My father told me Grandpa Nelson said February was the month when great men are born like Washington and Lincoln
Grandpa Nelson would get into the church on Sunday early and go down and put some coffee beans on the stove. When people came in they would smell coffee and think they would be able to have a cup after the service. Then they would go downstairs and just see some coffee beans on the heat.
Grandma and Grandpa Nelson had a coal furnance that needed to be banked every night It had been converted to oil by the time I remember it. My dad showed me a beam in the cellar where he burnt his initials GWN and '32 (his HS graduation year) into the wood with a poker used for the coal furnance. He said after he realized he could have burnt the house down.
From Eunice (Flodin,Nelson) Potter - Sandy, Budge, and Eunice got up the courage to go into Grandma Nelson's attic. The entrance was behind a curtain and the stairway was dark. It took them sometime to get up there, because of being afraid. Unknown to them, Alden followed them up and then blew on the bugle and scared them all. Once they in the attic, they didn't want to come down because they would have to pass through the dark stairway again.
Aunt Anna wanted to go to her high school prom, but Grandma Nelson said NO. So Anna told Grandma she was going to spend the night over a girl's house. Anna left with her prom outfit in a suitcase. A while later a young man dressed in a tux carrying a corsage came to the front door and asked for Anna. Grandma told him that Anna was spending a night at a friend's house.
Anna would love to hang out at Peanult's Drug Store, because young men would do the same. That is where she met David, her future husband.
George and his buddies were out driving and the car broke down. They got out to fix it, but it was getting dark. They figured they had no chance because the sun had set. All of a sudden some billboard lights came on and it was enough light to fix the problem and get going.
Eunie remembers Lenore and Bill, the two youngest grandchildren, running underneath Grandma Nelson's kitchen table. Lenore remembers just being able to fit underneath.
From Bob Nelson - Memory (sure of hearing this) In the days when a good pay was about seven or nine dollars a week, Grandpa Nelson made Twenty Five Dollars! As Dad said "come the Fourth of July" Grandpa always found five dollars for Fire Works. A lot then- and a cheep lunch today.
Apparently there was somewhat of a fuss over the Watch when Grandpa died - everybody apparently wanted it. Guess Grandma settled the fuss by keeping it. Family legend had it that it was " Gold" but when I got it, the watch is some type of gold plate. The hands were rusty when I examined it closely. Grandma wouldn't accept that fact. I believe it is in the Safety Deposit Box. It is not engraved and I don't believe it works. Any idea what company it came from? Pawtucket Screw? I don't think it is as valuable as the family thought.
I USED TO PLAY IN THE ATTIC AT GRANDMA'S HOUSE. DIDN'T FIND IT SPOOKY AT ALL. THE WALL STUDS WERE ACTUALLY 2X4'S SHOWING THE HOUSE WAS OLD. FOUND A FEW FIRECRACKERS ON THE FLOOR- MUCH MORE POWERFUL THAN THE "NEW" ONES I HAD. ALSO COULDN'T FIGURE OUT WHY THERE WAS A TABLE AND CHAIRS IN THIS UNFINISHED ATTIC. OF COURSE MANY YEARS LATER WAS TOLD THAT LIN AND CLIFF BEGAN THEIR WEDDED BLISS IN THAT "APARTMENT" THEY CERTAINLY CAME A LONG WAY!
I remember Dad driving us to Grandma Nelson's coming down Newport Avenue in the 46 Chevy. The right tail light was burned out and we had to take a left onto Crescent Road. Dad pressed the brake pedal on and off to make like we had turn signals!From Sandy (Nelson) Roberts - I can attest to how learned Grandpa Nelson was. When I was aware of him, he walked several days a week downtown to the Pawtucket Library. He was always reading, as was my brother, Budge.
We had a kind of formal realtionship. I went to Grandma's for lunch many days during elementary school. She made great lunches, but was listening to her soap opera on the radio.
Our Nelson family hardly ever missed an episode of "I Remember Mamma". We all really loved it. It wasn't like the Alden Nelsons very much but we felt a great affinity for the people and of course the Mamma.
Dad did need to be out at times, but he also was true to his heritage......a person of the land. Dad loved all things natural and was happiest when he was camping, hiking or cooking on a wood fire.
From Lenore (Nelson) Christie - I ended up with Gramma and Grampa's green "velvet" hanging of a picture of Christ and says, Gardagen ar forbi. Morgondagen har du ej sett Och i dag hjalper Herren. Our Swedish relatives translated it for me. Roughly it's: Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow is not yet here. Today I help you.
