Focuspostourl 12 17 15 indd

Discovering The Mature Lifestyle

Robert Christenson continues his father’s allegiance to Fridley.

Page 3

Family Heritage

December 17 & 18, 2015

December Issue

BY SUE WEBBER CONTRIBUTING WRITER Judi Kieper of Crystal has made a part-time job out of tracing her family’s Swedish roots.

“I’ve spent thousands of hours on it in the last nine years,” Kieper said. “I’ve gone back 12 generations.

I’m putting it into notebooks for my kids.”

Kieper does her research at the Family History Center at the Church of Jesus Christ-LDS, 2801 Douglas Drive, in Crystal. She’s there during the day on Monday, as well as Tuesday night, and Wednesday and Thursday mornings and evenings.

She was able to trace her dad’s side of the family pretty quickly, in about eight weeks, she said.

But tracing her mother’s Swedish roots has taken longer.

“When I first started, I only had my grandparents’ names and birthdates,” Kieper said. “A lot is online now, so it’s easier. But it’s also tricky. You have to be careful. There are a lot of the same names. Once I knew what villages they were from, I could make sure I had the right people. I put my grandma’s name into the computer one day, and up popped my great-grandpa and grandma.”

“It’s really interesting to find out what people did for a living,” said Kieper, a native of Duluth who has many family members that were farmers or ironworkers.

She and her sister traveled to Sweden in 2007 and stayed with a cousin, Kieper said. “It looks a lot like Minnesota there,” she noted.

A 45-year resident of Crystal who worked for Park Nicollet prior to retirement, Kieper said she’d gone by

Judi Kieper of Crystal works at one of the computers at the Family History Center at the Church of Jesus Christ-LDS. She says she has gone back 12 generations in researching her family genealogy. the church many times and never knew about the history center there. Once she discovered it, she thought it would take three or four sheets of paper to record the information she was seeking.

Her search this far has yielded more than 30,000 sheets of paper, including actual copies of birth and FAMILY HISTORY CENTER - TO PAGE 2

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Page 2 Our Life • Thursday/Friday, December 17 & 18, 2015

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death certificates, marriage licenses and census information. “It’s addicting,� she said. “It can be fun.�

Her husband’s family may be harder to trace, she said, since his roots are German. “A lot of the records in Germany were burned,� Kieper said.

While she’s been immersed in her own search, Kieper spent six months helping some cousins trace their Canadian relatives back to the early 1600s.

And she spent some time helping a man in Montana look for his relatives, too. “I enjoy doing it,� Kieper said. “It’s like being a private detective.�

She and her husband have two children and two grandchildren. Kieper said she has come to realize that many younger people aren’t as interested in their roots as they will be when they get older and become curious about who their ancestors were and where they originated. “Most of the people who come to the Family History Center are grayhaired,� she said. “Other don’t have the time to do it.�

In addition to pouring over official records online, many searchers visit cemeteries, too.

The Family History Center was founded for the purpose of gathering genealogical records and assisting members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with their family history and genealogical research.  However, the resource also is open to the general public free of charge. “The programs here are free,� said Lois Spurlin, a volunteer at the Family History Center. “Some people come to learn, to find out how to get started [with a search]. We have Thursday night classes.�

The center in Crystal serves all of

Minneapolis and the northwestern, southwestern and western suburbs.

About 40 volunteers are trained to help more than 3,000 patrons who visit the center each year. “We get people from outer Minnesota and other states, too,� Spurlin said. “We recently had a group of 15 people here looking for relatives in Sicily. They were in town for a reunion.�

The center, staffed by volunteers, provides educational classes and workshops, one-on-one assistance and genealogical resources.

Some of the visitors to the center are just getting into genealogy, and others have been doing it for years.

Resources include computer workstations, a paper copier, microfilm-microfiche readers and digital scanners, Internet access and wireless Internet access for laptops.

The center also has access to premium family history software and websites that generally charge for subscriptions, but can be used free during visits to the center.

