Miscellany about Grandfather Strand

Physically my grandfather was of medium height and, at least in his later years, rather overweight. I think his hair when he was younger was sandy-colored (his brother August was red-haired as were August’s two sons — Ralph distinctly and Alger somewhat). But when I knew my grandfather his hair had grayed. Mostly I remember him with a full moustache although occasionally he would shave it off. The moustache would sometimes become involved in his eating. I recall him “cleansing” his moustache by carefully cutting off the offending hairs in his mouth and removing the gravy or whatever it was that had gotten on the moustache.


Grandfather Strand (and his moustache)

In eating he would often use the knife in place of a fork or spoon. My grandfather chewed cloves, I suppose to sweeten his breath. He was proud of his hands, as being well groomed and shapely. They resembled in shape my father’s hands as well as my own. When talking my grandfather had a tendency to elide syllables. For example, the automobile was “bile” and his wife Matilda was “Tilda.” Following the stroke that just preceded his death, he kept asking for his “Tilda.”

After he moved to Gowrie, my grandfather served as a member of the Town Council for awhile. He was also a stockholder in the Gowrie Co-op elevator. I think my father inherited his share in the elevator, as I did from my father. In retirement in Gowrie he still apparently participated in some aspects of the farm work. On once occasion he was driving a load of shell corn to the elevator. It was a warm day and whether he became overheated sitting on the wagon or whether he had a stroke is not known. But he fell off the wagon seat to the ground. After that I have the dim feeling that he was never as active again. This accident must have occurred in the middle to late 1920s, so thought I recall the stir this event caused I have no recollection of the details. As my grandfather aged he became less mobile and had difficulty in walking. Whether this condition resulted from his falling off the wagon or was exacerbated by it I don’t know.

During the time I was aware of my grandfather he did not have a cow on his lots to go along with his chickens, but it is possible that he had one earlier before I was old enough to remember. My parents did have a cow, however, as long as I can recall, and they supplied my grandfather and Aunt Hulda with milk, at least during the period when the cow had “freshened” (i.e., had had a calf and thus had the increased milk flow associated with the birth of a calf). It was one of the small chores of us children to convey a gallon of milk from our house to our grandfather’s periodically. I don’t recall if this was a morning or an evening chore but the path we took was west along the road leading out of town to the Albert Blomgren residence, through their yard, their chicken yard, my grandfather’s chicken yard and thence to the back door of his house. Instructions were always given to carefully close the gates along the way. The milk was always carried in a tin gallon pail, the kind my mother purchased molasses or corn syrup in, and which she saved for this function or for keeping cookies or for any one of other uses.

There was an alternative route that lay along the west side of the park, thence west along Gowrie’s “main drag” to my grandfather’s house but this route was proscribed. I really think now that my mother considered this route too exposed to danger to her young offspring and thus she specified the other route. This tendency to protect her young offspring against too much contact with the outside world was also evidenced in other ways which I expect to mention later on.