I was born January 13, 1927 in Bottineau, ND. My parent’s Jonas and Theresa Dravland lived on a farm about 2 miles from Carbury. This is the same farm which my brother Vern & his wife, Eunice now own. I was the youngest of nine living children. I was named after my grandmother, dad’s mother, Anna, who died shortly before I was born. I always thought my middle name was Adeline until sending for my birth certificate in 1980. My name was given as Anna Telma Dravland. It looked like my father’s handwriting, so evidently he wanted me to be named Telma, but my mother had other ideas. I had it legally changed to Ann Adeline after finding some school records and with an affidavit from brother, Oswald.
My oldest recollections are of Grandpa Ole Dravland holding me on his knee, calling me “Lis (little) Anna” and telling tales from Norse mythology. My favorite was about 2 kings. One had 12 daughters and one had 12 sons. The 12 daughters were captured by a giant who lived on an island. The 11 oldest sons of the other king tried to rescue them without success. Finally the youngest son goes to the island and discovers that the giant’s strength is contained in an egg. The son finds the egg, taps it and the giant’s arm goes limp. He cracks it and the giant falls down. Finally, he slaps his hand down on the egg, crushing it and the king falls dead. As he said this Grandpa slapped his hand loudly on his knee to illustrate. Then the young prince rescues all the daughters and the brothers marry them and they all live happily ever after. Some of the songs he sang were “Kjerringa med staven” (the old woman with the cane) and Nikolina.
Another happy recollection is of some of the foods that Mama used to make. I always liked grot, made with milk and flour, eaten on a plate with a pat of butter and brown sugar in the middle. My older brothers and sisters couldn’t understand why I liked it so well. They said during the depression they had it for allmost every meal. When Utgaard’s (mama’s brother’s family) came to visit, we would always have their favorite, rommegrot. This would be made with cream instead of milk. The butter in the cream would float to the top. This was a real treat. Another favorite of mine was raspekake. This was potato pancakes made with a piece of side pork fried in the middle. At Christmas mama made lefse, fatteman, date filled & pinwheel cookies and other delicious foods. Making lefse was a big project. Mama would roll it out and dad would cook it on top of the range using a long wooden spatula to turn them. They were about 18 inches across. This was the real Norwegian type lefse, not the Americanized type made with potatoes. The milk lefse had to be dried and was kept in a cold place and taken out as it was used, then it would be sprinkled with water, wrapped in a dish towel until it softened and was ready to eat.
During the holidays we would go visiting or have company every night. The older people would visit or play whist and the children would play card games, like hearts, horn or pig. I always wanted to play whist with the adults. One time I hid the cards under my parent’s mattress so no one could play. After they had looked for them for awhile I finally put them on the dresser so they could find them.
One year about a week before Christmas, I was sitting, wiggling around on a cream can, which was ready to be taken to town. Suddenly the cream can tipped, spilling the cream all over the floor. Mama said “There goes your Christmas presents!” I went behind the door between the kitchen and the living room and cried. I can’t remember if we got any presents from Mom and Dad, but I know we got some from Al & Effie who lived in Duluth and had a grocery store there. We always got a big package from them just before Christmas. It contained presents, candy, nuts and fruit. One year there was a package from Alice who was also living in Duluth. When it was tipped over it said “mama”. I could hardly wait to open it. It was a big beautiful doll.
My favorite place to sit was on the oven door. It was always warm and cozy and you would always be in the middle of the activity in the kitchen. When you got too big you lost the privilege of sitting their. I also liked to sit in grandpa’s lap. His chair was right beside the kitchen range.
Most of the time we would walk to school, which was in Carbury. It was about two miles cutting across the prairie. Somtimes during the winter we would ride in a large sled pulled by horses and huddle under a blanket to keep warm. Sometimes the boys would jump off and run behind. Then whoever was driving would get the horses to run faster so the running boys would get left behind.