The center in Crystal is open 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday; 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Wednesday and Thursday; 6:30-9:30 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday; and 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday. Information: Minneapolis Minnesota Family History Center | Learn | FamilySearch.org, or 763-544-2479.

Kieper spent six months helping some cousins trace their Canadian relatives back to the early 1600s.

And she spent some time helping a man in Montana look for his relatives, too.

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Our Life • Thursday/Friday, December 17 & 18, 2015 Page 3

Robert Christenson continues his father’s allegiance to Fridley

BY SUE WEBBER CONTRIBUTING WRITER From his father, Robert Christenson inherited strong ties to Fridley that have lasted for both their lifetimes.

“My father’s family came here from Norway in 1895, and my father was born in Fridley in 1902,” Christenson said. “He was the youngest of nine children. Many of his older brothers ended up working for him.”

His father, Art Christenson, lived in Fridley his entire life.

Despite the fact that his father had only an eighthgrade education, “he was quite an entrepreneur,” Robert said. “He shoveled coal in blast furnaces, gardened, drove a truck for a Minneapolis bottling company during prohibition and started his own distributorship. After prohibition, he got the Grain Belt Beer account.”

When Robert went to Gustavus Adolphus College in 1954, he said, “My father didn’t want his son at a Christian college when he was in the beer business. I found out 10 years later that’s why he sold the business.”

But Art always found another start-up business. In the late 1930s, he started Fridley Bus Company, which transported the city’s young people to Columbia Heights High School, since there was no Fridley High School until the late 1950s.

In the 1930s, Art bought two blocks of land at University Avenue and Mississippi Street, two blocks from the home in which he was raised.

“His mission was to create a downtown for Fridley,” Robert said. “There were 200 people in Fridley when he was born in 1902. In 1936, there were 500 people in Fridley. When my dad died in 1975, there were 29,000 people in Fridley.”

Art began to develop the two blocks, starting with the bus service. In the late 1940s, Art started Fridley Motor Service, a garage that supplied gas and repaired cars.

“He kept looking for other businesses so people in Fridley didn’t have to leave the city for what they needed,” Robert said. “He built the Fridley Shopping Center on University Avenue business by business. He brought in a supermarket, drug store, and a bakery. He started Fridley Hardware and home appliance store. He developed property for houses.”

Art served on the board of Northwest YMCA, hoping to raise $50,000 so a YMCA would be built in Fridley. But it was built in Coon Rapids instead.

“Fridley was a village in 1949,” Robert said. “My father was one of nine incorporators. The shopping center had a bus garage underneath it with 14 buses. My father allowed the township to put fire sirens on the roof of the shopping center and keep their fire trucks in his bus garage. He bought an ambulance and found someone with training to run it.”

During the 40 years he lived in Fridley, Robert Christenson built on the civic involvement his father started, and he continues to be active in the city now. (Submitted photo) “For the betterment of Fridley, my dad wanted the community to be more connected,” Robert said. He credits his father with being instrumental in starting the city’s Rotary, Chamber of Commerce and Lions groups, and for being a charter member of the volunteer fire department.

One of the biggest influences in Robert’s life occurred in 1946, he said. A Jewish family stopped at a gas station owned by his aunt and uncle in Blaine. The husband had been transferred to Minneapolis on a project for his New York company, and the family was unable to find housing.

“Minneapolis was the most anti-Semitic city in the U.S. from 1900 to 1955,” Robert said. “My dad never said no to anyone who needed help. That family became part of our family for the next six months. My dad bought a separate refrigerator for their kosher foods. It wasn’t a sacrifice for us at all.”

Everyone helped with the gardening and housework, and looked after the children. Robert had three brothers and a sister; the guest family had a daughter.

After he returned to Fridley in 1961 after serving in the Navy, Robert continued his father’s relentless search for ways to help people. He has been active in the health care and nonprofit sector for more than 50 years, and currently is president of InCommerce Solutions, a business, health care and nonprofit consulting firm.

In his lifetime he has founded, co-founded, or been a charter board member for 12 businesses and 10 nonprofit organizations.

