Remembering Mother

by Elsie Mooers

Published in Homespun, vol. 10, No. 9.

Esther Nickander

At a recent Friday Study Club meeting, Peggi, the reader for the day, asked us to write down ten things that we remembered about our mothers. So when I got home, I did that. And what fun I had remembering ...

1. A Zest for Life. My mother, Esther Nickander Larson, born of Swedish emigrants, grew up in a farm family of 14 children. She was born in the small hamlet of Glory, Minnesota, about 12 miles south of Aitkin. Of the nine children who survived, eight were girls, so she knew what hard work was. She smiled a lot, had a happy look about her, liked to have company and always had the coffee pot on. At the first snowfall of the season, she would invariably call first thing in the morning and yell, "Merry Christmas!" So would she call on every special day-Ground Hog Day, April Fool's Day, Happy Halloween, even May Day.

2. She was kind. She was a friend to all in the neighborhood. If anyone needed a helping hand, she was always the first one there. She accompanied Doc Shannon as he delivered babies in homes. But she didn't just help at the confinements, as they were called in those days, she took care of the other children too. She cooked and baked and washed clothes and made herself useful in every way. Sometimes she got a dollar or two for a week's work, sometimes nothing at all. But she helped anyway. When she died, we received countless cards telling of her kindness in the birth of a brother or sister.

3. She was ambitious and strong. To earn a few dollars during hard times, she washed walls, Kalsomined and painted, cleaned houses. She washed, starched and ironed white shirts for a cook at one of the restaurants for 10 cents a piece. She liked a tidy, clean house, and every Saturday it was cleaned from top to bottom, rugs out and beaten, floors mopped, dresser scarves and doilies changed. We always had a tablecloth on the table, even for “every day.”

4. She loved to dance. And she was a good dancer, light on her feet, as they said, and she knew all the dances of the day-The Charleston, Black Bottom, as well as the old time favorites. She taught me to dance and all the neighborhood children as well. By age five, we were experts and went to dances as family entertainment.

5. She liked to dress up. She loved clothes, always wore earrings and necklaces, loved red especially. She also liked to dress up for costume parties. I remember the "Hard Time Parties" of the '30s-she always came up with something outlandish and usually won first prize! During Heritage Days when everyone was urged to dress up and be on the street, she was the first one there and the last to leave, greeting everyone and making the most of the day.

6. She liked to read. She read True Story magazines and True Romances, vicariously living the glamorous life of that world. They were thought to be risque at that time. I wonder what she would think of the modern day novels.

7. She was a good cook. Mom was a great cook and baker. Meals were always tasty and well prepared, even though the larder might have been unvarying. We always had a huge garden and she canned vegetables and fruits. She picked every kind of berry with her sister, Hulda, made wine from dandelions and chokecherries, jams and jellies. As for her bread baking, there was no better. She made those round, flat Swedish loaves of bread, baking them on the bottom of the old black Monarch range. What a treat to come home from school to warm, fresh bread, which we would slather with real butter and dip in Karo syrup! Her oatmeal rye was out of this world too. In truth, she loved to bake so much, she often gave it away so she could bake some more. Her sponge cakes were the delight of the neighborhood; everyone got one for a birthday.

8. She was always ready to go somewhere. My mother had learned to drive a car in the '20s and loved it. She was what they called an "on-the-go" person. In later years, when she had a car of her own, she went everywhere and in any kind of weather. She belonged to the Senior Citizens Club and wherever a dance happened to be, she was there. Even in winter, at 30 below, she went to Brainerd, to Pequot Lakes, to Larson's Barn. If she couldn't find someone to go with her, she went alone. We would scold her, but it went in one ear and out the other.

9. She could play piano and mouth organ. My mom could not read music, but she played the piano by ear and beautifully. If she heard a piece, she could play it. The house used to ring with "Carolina Moon" and "Springtime in the Rockies," two of our favorites at the time. She could also play the mouth organ. She played polkas and schottisches and all the old time Swedish songs. Her favorite was a schottische that she played long after she forgot everything else. If someone came to visit, she always played "Johan po Snippen." And often she would get up and we would dance the schottische while she played, even at age 91.

10. She was short tempered. Mom had a short fuse, as the saying goes. She was quick to take offense at some imagined slight, and she could carry a grudge. But she could only carry it for a few days, then her natural zest for fun came through and it was forgotten. You could not argue with her because she could never see two sides to anything, only her side. My dad used to say, "To argue with Ma and to dance with a cat, that's the same thing!"

As I finish this, I can only say, "How lucky I was to have Esther Nickander Larson for my mother."

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