Klemmet Lyseng and Florence Jones
Written by Florence Lyseng
Klemmet was born at home in 1914 to Carl and
Ragna Lyseng. the 3rd child in a family of six children. He attended the Thordenskjold School where
he did the janitorial work for several years. The
means of transportation to and from school for Klemmet, his brother and sisters of course was by horse
and buggy or sleigh through muddy roads, snow
drifts and cold freezing temperatures. Being such a
lover of horses, Klemmet was able to purchase a little
white horse (Pet) from Grandad Knut Lyseng with
money he had saved doing his janitorial duties at
school.
Klemmet attended Sunday School at Scandia
Church which conducted the services in the Norwegian language but he was confirmed in English.
As Klemmet matured his interests grew to in
elude the working of land. baseball, remodelling cars
and chasing girls, not necessarily in that order.
He
played baseball with the Armena Baseball Team. His
first car was a little yellow Ford with a Rumble Seat.
The highlight of the social activity in the Community was Luther League which had an Exchange
Program with neighboring communities. The coming of winter brought skating on the big slough. Before any
skating could be started, the snow had to be shoveled
off the ice by hand and the temperature was 30 below
zero a lot of the time. The only means of transportation with all the snow and cold was a
sleigh. A large bonfire, lots of coffee, food and skating brought the week's entertainment to a close.
I, Florence Jones was also raised in the Armena
about 3 and 1/2 miles west on the former Gunnar Hendrickson
farm with my mother Josephine and my
Edward Hendrickson. Along with myself,
I have a sister Irene and two brothers, Bruce and
Arthur
I also attended Thordenskjold School and Scandia Church and played on the Armena Softball Team.
Abough we had some very rough roads to travel
miles to church) through mud and snow drifts, it never stopped us from Choir Practise, Sunday School,
Luther League or ball games.
Our courting days began when on a Sunday evening, Klemmet, driving his dad's Buick, took several
young people along with my sister Irene and me to a Luther
League Exchange Program. During the service it
rained so terribly that with the muddy road and car
trouble, we arrived home at 5:00 a.m. That was the
beginning of our four year romance ending with our
wedding in June 1940.
We rented a farm two miles south and a half a mile east of the Ervik Junction. Although, we never
$.25 in our pockets, we lived very comfortably in an
old house that we had papered and cleaned.
Our livestock consisted of three milking cows, a hen,
13 chicks which was the extent of our livelihood until the harvest was done. This was our
home for two years, during which time, we made
many new friends.
We then moved back to Armena
and built a two room house on Carl Lyseng's place
and purchased Nellie Norwick's quarter.
In 1942, our
1st child, Gary was born. That same year, we moved
our house to the east end of Carl's land.
Our first tractor which replaced the horses was
bought in 1947.
Once more, we moved our house as
we bought the west quarter from Carl. In 1952, we
doubled the size of our house and also built a barn.
Calgary Power brought electrical power into the
area along with a Mutual Telephone Company.
Armena School was centralized so now students were
bused in from the surrounding areas. Several
of the
teachers boarded in our home for a period of three
years. During this time, we also opened our home to
a sixteen year old boy, Dennis Marsh, who became a
part of our family.
Our family had now grown to six children: 4 boys
and 2 girls, Gary, Donna, Kay, Murray, Neil and
Kent.
Then in 1960 because of allergies to several of
the family caused by the rural environment, we had
to move to Olympia, Washington. After several
moves, we finally settled in Calgary where Klemmet
has been a carpenter. His sons work with him. Our
farm was sold to Don and Jean Green.
All our children except the youngest are married.
We have eleven grandchildren, two little grand-
daughters were lost due to tragic accidents, but God
has sustained us through our Sorrows and Joys. |