We had Community Club in Carbury every month. There would be a meeting, a program and lunch afterwards. Sometimes we would play games like musical chairs. I especially liked when everyone did the Grand March, walking in twos, to music, following the lead couple, who would decide what designs we would do next. Sometimes they would have a carnival. One time I won the children’s door prize which was a 50 cent piece. Grandpa took it away from me so I wouldn’t lose it. When we got home I went behind the door and cried.
When I got to be a Junior in High School I had to go to Bottineau for my last two years. My Junior year I stayed with a girl friend’s family. The next year I stayed above the Candy Kitchen with several other single women. I worked at restaurant’s for my board. I worked at the Steinmeir Cafe and Rosie’s Place. At Rosie’s I did everything from cooking, waiting tables, and shopping to taking care of the ration books to get our allotments of sugar, coffee and meat. I remember V.J. Day (victory over Japan). I was waiting tables at Steinmeir’s. They were running short of hamburger, so I had to run over to another cafe to borrow some. That was when the news came and every one was celebrating and opening bottles of champagne. It took awhile for me to get back with the hamburger, but nobody cared.
The summer between my Junior and Senior year I went to Seattle to stay with Vi & LeRoy and baby-sit Cheryl while they worked at the Boeing Aircraft factory. Evenings, LaVonne, LeRoy’s sister and I would sometimes go to the PX to dance or play ping pong with the soldiers on leave. We would take a bus there and back. We would enjoy doing our patriotic duty! I also liked going to White Center to rollerskate.
After graduating from high school in 1944, I went to Minot State Teacher’s College and after 3 months got an Emergency Teacher’s Certificate. There was a shortage of teachers because of the war. During our Graduation excercises, they announced there was a phone call for me. They were calling from home and said I should take the next train home as mom was sick. When I got to Carbury Ted met the train and told me mom had died. She had gone into a coma two days before she died from encephalitis, which was an epidemic that year. They hadn’t told me because they wanted me to finish school and there wasn’t anything anyone could do for her.
The first year I taught in a country school in the foothills of the Turtle Mountains. It was close enough so I could stay at home. I had 8 students and 8 different grades. The next year I taught at a country school near Landa, ND with about 13 students. I lived there in the school in a part that was curtained off. I kept the fire going in a pot belly stove. I enjoyed teaching and especially the programs we would have for the parents at Christmas. Ozzie would come and get me to take me home for the week-ends.
(TOC)The grocery business was a lot more work, but more satisfying. We also sold dry goods and bought cream and eggs. We had to test the cream and candle the eggs. In Antler we lived behind the store. Dan was born Feb. 7, 1952 and Herb was born Aug. 8, 1953. Walt was president of the town’s Commercial Club. In 1954 Antler celebrated their 50th Anniversary. Walt was busy helping plan all of the events. We made a float for the store and had it in the parade.
There was no Protestant Church in Antler, so all of us who weren’t Catholic started a Community Church. Mr. Miller, who was a Nazarene minister, was our pastor, although none of us belonged to the Church of the Nazarene. I played the piano for church and the choir and Walt sang tenor in the choir. The boys always had to sit in the front row in church. Sometimes our choir would travel to other towns to sing.
In 1958 we decided to move to Granville, ND which was a bigger growing town and there was a grocery and dry goods store for sale. When Garrison Diversion was going to get started it was supposed to turn into a much larger city with all the surrounding farms getting smaller and using irrigation. Now, in 2000, it still hasn’t come to that area. We remodeled the store there and built an attached apartment to live in. It was a nice friendly town, but too close to the competition of Minot.
After having two heart attacks, Walt decided to get out of the grocery business. Rev. Haeger of Arthur and the head of the Good Samaritan Homes said he would train Walt to be a manager of a Good Samaritan Home. Walt traveled around visiting different homes and trained in Hastings, Nebraska for awhile. I stayed home with the kids and minded the store while he was gone. After selling the store to our competitor in Granville, we packed up everything. Before we were going to leave for the Good Samaritan Home in Minnesota that Walt was going to manage and I was going to be the matron, we decided to go visit Alice and Neil and Ozzie. After a day of visiting friends and relatives from the Bottineau and Carbury area, we went to bed. During the night Walt had his last fatal heart attack. This was in May, 1960. After the funeral at Turtle Mountain Church the boys and I stayed at Alice And Neil’s for the summer.
