Lögberg-Heimskringla - 02.09.1994, Page 2

2 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 2. september 1994
By Stephania Morris
The pioneers must have been
great walkers because in those
early years many had no other
way to travel. There were horses, but
it took money to buy them and if they
had a team it was needed for thc farm
work and trips to town.
Mother said she walked wherever
she needed to go both as a girl on the
farm and later as the wife of a farmer.
She remembered helping her step-
father to drive cattle the seventy miles
to Winnipeg where she had to walk
behind the cattle or drive the poorly
trained oxen. Mother’s older brother
was working at digging sewers in
Winnipeg to help the family with
money when more of the relatives
came from Iceland. He had no way of
sending word to the family. He went
on foot, mostly running and then
rested in the wagon on the way back
in order to keep his job in the sewers.
Mother and some of the young peo-
ple in the community walked seven-
teen miles to the town to take in a
dance, only to find a nearly empty
hall. After mother was married and
had us children she said she would
Ioad us in. the carriage and walk the
three and a half miles to visit family
and then walk back home ready to
put in another week of work.
There is another story out of
Manitoba, only this is from the south-
ern part. The man, one of the very
first settlers, walked many miles into
the States to buy a stove and carried
it home on his back. After he put it
up, he lit a fíre; but he forgot he had
purchased shells for his gun and put
them in the oven. I guess he had to
walk back for another stove, but that
part of the story was not passed on.
I met an older man who had pio-
neered in the Peace River. It was their
first year there and they had practical-
ly nothing. He decided to walk to
their nearest town, twenty miles
away, and try to beg or borrow some-
thing to make a Christmas for his
family. When he arrived in town he
went to the post offíce to see if there
could be a letter and there was a par-
cel from the relatives in Ontario.
Inside the parcel there was a big ham
and all kinds of goodies and gifts for
the children.
He fairly sang as he started for
home. Then snow began to fall which
soon became a blizzard as he
tramped on and on. He tried only to
think of the joy he was going to bring
to the family. Then he realized that he
was Iost. He kept going in the direc-
tion he thought he should be going.
He saw a light and headed for it and
found that it was the home of a
1 Lögberg
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neighbor several miles from home.
The woman had lost her husband and
she was in an even sadder state than
his family. He cut her some of the
ham and shared the gifts and goodies
and then went home. He knew his
way now. No Christmas ever brought
him more joy then that one when the
wonderful parcel made a festive and
thankful Christmas for two homes.
Walking also was a healing
process. It released tension and emo-
tion. We had a lady in our district
with an emotional problem or depres-
sion. She would go out and walk
until she could cope with life again.
One moming she came to the neigh-
bors’ farm. She had walked all night
but she was able to smile again as she
sat down and had a bowl of porridge.
Sometimes we wonder if we are
descendants of those hardy pioneers.
Would any of you walk seventeen
miles to a dance?
Obituary
K. Aívin Melsted
K. Alvin Melsted, 76 years old,
of mral Edinburg, passed away
on Sunday, June 19, at the
Pembina County Memorial Hospital
in Cavalier.
Funeral services for Mr. Melsted
were held on Thursday, June 23, at
10:30 a.m., from Pioneer Lutheran
Church, Gardar, with Reverend
Bradley Edin officiating. Burial was in
Gardar Cemetery, Gardar. Serving as
pallbearers were John Hill, Sigurd
Isfeld, Percy Throndset, Howard
Eirikson, John H. Johnson, Paul
Sigurdson, Cecil Sigurdson, and J.
Oliver Johnson. Honorary pallbearers
were Joe Anderson, William Melsted,
John Davidson, Joe Holm, Joe Kadlec,
and Allen Lemd.
K. 7\lvin Melsted was bom Dec. 6,
1917, in Gardar, the son of the late
Benedict and Geirfridur (Freeman)
Melsted; he received his education in
Gardar schools, graduating from
Gardar High School; he attended
Mayville State University. He married
Marcella Hanson on June 6, 1965, in
Mayville; they lived and farmed in the
Gardar area, retiring in 1989. He was
a member of the Cenex Board of
Directors of Edinburg for 47 years,
retiring in 1992; served with the
Edinburg Fire Department for many
years, he was a recipient of an
Honorary Fireman Award in 1980;
served as Gardar Township Clerk for
many years; he was on the Organizing
Board of the Borg Pioneer Memorial
Home in Mountain in 1948 and was
the last surviving member of the
Board; he served nine years as
Director of the home; served for 25
years as 4-H leader; served for several
years on the Quad County Com-
munity Action Board at Grand Forks;
member of the Pembina Hills
Lutheran Church, Gardar; served as
president of the Gardar District
Church for many years. They celebrat-
ed their 25th wedding anniversary in
June of 1990.
Mr. Melsted is survived by his wife
Marcella of Edinburg; sister Ellene
Goldsmith of Eugene, Oregon; brother
Sigrud of Urbana, Illinois; a special
nephew Robert and his wife Lea
Goldsmith of Eugene, Oregon; a spe-
cial godchild Janella Johnson of Fargo;
and several nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his
parents, one sister: Sigrun Harding;
two brothers Freeman and Bjom.
The Tollefson Funeral Home of
Edinburg was in charge of the arrange-
ments.
From Walsh County Press
Letter to the Editor
Why Goolies?
Ihave been waiting patiently for
someone more knowledgeable
and better qualified to answer
Freeman Skaptason’s question as to
the derivation of the world “Gooly”
as a nickname to describe lcelanders
in Winnipeg (Lögberg-Heimskringla
13 May, p. 6). If this question has
been answered in a subsequent issue,
I must have missed reading it. But if
not:
My Mother, Dr. Sigridur Christian-
son Houston, M.D. Manitoba 1925,
had to put up with a lifetime of my
father (fondly) calling her and her rel-
atives “gooly” or “goolie.” Being half
Scotch, I was a “half-gooly.”
Occasionally I heard the name
“goolie” used in Winnipeg, during my
medical student days. Because, at
Mrs. Jonas Thorvardson’s on 768
Victor Street (the same boarding
house where Mother boarded as a
medical student 26 years earlier), I
was the only boarder to carry the
dishes to the kitchen when the meal
was finished, I was told by Mrs.
Thorvardson that I wasn’t a bad guy
for a half-Icelander. Without ques-
tion, goolie was the nickname for
Winnipeg Icelanders.
I am almost certain the derivation
of “gooly” has absolutely nothing to
do with the Icelandic goalie of the
Falcon hockey team, nor with the
work of digging graves in cemeteries,
ingenious explanations though they
may be.
Please inform Freeman Skaptason
that I was told in my youth that the
name “goolie” derived somehow from
the Icelandic hall, named the
Imperial Order of Good Templars
hall. Was this temperance hall not in
the middle of the Icelandic part of
Winnipeg, on Sargent Avenue?
Somehow “Good Templars” became
“gooly.” Perhaps the intermediary
step was that the hall name was
shortened to “Goolars hall” or some-
thing like it. Then the people nearby
were “goolies.” Or so I was told, as
gospel truth.
Yours sincerely,
C. Stuart Houston
Saskatoon