[Magdalen] A la Reserche du Temps Perdu.

[Susan Hagen]

And my father was born in northern Wisconsin to German immigrants in a
largely German speaking farming community.  My grand- and
great-grandparents never spoke much English.  As the children went to
school they learned it.  Since both of my grand-parents died while the
children were young English became the family language.  My father
never had a government issued birth certificate.  His baptismal
certificate was in German.

Susan

On Wed, Nov 5, 2014 at 11:08 AM, Joseph Cirou <romanos at mindspring.com> wrote:
> 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.
>>
>>
>>



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