I was so busy during the month of March that it got clear past me before I sat down to write my column.  When Google reminded me that my April column was almost due, I figured it was time to do March.
        What was I so busy with?  Editing the book of my stories that HistoryLink has promised to publish… that’s what!
        Editing is like putting your tongue into an aching tooth.  You keep doing it, over and over, until it begins to drive you crazy. In the middle of the night, when I was supposed to be sleeping, I would think of some little thing that might be fun to read about and I would get up and work on it. Finally, I lost patience with myself, got up, and e-mailed the manuscript to the editor at 2:30 in the morning, just to get it on its way so I would quit fooling with it. 
        So, here we go with March.

        March has a good crop of birthdays on my list.  First comes Nancy, son John’s wife. A lovely addition to our family.

Nan in Welsh outfit

        Then come Hildy and her husband, Dan Lightfoot, whose March birthdays are just two days apart. Danny is coming along nicely after hip surgery.  He is walking with a cane, now, and anxious to get back to being completely ambulatory.  Too much inactivity can become a bore….

Hildy & Dan, with Mt Shucksan in background

Dan in Vietnam

        Last, but not least on my March list is Kirby Lindsay, Suzie’s daughter and writer of the Outlook newspaper column “View from the Kirb”…always a good read. She writes mostly about her center of the universe, Fremont, and the other Fremonsters.

Kirby with godson, Oscar

        Recently, John took me to the Northwest Room of the Everett Library on one of our searches for bits and pieces about our family.  Among the things we have is a picture showing my Dad as a young man with a bunch of other employees of the Weidauer & Lansdown Mill that used to sit on the tideflats at Blackman’s Point. (We knew that’s what the picture was because my Mom had written that information on the back of the picture.  Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone was so thoughtful?  There have been many pictures we haven’t a clue..who, or where.)
        My memory knew that my grandparents, Frank and Frances Gierhofer, and their family were there in 1908.  My mom and dad, and brother were living close to Mom’s family.  Sister, Florence, was born there in 1909.
        We were able to get their addresses from the Polk books for that time, so we drove to the area and looked across the Snohomish Valley to the Cascade Mountains, loving the fact that we were seeing pretty much what they had, so long ago

The following is an excerpt from a note John sent out to family members after our jaunt:

        “Mom and I visited the Northwest Room at the Everett Public Library. We got some great new information regarding Frank Gierhofer and Family (in Everett from 1908 through 1914 for sure and possibly 1915 and Joe Pfister and Family (in Everett from 1908 and 1909 with Mary alone with kids in part of 1910 - as Joe had departed for Pend Oreille to set up the Tiger homestead with John Gierhofer).

        Legions Park on Blackman's Point (named after 3 pioneering brothers who started early mills both in Everett and in Snohomish in the 1870's) on the north end of Everett. This beach was filled with lumber mills when our family was there. Frank and Joe worked at the Weidauer and Lansdown Mill (W & L Mill) which was located somewhere in the mudflats area in the panorama you see.
        3G (Great Grandfather Gierhofer) may have had a nose for avoiding trouble. Just a year or so after he took his Family out of Everett and brought them to Seattle, the famous Everett Massacre (1916) occurred when labor workers from the lumber mills  -  organized by the Wobblies -  fought with local police and several folks were killed. Frank also worked 1 year for the Great Northern Railway.
        We found a chart that showed a huge wave of diphtheria in Washington State peaking in 1909. It was Grandma Mary's bout with diphtheria which sent the Joe and Mary Pfister Family to the mountain air of Pend Oreille County and Tiger Hill in eastern Washington for her health.
        Mom and I were also able to locate the addresses where 3G (Frank) and Joe's families lived while in Everett. We visited that location. Their residences were located relatively nearby to the mill area (a mile or two) but on the east side of town on a hill facing the Great Northern tracks, a valley with Snohomish on the other side and a wide view of the Cascades. Beautiful!!!”

Message from Cousin Ken, International Falls, MN

Hi Dorothea,
I'm Sending you a photo of the icicle hanging from our rain spout.  It's about 10 feet long by 5 inches across.  The weather here don't seem to want to warm up.  It's 1 below with a 19 below windchill right now, at noon with 20 below with a wind chill of 30 below tonight. It supposed to warm up next week, I hope!   Hope you all are doing good.
Ken

          Grandson, Jeremy, appeared on TV’s American Idol program, playing with Blake Lewis’ group.  It was fun to watch him up there with big time TV.

          For several months now, Mary Prigmore has been e-mailing me the pictures and reports from a group her brother hikes with every Monday called The Old Goats.(or maybe it’s just Goats)  Their jaunts are always in the Olympics, which was where we hiked as a family when our kids were growing up.  It has been fun to revisit the places we hiked through the great digital pictures.  The group looks to be in their 60 - 70s.  Her brother, Jack, has white hair and goatee.

          History House, where Paul is Executive Director, John is Operations Director, and Nan does bookkeeping and other chores, is going to be in charge of the ceremony setting the new statue of J. P. Patches and Gertrude on a site not far from History House. The ceremony will be something to look forward to at the far end of summer… August 17… which will  be, coincidentally, also John’s birthday.  There should be a lot of Patch’s Pals attending this one. Gonna be fun to see how many turn up.

This quote sorta fits the mood for these days:

“Can anyone remember when the times were not hard and money not scarce?”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson-
Post/Essayist 1870s

Dixie/Dorothea, Senior Editor  

Home Page: Dixie-Press.com

Written text, stories, photographs and poems on this site are the property of Dorothea Nordstrand and are protected by ©copyright. They cannot be reproduced without the author's written permission.