I applied for and was accepted for a job in a department store in Bottineau and found a small house for sale. Vernon and Eunice suggested that before I made any definite plans, I should come to Moorhead, MN and check out the opportunities there. I stayed with them for awhile and checked around for jobs available. I went to Concordia College and talked to Amy Erickson, the director of the Food Service. She said she had been looking for someone like me to be a secretary and bookkeeper. A friend of Vern’s was selling his house, so I bought it This was August of 1960. In order to make ends meet, I took in roomers and rented out the garage. I had 3 roomers in the basement and 2 on the main floor. The boys and I slept in the rooms upstairs. (Editors note: Ann must have had a whole host of angels looking after her because she was able to buy a house, across the street from Concordia College, without a down payment and get a job all in one weekend.)
(TOC)In 1962 I met Raymond Geiszler at a New Year’s Eve party. I brought spaghetti for lunch. He said he wanted to marry whoever brought the spaghetti and he did. He had 3 children by a former marriage to Loretta Gwin, Raymond ElRoy, who was 20, Lorray, who was 14 and Raney, who was 8. At that time Jack was 15, Dan was 10 and Herb was 9. We suddenly had a large family. ElRoy was in the army. Ray sold his house in north Moorhead. We quit having roomers, since we were able to fill all the rooms with our children. Ray worked for Selland Motors in Fargo as a mechanic. April 18, 1963 Dina Rae was born. I worked only part time for awhile,taking work home with me. When I started working full time, Ray’s brother, Edwin and his wife, Vange, baby-sat Dina and during the summer months Dina’s older brothers and sisters baby-sat her.
I retired after 29 years at Concordia in1989. Our first ten years of married life Ray and I and our family travleled during our vacations going to National Parks, Texas and California. Then we bought a lake home on Turtle Lake in Minnesota where we spent most of our free time fishing, swimming and relaxing. After about 10 years we sold it and bought a trailer home, which we parked in a campground on Buffalo Lake. Later we sold that also, deciding we’d like travel again or just stay home. One memorable trip was to England and France during the 50th celebration of the Normandy invasion. Ray had been a part of that when he was in the army and was wounded on the 3rd day of the invasion. We saw and heard President Clinton and the Premier of France, Mitterand, give speeches. We went to many small towns that had been liberated where we marched in parades and partook in lots of banquets. We also stayed in the home of a French family for a few days.
We sold our house and moved into a condominium in 1995. The yard work and snow shoveling was getting too much for Ray. Ray died March 30, 1998. Since then I’ve been learning how to get along on my own, with lots of help from family, church and friends. My main interests are playing the piano for the Eventide Choir and for Young at Heart meetings, playing games on the computer, receiving and sending E-mail, needlework, church activities and traveling to visit family or going on tours, helping with the family reunion, being treasurer of the condo board. Not necessarily in that order.