Robert lived in Fridley for 40 years, and his list of civic involvement during that time is long. He told his story at a TEDx presentation Oct. 30 at the Passion Event Center in Fridley. The event, hosted by Congressman Keith Ellison, was a showcase for innovative community members who have challenged themselves and impacted others to share their ideas and inspire others to make positive changes. In addition to Christenson, five other people spoke at the presentation in Fridley.

“I’m still involved in Fridley; I’m active with the Fridley Historical Society,” said Robert, who now lives in St. Louis Park.

He was first president of the Fridley Youth Center, 1951-62; secretary, vice president and president of Fridley Lions, 1961-70; founding president of the Fridley AFS chapter, 1965; member of the Fridley Industrial Development Commission, 1963-70; served on a planning agency for a hospital in metro Minneapolis, 196369; board member of Unity Hospital, 1968-80; founding board member and board chair of Health Center, 1978-80; board member and treasurer of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Fridley, 1962-64; president of Central Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, 1978-80; president and board member of Fridley Historical Society, 2002-present; and member of the Minnesota Department of Health task force, 1984 to present.

“When I was manager of the Fridley Chamber of Commerce, I launched the Fridley Progress Dinner in the 1960s which was held annually at Jax Cafe in Minneapolis to celebrate Fridley’s growth,” Christenson said.

“We had great speakers like “Dear Abby”(Abigail Van Buren), Jim Klobuchar and always sold out the dinner.”

Both Art and Robert Christenson are members of the Fridley Hall of Fame.

“My overall philosophy is this: I hear people say ‘Take care.’ I say, ‘Take risks. Be bold,’” Robert said. “I have taken many, many risks. I have started a number of new businesses that failed. I’ve taken on small and large projects. I’ve helped to build an $850 million company in Indonesia.”

Robert finds it hard to vacation, he said. He’s still working full-time. “It keeps me young,” he said. “I’m having fun; I’m not tired at all. Life is so amazing. It offers so many different possibilities. I’m letting life bring them to me.”

Like his father before him, Robert finds it impossible to say no if someone asks him for help.

“I’ve never said no,” he said. “That’s led me to many different companies and organizations. I didn’t go out to change the world. The world came to me. I’ve always said yes.”

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Page 4 Our Life • Thursday/Friday, December 17 & 18, 2015

Three sisters recount their growing up years on an Owatonna farm

BY SUE WEBBER CONTRIBUTING WRITER Nadine Hondl has a long history as a hairdresser in the Twin Cities, notably 32 years at the Pepper Tree in New Hope and most recently, five years at the Plaza Salon in Plymouth.

But she and her two sisters have found a way to preserve the earlier history of their growing up years on a farm nine miles outside of Owatonna, Minnesota.

The Steele County acreage has been in their family since 1881. The girls’ father, John, spent his entire 89 years on that site.

The results of their efforts, “Under Minnesota Skies,” were published in June 2015, in a book written by Nadine and her sisters, Bernadette Hondl Thomasy and Colleen Hondl Gengler.

The book’s introduction says, “… this family history aims to explore how history and tradition both forgotten and upheld, come together to shape the past and the present.”

Their story is rich in research collected

by Colleen about their family’s Czechoslovakian and German roots, but also their individual recollections of cook-

Nadine Hondl is pictured in the boutique of the Plaza Salon in Plymouth, where she has worked as a hairdresser for five years. (Photo

by Sue Webber)

ing, gardening, canning, milking cows, candling eggs, and all the chores that go with raising crops, tending livestock and living on a farm.

The three girls learned to do anything and everything, according to Nadine.

Once, when someone said, “It’s too bad your dad didn’t have boys,” Nadine replied, “Who needs boys? He’s got us.”

The girls learned to drive tractors and operate a side rake. “Hard work never hurt anybody,” Nadine said. “We worked together.”

“We milked cows until I was 10,” Nadine said. “We hauled the milk ourselves.”

Then they converted to beef cattle,” Nadine said. “We never had to buy meat,” she said.

