Two Visits with Uncle Serenus

Following the completion of his training and his ordination uncle Serenus had difficulty in getting a “call” to a congregation. In the Augustana at the time, the individual congregations were the sole arbiters of whom they would want as a pastor and apparently no congregation was interested in him. I believe he ended up in Fargo, North Dakota, but it seems there was some irregularity in how the “call” was rendered. Some other individual seemed to have the feeling that he, not uncle Serenus, was supposed to be the minister for the congregation.

In retrospect, this imbroglio seems to represent the temp and character of uncle Serenus’ life and vocation — haphazard, ill-considered, indecisive, and with a touch of unreality and farce to it. Later the family was in Fresno, California, then in Denver, Colorado, and his final pastorate was I believe in Mason City, Iowa. Shortly after the conclusion of WWII, aunt Laurine and Vivian made a trip to California to visit some friends that they had known in Dubuque and who had moved from there to Pasadena. I guess they spent most of their visit in Pasadena but Vivian came down to San Pedro for an overnight stay with me. So the visit must have been in 1946 as later that year I was transferred to the Bay Area.

Two more points about uncle Serenus. His birth was apparently a difficult one for my grandmother, and it was the only one of her children for whom I heard such a comment. I think it was my mother who wrote that my grandfather went driving off to Callender to try to get a doctor to come, but I don’t know if he was successful or not. The second point was that aunt Edith grew up on a farm about a mile east of the Peterson farm. My mother wrote, or told the story, of riding along to Gowrie for some such meeting as Luther League with uncle Serenus and aunt Edith. Any courting would have had to wait for the stretch of road between the two farms after they had left my mother off at the Peterson farm.

I was living at the last place I resided as during the time I was in southern California. My most vivid recollection of that visit was the evening I spent with aunt Laurine, Vivian, and their friends — we went to a fireworks display at the Rose Bowl and the event lasted until quite late. I still had the long journey back to San Pedro which involved a change on the Pacific Electric System in the downtown LA station and then, probably a walk from the San Pedro station to where I was living, a distance of a couple of miles. I was well after midnight when I was at last abed, tired and somewhat disgusted at the whole evening. I hadn’t liked fireworks all that much either and I think it colored my regard for fireworks ever since.

At any rate, aunt Laurine, Vivian and I arranged to make the trip back to the Midwest together, by way of Denver for a visit with uncle Serenus and aunt Edith. The first leg of the journey from L.A. to Denver was by Pullman [a sleeping car], but the overnight leg from Denver to Boone, or wherever we got off the train, was by coach. It was an uncomfortable experience and I didn’t sleep well and I’ve never tried an overnight trip again.

Uncle Serenus and aunt Edith were very hospitable and I suppose they showed us around Denver a little but I have no recollection specifically of the visit. The last time I saw either of them was when Jean and I took a driving trip around the periphery of the country (in 1977 after taking Laurel to school at Ames). After leaving Laurel at ISU we drove north to the Twin Cities and looked up uncle Serenus where they were living in an apartment in Hopkins. We had a short visit, perhaps “afternoon coffee” before we headed on the see aunt Faye.

From this visit I have one main recollection. Both uncle Serenus and aunt Edith were quite deaf and neither had a hearing aid, so their conversation was at a rather high decibel level. I guess out talking to them was necessarily at the same level. As when I visited them in Denver they were hospitable and welcoming though they still came through as quite odd people.

Uncle Serenus' Ministerial Career

At the time uncle Serenus decided to become a minister, both uncles Lawrence and Milton were in the profession and perhaps it was their example that led him in that direction. However his sense of mission also entered, this being a sort of natural outgrowth of the religious environment of the Peterson household. As I mentioned he was rather old to be entering the field and in addition he didn’t have the educational background that was normally required. In fact I don’t know for sure if he had any college training at all or even high school for that matter.

Apparently the church organization (the Augustana Synod at the time) waived these requirements, perhaps because of the presence of uncles Lawrence and Milton in the ministry and any influence they may have had. There may have been influence also from other quarters who knew of the character of the Peterson clan. At any rate he was accepted for the training in the Augustana Seminary in Rock Island and was at school there in the early 1930s.

