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.
August 31, 2025
For the last 4 weeks, I’ve been reading from Wilbert McFarlane’s memoirs, filed in the research
area at the Roseau County Museum. Up until now, his story has included his childhood
memories growing up in Badger, and last week he told about his first “real” job working in Grand
Forks for Gamble Robinson wholesaler. Today I’ll continue that part of his story.
We were there most of the winter and then I came home and I think I worked for Arnold Smith in
the spring putting in the crop. This had to have been about 1946. Arnold had a bunch of land
rented and he was the manager of the Farmer’s Union in Badger. I worked for him until the
spring seeding was all done about the end of June. Then I got the urge to go out to Seattle
where my older sister, May, lived. So I went out there and worked from July to about February.
Funny thing, I went to her door and she wouldn’t unhook the screen because she didn’t know
who the hell I was. I finally convinced her that I was a nice guy and she let me in. But the
following spring I decided to go back home again. This was in February. I went back home and
spent some time out at Elsie and Ervin’s on the farm rolling up barbed wire. When Ervin bought
the farm from his dad, every 20 or 40 acres had a fence around it. I tore all of them down. And
that was where I met the neighbor kids, the Stein clan. There were 7 boys and 4 girls. One of the
girls was a pretty sharp little gal .. and I even worked over there because their dad had had an
operation of some kind and me and the oldest boy was hauling wood and hay. They had lots of
cattle.
That winter I drove taxi cab in Roseau for a while. I drove it until they quit. Eidor Urdahl had a ’41
maroon Chevrolet four-door and Stanley Alberg had a ’40 maroon Chevy four-door. And those
were the two cars we had for taxis. They took white tape an inch wide … stuck that on each door
so it said TAXI. So me and Dennis kept it open at night because it was a 24-hour gas station.
There was a guy who had a little gas station there and the deal was, we got free rent if we kept
the station open so we could sell gas. Well, one of us always had to be there and the other would
be out with the taxi. Dennis was a little afraid to go out on some of those trips at night alone so
he stuck around the station, but I made many trips to Warroad to the liquor store so the rich and
famous in Roseau could get their booze. Roseau was a dry county and you couldn’t buy liquor
unless you got it from a bootlegger. And I made many trips out where the new hospital is in
Roseau … there was a bootlegger out there. The guys who started Polaris … used to be called
Hetteen Hoist and Derick … they had their famous happy hour every night about 5:30. They’d
call for a cab and I’d get a buck to drive out to the boneyard and get a fifth of booze and bring it
back. There was only 5 employees, but they would down that fifth and call it a day. So even
though it was a dry county, there was no shortage of holy water. Nobody went without it. We
even had some good bootleggers down in Badger at that time.
But then there was this urge … you know how young people are .. all of a sudden they think
they’re falling in love .. in most cases it’s one set of glands calling to another. So I ended up
married to Louise Stein in 1948. We got married and had a honeymoon in Winnipeg. When we
got back I had $5.18. That’s all I had between me and starvation. We lived with my folks for
awhile because they weren’t well … my mother wasn’t well at all.
On February 27, 1949, while living with my folks, our first son, Nathan, was born in Roseau in the
old Budd hospital. Louise came down with the mumps while she was in the hospital and was
quarantined. They were in for 8 or 9 days. It was quite a thrill having the first son.
Rocky, number 2 son, was born May 25, 1950. Now Nathan had a playmate.
Bimbo, or Wally, came along on November 1, 1952. Three busy boys kept Louise hopping, along
with the chores, cooking and cleaning.
By this time we had fixed up the house on the farm and that’s where we lived for about 7 years.
We got a few cows and managed to get by. I was working full time in the seed house by then. It
was 1949 when I started full time in the seed house in Badger. So we were getting by … eating
pretty good … still in love with potatoes and rhubarb.
After we moved out to the farm there were a couple of winters that was terrible tough … 1949-50
and ’50-’51. There was an awful lot of snow, roads were blocked and real cold. Badger only had
about 8 days of school in April because the roads were so bad. I used to leave my car in John
Penas’ barn so it would start in the morning. So I’d get up, walk over to Penas’, get the car out of
the barn, drive to town. I had to be there by 5 to 7. I worked till 6 and hoped I could get the car
started again. I had to go to our place because I had 6 ten-gallon cream cans in the trunk. Then
I’d haul water from John Penas’ to our place to fill the cow tank so we had enough water for the
cows. Then I’d go back to John’s and put the car in the barn and walk back home. Then I was
done for the day, but the same process started the next morning. On my way to work I’d stop and
pick up Alfred Praska … he’d walk from his place down to the main road… he’d be standing
there shivering so bad he could hardly talk by the time I got there and he rode with me into town.
It's been very interesting reading about Wilbert McFarlane’s beginnings in Roseau County.
Thanks to his family for submitting a copy of the story to the Roseau County Museum for others
to enjoy. There’s much more of his story, which I hope to get back to soon.
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.