The following is a report on Ann's trip to Norway in the year 2000
Except for the long flight everything else about the trip was great. I flew to Minneapolis, then to Amsterdam and Oslo. My son Jack and his wife Pat met me at the airport near Oslo. We went by train for a 45 min. ride to Oslo. We stayed in Oslo for one night. We had pizza and wine in our room and played Acey Duecy, a card game. The next day we took a train to Snasa. We had bought a train pass good for a month through the travel agent, so we didn’t have to buy tickets each time. There was lots of awesome scenery and the weather was beautiful most of the time we were there. The people said it was unusually warm for this time of year, between 55 and 70. Lillian Mollan met us at the train and drove us to the Snasa Hotel. Lillian had coffee with us, while we ate dinner. Lillian Mollan’s grandfather was Andreas Holum, a brother of my grandmother, Anna Holum, who married Ole Dravland. Andreas Holum changed his name to Langness, then Langvetnet, then Fleuget and finally Wistven or Vistven. Andreas must have worked on a lot of different farms! He was the son of Anfinn Holum and Barbara Anna Langvatnet. His siblings The next day, Oct. 4, cousin Jon Heggland, Jon’s sons, Berndt and Jon Eric, took us to the Dravland farm and the Heggland farm. We saw the house where “Gammle”(old) Jonas, my great grandfather, lived until he died from a fall on the hill behind the house. They made copies of an old picture they had of the house for us. We had lunch at Jon Hegglands with his wife, Edith, and their family. We had open-faced buns, lefse, raspberry jellyroll, carrot cake and Dravland and Anne Storkerdatter Holem. The sons came to America. Berndt came to America for a few years, then went back to Norway. He worked on the Heggland farm and thus took that name’ which originally was named after the Hegg trees which grew on the land. I may get some of the names wrong, but this is as accurate as I recall. Norwegians seem to keep changing their names and the spelling thereof.
Then we went back to the hotel to get ready for the party held in the dining room of the hotel at 6 o’clock. There were 39 people there, all relatives! Jack said the King of Norway couldn’t have been treated any better if he had come to visit! For dinner we were seated at a long table decorated with candles and a Norwegian and American flag. We had roast moose, meat balls, new potatoes, mixed vegetables, including brussels sprouts, flat brod and wine. They always pass everything twice, so don’t take too much the first time around. There was a speech by a patriarch of the group in Norwegian, translated to us by the younger ones. Then we went into another room where we had two ice delicious whipped cream cakes, one of them with raspberries and chocolate, and coffee. There we were seated at smaller tables, with about four to a table. I sat with three of the older women who only spoke Norwegian and one younger who translated. A little of the Norwegian that I remembered from when I was little came back to me while we talked. I had brought my Norwegian Song Book along. Jack told someone about it, so they brought in a piano and wanted me to play. The book has both English and Norwegian words for the songs. I was surprised that they had never heard of “Kan Du Glemme Gammle Norge” (Can You Remember Old Norway) and Nikolina. They said Nikolina must be a Swedish song. They knew a lot of the other songs and sang along, like “Johan pa Snippen”, “Pal sine honer” (Paul’s Chickens) and “Lille Petter Edderkopp” (Little Bitsy Spider). They also liked some of the Schottise and Waltzes. Jack & Pat had each family group sit on a long couch in the lobby and video-taped them giving their names and how they were related to us. We had a good time visiting and trying to figure out all the relationships. I had brought my Snasalekter(Snasa families) book along, a book written compiled by Roar Morten Gartland. Some signed their names by their pictures in the book, others put their names and addresses at the back of it. I talked to Roar on the phone, but never got to meet him personally. He is not a relative. By the way, all your names are in the book. The party broke up at 10:00 p.m.
Oct. 5 we were picked up at 10:00 by Lillian Mollem who took us to meet her dad, Olaf Vistven. He was in a nursing home. He was a nice looking, smiling , 80 years old man, the son of Andreas Holem Wistvan. Then she drove us to an old stone church in Snasa where our grandparents were probably married. It dated back to the 1200’s. We walked around the cemetery and saw where the Hegglands and Lillian’s mother and grandparents were buried. Then she drove us to the place where grandmother, Anna Holem lived until she was 10. The house was not there, but another old building was. There was a beautiful waterfall at the bottom of a hill by the house. Then Lillian took us to her house for lunch with her husband, Odliev and 2 sons, Anders and Frode. We had buttered buns, 2 kinds of lefse, cloudberry jam and other jams. They grow the cloudberries in this region of Norway, very delicious. We visited all afternoon and then had dinner with her husband and 2 sons. We had a mutton soup in broth, then they passed the potatoes and carrots which you added to your soup. It was very good. Afterwards we toured their barn. They milk 30 cattle. A son took us back to the hotel.
