Nancy Adele and Palmer

My first memory of Palmer was of Davey and me playing out in the field at Grandma’s. We weren’t allowed to go near Grandpa’s fenced-in garden, but there was a field with wildflowers, wild strawberries and the remnants of a mine shaft that we weren’t to go near as well. We found a nest with bird’s eggs and we broke the eggs. Mama bird chased us all the way back to the house and it was a long time before I would go outside at Grandma’s.

The house had Swedish stone work on the fireplace, as a foundation of the porch, and as a foundation of the house. The house was located at the top of a hill, and you could look down and see Palmer.

The house in Palmer had a big (at least big to a very small child) pantry. In it was mystifying equipment, including a very large cream separator. Having raised a very large family, Grandma cooked large quantities. She always made a big pot of Swedish brown beans for picnics. For years I tried to make baked Swedish brown beans but they never tasted quite like Grandma’s baked beans!

Uncle Dave told us he met Doris when he took a shipment up to the Weidman house (owner of the sawmill where Uncle Dave worked) where Doris was working in Trout Creek. There was a dance coming up and Doris asked Uncle Dave if he would like to go with her. He laughed and said "I told her 'Sure' -- but I wasn't sure if I would go or not!" Uncle Dave laughed again and told us “I’m sure glad I decided to go!”

Grandma and “the girls” welcomed my mother, into the family with open arms! “Ward’s Margaret” loved to bake, and loved to clean, AND she loved to sew. My mom found the sisters she didn’t have growing up, and always talked with great affection about “the girls” when she wasn’t with them.

With all those girls, Grandma owned a Singer treadle sewing machine. Many dresses were made on that machine. I owned that machine for a while and I sewed baby clothes and hemmed diapers, and I made my first quilts on that machine for my little ones when they went from cribs to beds. When Jerry and I moved from the house in Iron Mountain to an apartment in St. Paul, much of our furniture had to be left behind, including that sewing machine. I didn’t make quilts again until I retired. I’ve always regretted giving that sewing machine away even though it went to my best friend.

We lived in Negaunee when I was born, about 5-6 miles from Palmer, first in an apartment on Main Street. My dad worked in the mine in Negaunee and could walk to work. There was a tailor shop on Main Street, and the tailor’s name was Titus. He and his wife lived in what I remember was a beautiful apartment over the tailor shop, but they didn’t have children. His wife had beautiful things – cut crystal, a large print of The Blue Boy. Both Titus and his wife were so very kind to us.

The Lundwall family was a very close family, and we spent a lot of time each week in Palmer. The house in Palmer had a hallway back entryway, with an open concrete stairway to the basement with a railing along the side so you couldn’t fall into the stairway. Grandpa would come home from work, after stopping at the tavern, take off his cap and hang it on the railing post. Then he’d sit in the first kitchen chair, the chair sideways with long legs hanging out into the kitchen and if I close my eyes, I can see him sitting there fast asleep in the chair. It must have made quite an impression because I had never seen anyone sleep sitting on a kitchen chair before.

One day during the summer when many families were in Palmer, I must have been about four years old and Ronnie was probably less than two, Ronnie wanted Grandpa’s cap. I was upset because NOBODY was allowed to touch Grandpa’s cap. We both held tight to the cap on the railing post until somebody yelled at me, I let go of the cap, and Ronnie tumbled down the stairs with the cap in his hand. Aunt Violet was sure I’d killed him. He cried and cried, and probably had a big bump on his head, but thankfully he was okay. I cried right along with him.

Grandpa had a Model-T Ford. Ward was always a fast driver and one day driving to Palmer, he was in a very long line of cars creeping along. After passing car after car after car, he discovered it was his own father at the head of the line going slow and keeping traffic backed up on the winding two-way road.