They raised chickens, too, and sold the eggs. “We candled the eggs,” Nadine said. “They had to be perfect, no cracks.”

The book stresses the work ethic and farm lessons the girls learned growing up on a livestock and grain farm in the late 1940s and through the 1960s. “… It was a special combination of living close to the land and the hands-on nurturing by our parents …. we learned quickly that farm crops and livestock was how the bills got paid.”

“In the rural environment, with minimal peer contact, we focused on our parents’ guidance and teaching; they gave us a solid foundation for our teenage and adult years.”

“Dad treated us like boys and expected us to have confidence in ourselves. We learned how to drive tractors, back them up straight, hook up a wagon and make proper wide turns…”

“All of us daughters knew where to find tools and equipment…we learned the difference between a crescent wrench and a pipe wrench, a spike and a tenpenny nail…”

At ages 8 or 10, the sisters were putting simple meals on the table, helping with housecleaning and laundry, carrying lunchboxes out to the field and running errands.

They inherited the value of keeping “a neat and tidy farm site.”

The Hondl sisters, with their Steele County farm in the background, are, from left: Nadine, Bernadette (holding the book they wrote) and Colleen. (Submitted photo) “Probably one of the most significant responsibilities given was having us take care of the farm and livestock while our parents went on weeklong trips,” the book said. “It was taken for granted that the farm and house would look neat and tidy just the way they left them when Mom and Dad returned… They trusted us to know when to call someone for assistance, if needed.”

They also learned the value of “making do.” Their mother, Dorothy, encouraged the girls to use what was available in the kitchen to come up with something for supper. She permitted them to paint old furniture and re-arrange their rooms. “If we didn’t have the newest machinery, we adapted what we had to make it work,” the book said.

Along with the skills they learned at home, Nadine remembers discovering new talents in home economics classes at school and also in 4-H groups. She once won a grand champion ribbon at the Steele County Fair for a horticulture and gardening project.

Christmas was “a big deal” for the family, she said. “We had one string with about nine lights, and I remember trying to arrange those lights so perfectly,” Nadine said.

They always had fresh evergreen for the table’s holiday centerpiece, and the three girls and their mom made cookies and candies, she said.

“We pasted Green Stamps in books and used them to buy presents for our

mother,” Nadine said.

The girls’ dad, John, died in 2002.

Their mother, now 95, lives in an assisted living facility in Owatonna. The dearth of boys in the Hondl family continues.

Dorothy now has four granddaughters.

The three daughters presented the book they’d written to their mom on her 95th birthday in September 2015. Her reaction to the book? “She was just in heaven,” said Nadine.

The Hondl family still owns the 394acre farm. But it’s rented now.

Nadine, who lives in Rogers, continues to use her skills, both in interior decorating and in several gardens at her own home. She is a member of the Back Acres Garden Club in New Hope.

And the skills that she has used for many years as the family’s go-to hairdresser and stylist continued at an Austin, Minnesota, salon for 16 years, and now in the Twin Cities for 37 years. Her work still energizes and engages her. She notes in the book that she, like her father, is resisting retirement.

Bernadette, formerly a writer at the Toledo (Ohio) Blade, is retired and living in San Francisco. Colleen is retired from a career as a family relations educator with the University of Minnesota Extension Service, and lives on a farm in Iona, Minn.

The Hondl daughters have had a book signing in Owatonna. Their book is available at the Steele County Historical Society and also at Amazon.com

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Our Life • Thursday/Friday, December 17 & 18, 2015 Page 5

A geezer’s look at ‘family’ Senior citizens (like me), who have acquired a little age (OK — a lot of age), know more about families and how they work than younger age groups do. After all, we grew up in a family, we’ve raised one family (or more) and we’ve observed countless others.

We’ve seen families thrive. We’ve seen families unravel. We’ve seen it all. So, for what it’s worth, here are four things one geezer has learned over the years about families: 1. Families come in many forms. They are all shapes, colors and sizes.

For instance, my wife’s mother was one of nine girls; but my wife was an only child.

