These stories can also be heard on Sunday mornings around 10 am on WILD 102’s “Look Back in Time” program. Each week’s radio story will be posted here on our website.
Weekly radio stories are researched, compiled, and read by Sheila Winstead, RCHS Board Member.
May 3, 2026
Last week, I was reading from a letter of appreciation for a former Roseau County man who became a dentist and worked in Minneapolis. His name was Dr. Clarence Olafson and he had grown up in Ross. His patient was Jim Robertson and he also came from Northern Minnesota. Dr. Olafson had given him the bad news that all of his old fillings had decay and a big job was ahead. I’ll continue reading from his grateful patient’s letter, written after Dr. Olafson had died in 1985. He referred to the doctor as CGO in his letter.
“For the next several months, I would make a weekly trek to his office and he would replace one or two fillings. I always found the money to pay him and never had to charge or delay payment. For this I was thankful. Finally, my teeth were fixed and some of his work I still have in my mouth today. It is because of him that I do not have or need dentures. It is because of him, and his gracious generosity, that I was able to have this work completed.
CGO had a dentist’s chair that he told me he had purchased used, in 1929, right after his graduation. It was the old “spittoon” type, that had water swirling in the bowl and you would spit out whatever was in your mouth when he directed. I miss that old chair. Today’s modern dentists have only the suction device. There’s something to be said about really getting it all out of your mouth and watching it go down the sewer. It took him awhile to get a water drill also. Most of the drilling was done by the old “cable drill” that was suspended from the top of this chair. I “learned” to not take novocaine. Being rather tall I would position my feet on his radiator which was just in front of this chair. When the drilling would hurt, I would kick or bend his radiator. This was my signal. He always kidded me that I was probably going to push it right out the window someday.
I enjoyed having him clean my teeth. Unlike today’s process, you really felt like you had been cleaned. He would put this large plastic sheet all around you. Then he would get a small cup of pumice in his one hand, the above-mentioned drill in the other, now fitted with small rotary brushes, and he would splash and splatter you from head to toe on the outside of this plastic cover. He then would spray you with the red mouthwash, and plenty of it. When he was finished, you knew it.
One time I had him put in a bridge. This was over the space that was vacant because of the first tooth he pulled with the abscess. I got there about 6:30 in the evening. He had measured me for this the previous week. When he tried to place the bridge in place, he discovered that they had not positioned it right. He muttered about incompetence, took it back out of my mouth and retreated to his little work room, which was between the two chairs. There he had a torch and all kinds of equipment. He cut the bridge in half, refitted it in my mouth, rewelded it on his bench, and fitted it in the proper spot. It is still in my mouth today, and has been admired by the subsequent dentists.
He was not a specialist, as we have today. He did it all. From root-canals, to bridges, fillings, and whatever came to his attention. He had some standards. One of his customers wanted him to remove one of his front teeth and replace it with a bridge that had a diamond in it so this would
display when he smiled. CGO stated he would not ruin a good tooth just for aesthetic purposes and if he needed this done, it would have to be done elsewhere.
Frequently, my appointments were the first in the morning. He always came to work in a suit with a white shirt and a tie; and he always wore a dress hat. He then would replace the white shirt and tie with his white dental “smock,” and go about his work day. When he left, he would once again dress up.
He was hard on his office help. He demanded as much from them as he did himself. Almost every time I arrived, during those nearly twenty years, he would have a new girl at the desk. He worked hard for an honest wage and expected those about him to do the same.
In the early 1970s, he advised me to find a new dentist as he was going to wind down. I only talked to him once or twice after that. I only found out about his death this past November.
I miss CGO and what he represented to me: my dentist and my friend.
Thank you to 
for letting us share our county’s history with your listeners by donating air time, studio time, and production staff every week.