Mel Rosene

Across the street from Nellie’s house to the east resided Mel Rosene and his wife. They were childless. Mel made a living as an insurance agent or representative — but as in the case of Mollie and Albert I wonder if there was some sort of financial asset that wasn’t evident, such as might have come from a family estate. I think I have heard that the older Rosenes had been farmers so there could have been some property somewhere.

Mel, like Albert was a man of substantial stature, with an imposing facade at waist level — they weren’t fat, just imposing. Two vivid memories I have of the period when Mel and his wife lived across from Nellie. The property had a small barn and it burned down with considerable smoke, flames and neighborhood excitement. I can’t recall the time of day but I think it was early morning. Mel used the barn for his goats which supplied them with milk. It seems to be from this transitory brush with goat husbandry that I became aware that goats are milked from behind rather than from the side as in the case of a cow. Whether I ever saw Mel milking his goats I don’t recall but it would have been an interesting picture. This large, imposing rather austere individual stooped down behind a goat milking it.

The other vivid memory was of the time Mel arranged to have two large cottonwood trees cut down. Perhaps he thought they were a hazard in being subject to being blown down on his house. The trees were to the west of Mel’s house along the road so they were quite visible from the little brown house. The cutting down was done on a day which turned out to be increasingly windy and stormy as it progressed. I think one of the trees was felled and the workmen were in the last stages of cutting down the second tree late in the afternoon. They intended it to fall in a certain way and had ropes pulling it in that direction, but the developing wind was too strong and it fell in another direction. I guess it missed the house but the situation was rather scary for a while. Later on Mel sold the house and it was purchased and fixed up as a funeral home. But it was never a very prosperous business.

Still later Mel bought the vacant lot between us and Nellie’s and had a home and a garage built on it (although he never had a car). They were residing there I believe when we moved to the Peterson farm. My mother worried a little at having them for such close neighbors — they (Mel and his wife) were “finicky” people about their house, lot and belongings and I suppose she wondered if we children would be an annoyance to them in our play. But there was never any trouble.

While I am on the subject of the Rosenes I must not forget that two of the sisters of the family lived just across the park from Albert and Mollie. One was married to Carl Magnusson, a longtime clerk at the clothing store in Gowrie; they two like Mel and his wife were childless. The other sister was married to Frank Lindquist, who was president of the bank where my father worked until the Depression. They had one son, Maurice. To my knowledge, Mel, Albert, Mollie, and the other two sisters produced one descendant in the next generation.