[Magdalen] A la Reserche du Temps Perdu.

[Joseph Cirou]

My father, born in Minnesota, in 1901 spoke only French until he was about
5. His parents opened a boarding house in Stillwater, Mn, on the site of
the present? penitentiary and had to speak English for their boarders. I
believe my grandparents were bilingual at the time, but spoke French at
home.

Joe

On Wed, Nov 5, 2014 at 9:05 AM, Cantor03--- via Magdalen <
magdalen at herberthouse.org> wrote:

>
> In search of lost time
>
> While eating some cheese (aged cheddar from the monks at Gethsemane
> Trappist Abbey, Kentucky) yesterday, I had one of those flashbacks to
> childhood memories.  I specifically remember my mother (b. 1902)
> recounting
> that she was appointed the task of walking daily some twenty blocks
> through
> Superior, Wisconsin to the location of the pasture for her family cow
> where
> she picked up the fresh milk/cream and carried it back to the family  home.
>
> The cow was tended and fed by a farmer, and she initially had trouble
> communicating with him because she spoke only Norwegian.  The  family
> used the milk for a variety of purposes which included making their  own
> butter and a type of cheese.
>
> It sounds odd in this day and age to have a child as young as 5 years
> walking alone all this way, but it was a different era.
>
> Mother learned her English initially when she entered school.  This
> language
> situation is common around here with nearly half the population  Hispanic.
> Norwegian immigrants have long since moved into the mainstream, and
> few would bother leaving Norway now with the highest average income
> of any country in the world.
>
>
> David Strang.
>
>
>