Guest column ... by Bob Ramsey Today, many families are extended, mended, unintended, blended or upended. Some families are dysfunctional and repressive. Others are supportive, empowering and affirming. Some families are like “Father Knows Best;� others are like “The Young and the Restless.�

Life in some families is like a Keystone Cop movie or Woodstock on steroids. And there are families that behave more like

naptime in kindergarten Often, we get the family we deserve. Every family is different and distinctive; but they are all important. That’s why people who don’t have a family invent one by joining a cooperative or bonding with others in similar circumstances.

2. Families are forever.

The old saying “We can choose our friends; but we’re stuck with our family,� is true. We can run from our family; but we can’t hide. We may think we can’t live with them; but we can’t live without them either. Even if we distance ourselves from our family, it maintains a grip on us. British dramatist Dodie Smith de-

scribed family as “that dear octopus from which we never quite escape, and in our innermost hearts never quite want to.�

For example, where I live, people have come from all over the country and beyond. Many have no reason to be here — except family. Their kids live here.

Our families ground us, define our identity, instill values (or not), mold our character and shape our self-concept. In many ways, we are our family.

And when all else fails, the family is still standing. Lee Iacocca may have said it best, “The only rock I know that stands, and the only institution I know that works, is fam-

ily.�

3. Families have changed on the outside, but remain the same inside. The appearance of family has changed; but what makes a family a family has not.

In her popular hymn, “God, We Thank You For Our People,� Ruth Duck pinpoints the elements that make-up a family including: “Gentle pleasures, lessons learned and secrets told, hopes and memories saved as treasures passed to young ones by the old, pranks and glories, songs and stories, and food by loving

hands prepared.�

And I think love and shared history have something to do with it as well. These things haven’t changed.

4. The future of family is uncertain. Even the elders of the tribe can’t forecast what the family of the future will look like.

But it will survive in some form. It’s too important not to; because our nation and our neighborhoods can only be as strong as the strength of our families allows.

So I’m pretty sure God isn’t done with family yet.

What do you think?

“We can choose our friends; but we’re stuck with our family�

Bob Ramsey is a lifelong educator, freelance writer and advocate for vital aging. He can be contacted at 952-922-9558 or by e-mail at joyrammini@comcast. net.

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Page 6 Our Life • Thursday/Friday, December 17 & 18, 2015

Eden Prairie woman works to keep Svenskarnas Dag traditions strong

BY SUE WEBBER CONTRIBUTING WRITER Growing up in Edina, Tammy Wenborg Parr knew that her father placed great importance on his Swedish heritage.

“I’m half Swedish,” Parr said. “My father was fullblooded; his family was from Sweden. My mom was Czechoslovakian.”

“My dad wanted me to be a Svenskarnas Dag queen,” said Parr, who now lives in Eden Prairie.

According to an online account, “One of the largest festivals in the United States celebrating the traditions of a specific ethnic group, Svenskarnas Dag honors the Swedish heritage of the people of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and summer solstice, the longest day of the year. When the festival first started in 1934 it was observed in August, but in 1941 the day was changed to the fourth Sunday in June so that it would coincide with midsummer observances in Sweden.

“Held in Minnehaha Park in Minneapolis, the festival includes a band concert, Swedish folk dancing, choral group performances, and the crowning of a Midsummer Queen. A national celebrity of Swedish descent is often asked to officiate at this one-day event, which attracts more than 100,000 visitors each year.”

Her father’s strong interest led to Parr’s becoming involved with the Minneapolis Svenskarnas Dag organization in 1983. She was crowned queen in 1985, and has been involved ever since.

The organization once was much bigger than it is now, Parr said. “People participated in it for years and years and years,” she said. “In the ’50s, people came to the festival for family reunions and had picnics there.”

Since then, the organization has become smaller, she said. When Svenskarnas Dag founder Einar Johnson died, interest began to wane, she said.

Determined to keep the tradition going, Parr partnered with Kristen Wicks to keep the tradition going.