I have very few memories of Gr and Gr. I have a wisp of a memory of Grampa picking me up and holding me on their driveway. The next memory is the Thanksgiving dinner at Linn and Cliff's when he had his heart attack. I don't know if that was the day he died. I have wisps of memories of Gramma in her kitchen on more than one occasion. That's it. I don't remember anything at all about my other grandmother, yet I think we went to Newport often to visit her and my grandfather. I kind of remember Gr and Gr's house as having a kitchen in the rear left of the house with a walk-in pantry, and that door to the wonderfully spooky winding staircase to the attic. I loved to go up there. I remember lots of gatherings at Anna and Dave's, but not the grandparents. Isn't that strange? I can remember walking under the piano at a year old, throwing a tantrum on the red oriental rug when my mother refused to give me a penny, every tree I climbed, watching ant wars with my Dad, discovering that I could crawl through the kitchen cupboards from one end to the other. I have a virtual video tape of my childhood, but no grandparents.
From George Nelson - After Alden and Eleanor's wedding, Grandma Nelson went up to Grandma Arnold and said "you should come by for Sunday dinner some time". Grandma Arnold looked at her and said "No, that would never do".
From Diane (Swenson) Newby - I remember getting a record player for Christmas and one of the records was "I'll Be Home for Christmas." My dad was the the VA hospital in Milwaukee that Christmas and I remember my mom telling me not to tell dad about that song. Thinking back on it, it must have been very hard for her, but she never let us kids know. We celebrated Christmas with aunts and uncles and a phone call from dad on Christmas eve. My dad was in a tank that was bombed in WWII and had a lot of metal in his body and it would work its way out and then he would be hospitalized. He had lots of pain. I always remember the scares and how big his muscles were. Lots of hard work on the farm. Sure do miss him.
Story has it that the first Olsson to arrive was sponsored by a Swenson and the name was changed at Ellis Island. True or not I do not know........One of the accounts of family history says "Gustav Swen-Olson changed his name to Swenson when he came to this country. He had a sister Anna, who stayed in Sweden. He has a brother Anton and an adopted brother Axel. Anton came to this country first, then Gustav, then Axel. Gustav's father was a farmer in Blekinge Sweden near the Denmark border."
(Conerning an Swenson baby buried in the cemetery with Gustav and Jenny.)
Yes the baby is a grandchild....son of Margaret and Anton Swenson....my aunt and uncle.....who later had 2 daughters.....moved to California.....their offspring live in Oregon. Can get better details if you wish. I am working from memory and I was born after all of these cousins and did not know them well.
From Lynette (Bailey,Swenson) Lardinois - My grandpa, Marlyn Bailey (Grandma "Sally's" husband), passed away in 1980 so I have lots of fond memories of him. He had polio when he was a child so he always held his one knee to keep it from buckling (or at least that's why I think he held it???). He lived out in the woods and I loved going to visit him. He had a little pond in the front of his house that he would stock with fish for us. I always got to do lots of fun "boy things" with my boy cousins when we were there. I remember we chewed Redman tobacco that I loved to spit out between the space that was between my two front teeth. Grandpa Bailey was an awesome guy - and I can only imagine that the woman he married was pretty neat, too. I was only nine when Grandpa passed away, but I have vague memories of Grandpa Bailey living with us when he was dying. My mom and dad (Faye and Lyle Bailey) would take turns staying up 24 hours a day to be at his side. When he died, they buried him in his suspenders and dirty old baseball cap...the only things you ever saw him in. I remember being at the funeral and not really understanding what was going on. But, all of my cousins and I paraded by Grandpa's body and snapped his suspenders one last time.......
From Bill Nelson - I was the baby grandchild and one day Grandma Nelson saved some rice pudding for me. I took one bite and said "yuck", not sure how that went over with grandma.
Låt maten tysta mun! "Shut up and eat your food." Said at our supper table many times. (Bob Nelson) - ANNA INSISTED THE PRONUNCIATION SOUNDED LIKE "ET AN LET". TRANSLATION AS I UNDERSTAND IS "EAT AND LET THE FOOD QUIET YOUR MOUTH". (Lenore) Ah, I remember it well. I've never seen it written. It literally means "Let the food shut the mouth." I'm glad you found that!
One day my mother and I were over grandma's house to help with grandma's lunch. Sandy was also there and was making toast. Grandma's toaster was the type that did one side at a time, then you turned the bread over. The toast started to smoke and I said "I think it's done".
Grandma Nelson's tastes were not the same as mine. She had some sour pickles on the table so I tried one, spit it out, then threw it in the trash.
Swedish Children's Prayer Grandchildren were taught.Grandma Nelson would make Swedish Coffee Bread. This is not her receipe, but hopefully close to it.
Link to Swedish Coffee Bread - From Univ. of WisconsinKarin Norburg - The coffee bread seems to be the same as I am making.
From Grandma Nelson's side of the family. One of my father's cousins grew up hating oatmeal. His mother would give it to him and said he could not leave the table until it was gone. After he married, his mother came for a visit and brought cereal bowls with her. She told the new wife that her son ate oatmeal in the bowls. The wife wanting to please her husband made oatmeal for breakfast the next morning. The husband responded - You don't have to do that.