Sentimental Junk

Meet my grandpa…known to all as Grandpa B. (Short for Bergstrom). He’s my dad’s dad. Many people say they have the best grandpa, but seriously, I really did! He was the kind of guy who made every grandchild feel like they were his favorite. He was a thoughtful, fun and hard working man and a caring husband and father. I loved it when he talked about his youth and farm life in Kansas. As a twenty-eight year old man he made his way from Kansas to North Dakota with a thrashing crew harvesting crops along the way. In a field by Ray, ND in August 1926 he eyed a tall, skinny nineteen year old girl working in the cook car making meals for the thrashers. It was love at first sight for both of them. Grandpa never returned to Kansas. He married the tall skinny girl in January, 1927.

Grandpa passed away the day after my 20th birthday at age eighty-four. A year later I talked my parents and Grandma B. into taking me to Kansas so I could see where Grandpa was born and raised. Relatives helped us find his childhood farm. The two story house was bigger than I had imagined. But, in retrospect, he had eleven brothers and sisters, so they obviously needed the space! Grandpa was #10 child and his twin sister #11. The farm, although abandoned, was very pretty with rolling hills and stone fences. I wasn’t into the junk scene all those years ago, but my mother was smart enough to take an old light fixture from the house. I’ve ALWAYS regretted not taking a keepsake from that house!

Fast forward to Junk Fest 2009. Two of my aunts from Ray decided to attend for the first time ever! As my aunt Connie looked at our merchandise, something jogged her memory. She remembered the old staircase banister post she had taken out of Grandpa B.'s childhood home about thirty years ago... Last weekend while in Ray celebrating my dad’s 80th birthday, aunt Connie pulled out the old post and gave it to me! She had never done anything with it after she and my uncle returned from their trip to Kansas and it had sat in a Quonset at their farm all these years. How lucky am I to have a wonderful part of my Grandpa’s childhood home?! I am just thrilled!

I can easily imagine all the Bergstrom relatives who grabbed that post for support when climbing the stairs all those years ago...especially, my wonderful Grandpa!