“It’s been such a big part of my life,” Parr said.

In 2014, the Svenskarnas Dag group merged with the Norwegian group to form the Scandinavian Summer Festival, held the fourth Sunday in June at Minnehaha Park. But Svenskarnas Dag kept its name because of its longstanding tradition with the Minneapolis Aquatennial, Parr said.

Parr and Wicks currently co-chair the organization’s Queen Committee. “It’s a big group of people,” Parr said. “Everybody in the group either was a queen at one time, or is the parent of a queen.”

Minnesota’s largest Swedish-American festival has had a Midsummer Queen since 1921. The Svenskarnas

Tammy Parr (left) and Kristen Wicks (right), co-chairs of the Svenskarnas Dag queen committee, wore festive hats with Sweden’s colors for a local parade. (Submitted photo) Dag Queen’s duties include representing the organization at other city and community festivals, and being a queen candidate in the Minneapolis Aquatennial festival.

Queen candidates must be of Swedish decent and have an interest in Swedish traditions and culture, live in Minnesota, be between the ages of 18 and 22, and able to be present at required functions.

“The most important thing is to continue to provide an opportunity for a young woman to represent her Swedish heritage in Minnesota, or wherever she travels,” Parr said. “It’s fun to see how these young women grow as their year as queen goes on. There’s a large amount of growth. They just blossom.”

Parr said she was one of the last three Svenskarnas Dag queens to travel to Sweden. “It was really a thrill to be at the Swedish Embassy and give an award to the woman who wrote Pippi Longstocking,” Parr said.

She is proud of her Swedish heritage. “I know where my family came from,” she said. “I had a very large Swedish family. I’ve heard the stories. I’ve done the Swedish cooking, the lefse and the Swedish meatballs.

I’ve incorporated a lot of it into my life.”

A graduate of the University of Minnesota, Parr is a preschool teacher at the Berry Patch in Edina. She and her husband have two sons, 20 and 14, both of whom are award-winning tennis players.

Along with the traditional holidays celebrated by Americans, many Swedish Americans celebrate additional holidays. Along with other Scandinavians, Swedes celebrate the summer solstice, or Midsummer’s Day, on June 21.

People of Swedish ancestry also mark St. Lucia Day on Dec. 13. According to an Internet account, the day remembers “an early Christian saint who brought light in the darkness of the world.” A young woman is selected to be the “Lucia bride.” Dressed in a white gown with a wreath of candles on her head, she was charged with leading a procession through town and serving special breads and sweet rolls.

According to city data.com, “Minnesota was settled during the second half of the 19th century, primarily

by European immigrants, chiefly Germans, Swedes, Norwegians, Danes, English, and Poles, along with the Irish and some French Canadians.

“The Swedish newcomers were mainly farmers; Norwegians concentrated on lumbering, while the Swiss worked for the most part in the dairy industry.

In 1890, Finns and Slavs were recruited to work in the iron mines; the state’s meat-packing plants brought in Balkan nationals, Mexicans, and Poles after the turn of the century.

“By 1930, 50 percent of the population was foreignborn. Among first- and second-generation Minnesotans of European origin, Germans and Scandinavians are still the largest groups. The state has more ethnic Norwegians than any other, and is second in number of ethnic Swedes, behind California.”

An Internet account from Augustana College says that Swedish-Americans constituted more than 12 percent of Minnesota’s population in 1910. “In some areas, such as Chisago or Isanti counties on the Minnesota countryside north and northwest of Minneapolis, Swedish-Americans made up close to 70 percent of the population,” the account said.

Another online sources lists 100 Minnesota cities with Swedish populations of between 13 and 30 percent.

The 1990 census reported that almost 4.7 million Americans claimed some Swedish ancestry (making it the 13th largest ethnic group), with almost 40 percent in the Midwest. California leads all states with 590,000 Swedish Americans, followed by Minnesota (535,000), Illinois (374,000), Washington (258,000), and Michigan (194,000).

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Our Life • Thursday/Friday, December 17 & 18, 2015 Page 7

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