Oct. 6 Jack got up at 3:00 a.m. to look for northern lights and didn’t see any. Later that day several people said they had been great the night before about 8:00. Lillian picked us up at 10:00 a.m. and drove us to Steinkjer. On the way we stopped at her sister’s place and had lunch. I can’t remember the sister’s or her husband’s name. I’ll have to find out later. We had heart-shaped waffles with sour cream, whipped cream, strawberries and lingenberries. The waffles are thin and you eat them like a slice of bread, spreading them with whatever you like. We saw them being served at many different places, including street venders. All the desserts were served with tiny spoons placed on the saucer of your coffee cup. Every meal or dessert had fancy china and lighted candles. We toured their beautiful landscaped yard and saw a Hegg tree. It looked something like an elm. I saved a leaf to bring home, but I think I lost it somewhere. They had lots of flowers and fruit trees and bushes. We picked cherries and ate them. Lillian drove us to our hotel. We had checked out of our hotel in Snasa and were going to stay in Steinkjer that night. Later that day, Leif Rokke picked us up and we toured Steinkjer. While walking around downtown , we met the mayor, Leif knew him and introduced us. The mayor gave us a tour of their beautiful City Hall with lots of colored glass panels designed by Jakob Weidemann, who had made all the stained glass windows in a church in the downtown area. Leif drove us around the town and showed us where land had been reclaimed from the fjords and filled in with soil to make part of the city. Sigrun Bakken and Lief Rokke’s great grandfather was Nils Langvatn Falseth Anfindsen Holum, who was the son of Anfinn Nilsen Langvatne Flauget Holum and Barbro-Anna Langvatnet(Flauget), my great-grandparents. (Nils was my grandmother, Anna Edrikka Anfinsen Dravland’s brother. The other siblings were Andreas Holum Wistven, Johannes Anfinson Holum,
Leif drove us to Marit and John Myhr’s trondelag home out in the country. Marit is the daughter of Jonas Berntson Heggland who is the son of Bengt Johannes Jonasen Heggland, who is the son of Jonas Nilsen Dravland(Gammle Jonas) and Ann Holem, my great grandfather and great grandmother. Almost all the homes in this area are trondelags, the only area of Norway that has them. They are long narrow houses, like a duplex, where usually the parents would live in one end while a son or daughter live in the other end. Most of the ones that we saw had only one family living in it with lots of room for when their families came to visit. Marit and John lived in one trondelag. There was another one on the farmstead where son, Jon Eric, his wife, Idun and their family lived. Idun gave us a tour of their trondelag. She is an artist and had a lot of paintings displayed in her house. They have one child and expecting another any day. All of Marit and John’s family were there for dinner, about 14. We had cream of cauliflower soup, two whole salmon, baked potatoes, vegetables, flat brod and lite beer. Afterwards we adjourned to the living room where we had dessert around a large coffee table with ice cream cake, doughnuts, apple cake with whipped cream, coffee and little glasses of cognac. “Skor!” Anna, with son, Lars, and their dog, brought us back to our hotel in Steinkjer.
We always had buffet breakfasts in our hotels, included in our room cost. There was always a great variety. We also had a little rykrisp crackers and cheese to eat in our rooms with wine for snacks in our rooms or on the trains. I think during the two weeks we only ate out two times. During the cruise , of course, all meals were included. Sigrun Bakken came and drove us to the train which we took to theTrondheim airport at Vaernes. Leif Rokke, his wife, Ase, and son, Martin, also came to see us off.
We flew from Trondheim to Kirkenes, stopping twice along the way. They served a light lunch on each lap, more than we could eat. We stayed at a nice hotel in Kirkeness. We visited a Russian gift shop on the Russian border and bought some souvenirs. We boarded the Nordkapp and got settled in our rooms on the ship. The 6 days on the cruise were pretty much the same, very relaxing. We watched the beautiful scenery, ate, visited and played cards. There were some extra activities that we did along the way. We watched a video about the Sami inhabitants who live in northern Russia, Finnish and Swedish Lapland and northern Norway. Between 30,000 and 60,000 live in Norway. Ten percent of them raise reindeer for a living. There is a Sami singer who sang during the tape. Jack and Pat bought a tape of her songs which we found in a store in Oslo. We took a side trip at Hammerstad and got inducted into the Polar Bear Society. We had to go through a little ceremony and then celebrated with champagne. We took a bus trip to see some spectacular scenery down one of the fiords. We took a ferry part of the way. They served buns, cheeses, lefse and cakes and a special tea or coffee. We saw salmon cages where they keep up to 15,000 salmon in a cage. They are fed shrimp to make them pink.
