her faith in God, playing piano in church, her soft voice, her newsy letters, her knotted hands and swollen feet from arthritis, her stool she sat on in the corner next to the Hoosier cupboard (the only cupboard in a kitchen), and her constantly having to remind us not to hang on the refrigerator door when we were just looking for something to eat. I can still see in my mind, my Grandma stroking a cat or dog with her knotted hands, looking into their eyes and speaking kindly to the animal. You can always tell the kindness in a person’s heart on how they treat an animal. I believe my Grandma was a kind and gentle women.

My Grandparents spent their last years in a nursing home in Hettinger, North Dakota. Grandma Hylma died in March of 1985 and Grandpa Ike died June 1986. Though my Grandma had been crippled with arthritis her mind was sharp up till the last day. When we returned home from her funeral I had a Birthday card waiting for me in the mailbox with a short note from her. A nurse had written on the card that as they were moving Grandma from the nursing home to the hospital she asked the nurse to be sure to mail my birthday card. It was strange to come home and read the card but it also felt good to know she still was thinking of me in her final days.

I really want to thank my cousin Ross Holme for taking the time to type Grandma’s words and putting them on the website so that everyone for generations to come can know her and the memories she so willingly shared of her family.

Hylma’s Granddaughter, Jill Isakson