It was while he was living there that our family made one of its few or its only vacation trip. It must have been shortly after the Essex was acquired in 1929 and we all rode down to Rock Island (8 people, including wiggly young children) cooped up for 200-plus miles in the not-too-roomy car. Where all the baggage was carried is still not clear to me. I remember on the trip down that my mother kept urging my father to maintain the speed. The Essex really did not operate well over 40 miles per hour, so even at top speed the trip would have lasted well over 5 hours. But eventually we got there.

I can remember only a couple of things from the trip. I slept with my cousin Eugene (I believe that he was between Clarice and me in age) and I recall the strange sensation of the lights outside the house and the city noises as of the traffic in the street outside as we were going to sleep. I also remember the excursion we made to a sort of man-made grotto garden that was the work of one Dr. Palmer who was I seem to recall a chiropractor. It was filled with exotic relics of his travels to foreign countries. Of the return trip to Gowrie I have no recollection.

Uncle Serenus' Farming Career

His entry into the ministerial field was a late one. He must have been at least 35 years of age when he was taking seminary training. Before that he had been engaged in agriculture or related activities. It was he who tried raising purebred swine, using the Peterson farm as a base for this activity. Doubtless the hog house on the farm was a byproduct of this project. Also the building that uncle Carl used as a tool shed was originally a small sales pavilion — it was located in such a position that the swine could be easily brought from the hog house into it for the sales process.

I don’t know who successful this project was, at least it had been long abandoned when I first became aware of uncle Serenus. Perhaps during this period he also farmed, or helped in farming the Peterson or acres. It is certain the occupied the house on the farm in the early 1920s. I’ve seen pictures of my cousin Eugene and his dog playing in or near the house yard.

During the 1920s he also spent some time in Texas, possibly farming the land that uncle Carl had down there. Uncle Carl had purchased this land following the advice of some Lutheran minister who had previously bought farmland in the same general area. As it developed the minister really “made out” on his venture — oil was discovered on his property and he became wealthy. Uncle Carl’s land was leased for the oil rights, perhaps off and on, but no drilling was done, nor was oil found nearby, so he did not have the same good fortune as the minister.

Agriculturally the land did not compare in productivity to the Iowa farmland. Perhaps if he did farm the land, as I suspect he may have, that was the reason uncle Serenus gave up farming and gravitated to the ministry. While we were living on the farm, uncle Carl made at least one trip down to Texas to review conditions on the farm with his rented. I don’t think he got much, if any, net income from the place. Eventually in his later years he sold it and I think donated the receipt from the sale to one of the church activities he supported.

I should acknowledge at this point that uncle Serenus’ leaving the Peterson farm as he did to enter the ministry played a significant part in the history of the Strand family. His leaving left the house vacant for us to move into during the Depression. So I suppose I should be thankful that he followed the checkered career he did.

“Space-Fillers”

Next to uncle Serenus, and if uncle Lawrence had some odd characteristics, uncle Serenus, in my opinion, was odd from beginning to end. Like uncle Lawrence, but even more so, he would have been well advised to have made farming his career rather than the ministry. I suppose he did some good and filled the needs for persons of like viewpoint to his, but overall his influence must have been a negative one. Sincere he was but sincerity alone is not enough for such a calling.

There is a place in society for what I call “space-fillers.” There are positions in society, organizations, and government which require that a person occupy the position which has been established by custom, design or constitution. Oftentimes the qualifications for filling these positions are beyond the qualifications of the persons attempting to fill them. These persons go through the motions of filling the position but their performance is hackneyed, unimaginative, pedestrian — any person regardless of qualifications could replace them. They occupy space and satisfy the requirement that the position be occupied but beyond this they do nothing.

In the field of government this is a very significant problem. I can think of very few persons in all of the governmental functions in the country (and this includes Congress, the executive branch and the courts, certainly including the Supreme Court) who function with real integrity, foresight, purpose. At most their actions are blind attempts to meet short-range problems and to provide superficial solutions. Uncle Serenus fulfilled the qualifications for being a space-filler in the field of the ministry.

Elvera

At about this place in the sequence of my grandmother’s children was Elvera (sp?). She died in infancy. According to my sister Vivian who was told this by my grandmother, Elvera was the prettiest of all her babies.

After the move to the farm, Vivian continued her piano lessons with my aunt Ruth. She would ride into town with uncle Carl when his work was ended for the day and have her lesson. On these trips Vivian would share my grandmother’s bed overnight, and Vivian was the recipient of various confidences from my grandmother. Amongst these was the secret about uncle George which she never disclosed.