We took another bus tour at Harstad. Many of the houses around there are 100 years old, although many others were destroyed in World War II. Almost all of them have lamps shining in their windows. They said it was because of the long nights there in the winter, so the people can find their way home. Many of the houses have ladders on their roofs, for chimney sweepers and Santa Claus. The houses were colorful, red, green, blue and gold colors. We saw an old stone church built in the 1200’s where the minister performed a short service in Norwegian. We toured the cemetery. At most of the cemeteries there the people who buy a lot get a 20 year lease for about 500 krowns. If you don’t renew the lease they give the space to someone else. We toured Trondenes Historic Ctr., an interesting place with displays of old times in Norway. One part depicted the devastation of W.W. II. A big cannon made a big boom when you walked by it! They can’t raise grains in this area. The summers are too short. They raise vegetables, berries, apples, cows and almost everyone raised sheep. They hunt grouse and moose. If they didn’t hunt moose they would have them all over, in their gardens and eating the clothes off their clotheslines. The cows graze in the mountains from May to November. They move the sheep up the mountains in the summer and down in the fall. We had a very scary bus ride after going to the top of a mountain we took a very steep curvy road down. It had nine hairpin turns on a very narrow road. Luckily we never saw any other vehicles on the road. Maybe they knew better. The road is often closed in the winter because of avalanches. The bus driver told a joke about a minister who dies and wants to get into heaven and St. Peter won’t let him in. A bus driver who had driven our bus dies and St. Peter lets him in. The minister asks why. St. Peter says ” No one in your church was praying, but everyone on the bus was praying.” When we were almost to the town where we were going to get back on the ship, we went over a fjord on a high bridge. Our ship was passing underneat. The ship blew it’s whistle and our bus answered back. We wanted to see puffins but they had already gone south for the winter. They arrive in April and leave in September. We didn’t see any whales either.
I was making notes in a notebook until this day, whatever that is. I’ll see what else I can remember. On the cruise ship It was late when we got to Oslo. The next day we called Leif Vistven, Lillian Mollem’s brother. We arranged to meet him in the afternoon. He came to the hotel. We sat in the lobby for awhile and visited, then he took us to his home where we met his wife, Karina, and their son. We toured their house and back yard, where he had an interesting garage/workroom built into the hill behind the house. Leif and Karina drove us around Oslo and took us up to see the famous ski jump. It was very impressive. I can’t imagine any one wanting to go down it, but I guess they come from all over the world to do just that. We went to an old time restaurant up there and had an old time dinner. By the time we were ready to leave everything was enveloped in a thick fog. I don’t see how Leif could drive down the winding road, but we made it. The next day Jack, Pat and I took a bus to see the Folk Museum where they have lots of old buildings, including a stave church, We toured most of the buildings. We had lunch there. I had heart-shaped waffles w/strawberry jam and whipped cream and of course, lefse. In one building they were making lefse the old fashioned way. One lady was rolling it out, another was baking it on a grill over an open fire in the fireplace. They gave samples. They make their lefse different with flour, eggs and milk, no potatoes.
Jack & Pat saw me off at the airport and I was on my way back to Fargo, via Amsterdam and Minneapolis. Dina and Jeremiah met the plane in Fargo and brought me home. It had been a wonderful experience and fun to meet all the new relatives, but good to get back home again!
(TOC) Ann Geiszler
3108 5th Street South
Moorhead, MN 56560
Home Phone (218) 233-0122