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.
December 17, 2023
This story comes from a book in the Roseau County Museum’s research area called “Ray’s Stories”. It was written by Marjorie Mortensen from stories her husband Ray had shared through the years. He grew up in a big family near Wannaska. He was born there in 1915 and died in Oregon in 1993. His wife Marjorie died in 2002.
“To get ready for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years, Julia [Mortensen, Ray’s mother] had lots of cooking and baking to do. There were the usual Scandinavian foods, fattigman, krumkake, rosettes, spritz cookies, and berlinkranser cookies, and of course, lots of lefse. I marveled how she could put these treats away and keep them until needed, without two-legged varmints getting into them. I couldn’t. I think Ray was more scared of his mother than he was of me.
These days when I make some of these foods, I feel very close to Ray, because I recall how much he enjoyed them. I am so thankful he taught me how to make lefse and the other treats.
Each of the holidays meant a big dinner to be served, with a turkey or a goose, plus all the trimmings. I was introduced to the treat of fattigman (poor man’s cake) when we were at the farm while on furlough. The Christmas dinner was complete, as far as I thought, but after the pie was served, the dishes were cleared away, and more coffee poured, a huge platter heaped with what looked like pieces of pie dough was brought to the table. I was immediately captivated with this delicacy, and I am pleased to serve this for my family.
On Christmas Eve, the Scandinavian custom was for the family to be home together. Even the ones that might be inclined to drink too much and maybe neglect their families were all home on Christmas Eve. Another Scandinavian Christmas Eve custom was to give the cows and horses a little extra grain that evening. We kept that custom when we had stock or small animals.
Christmas Day began with church services, then a big family dinner. The rest of the holidays was a time to visit neighbors and be ready to entertain visitors. This kept on the whole twelve days of Christmas. The children liked the big dinners, mainly because of the custom of the adults eating first -different from the custom nowadays-, then while the adults visited with each other in the other rooms, the kids got to eat. Then they ate what they wanted, as much as they wanted and no one said anything. Ray said one time he ate a whole pie and no one said “no.”
Sears-Roebuck and Montgomery Ward mail-order catalogues were used by every family to receive by mail items not usually found in Lee’s Store and stores in Roseau. One year when Ray was eight or nine years old, he became concerned when he thought the family’s order for Christmas presents had not arrived. The nearer the holiday came, the more he worried. When he asked his father about the order, Andrew passed the concern off, commenting about maybe the store may have been too busy to send the order on time, or something like that. Ray began to really storm around, saying they should never buy anything from them again, and if he could he would do something really bad to them. Well, Christmas Eve arrived and there were presents for everyone. The order had arrived very much earlier and the arrival had been kept secret. Ray never forgot the happening. He told about it often, and laughed about it.
When Ray was growing up, the young people liked to have sleighing parties. One time Ray was driving the horses on such a party. He had stopped the team to let some of the riders get off. One of the persons getting off the sleigh was very pregnant. Just as she stepped down one of the horses moved, which caused the woman to fall. She delivered the baby later that night. Everything went well, but Ray felt responsible for the early delivery.
During the cold weather, the Northern Lights became visible. This is a phenomenon in the northern latitudes. They are bright colored lights that swish and swirl and swoop high in the sky at night. Sometimes there was even sound with them. For centuries these lights could not be explained, and many legends were associated with them. Scientists now explain them as being electrically charged particles, but they still are a puzzlement for most people.
Ray’s cousin Archie liked to tease his younger cousins. He would tell them they had to be careful, because the lights might swoop down and snatch up little kids. One time when he, Ray, and Orval had to go out to the barn to feed calves, the lights were flashing, and because of what Archie had told the boys, they kept very close to him as they all hurried back to the house. Ray said he and Orval were really scared. Archie had not made up the story, because it was a legend dating back in Scandinavian history.
In the winter time coyotes would be out in the field to the west of the house. The window on the boys’ room faced this field, and they could hear the coyotes yipping and yapping at night (they were after the rabbits that were there, too). Ray said when he was very young, the sound of those coyotes made the hairs stand up on his neck. He said he would snuggle deeper down under the quilts to keep from hearing them.”
Marjorie Mortensen did her family a great favor by writing down Ray’s stories. Many of these memories would be from nearly 100 years ago. I encourage you to write down your childhood memories. Someday someone like me will be reading them and thanking you for doing so, and your descendants will be so happy to have them.
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