Last Thursday (April 11) was a big day for the Knutson family. My mother, Erma Knutson, reached the remarkable age of 100. Along with lots of relatives, some of whom came long distances (four traveled together from southwestern Wisconsin), we celebrated her milestone on Sunday with plenty of good food and past memories. It was a good day for Erma and her extended family.
Born on April 11, 1919 — just 54 years after the Civil War ended — Erma Miller grew up in Delft (a very small town nine miles north and one mile east of Windom). She survived a bad case of double pneumonia when she was a fourth grader and also survived the terrible winter of 1936 when she was a sophomore at Mountain Lake High School. The snow was piled high in ’36 and the temperature never rose above zero for 40 straight days!
Mom stayed in Mountain Lake during the week, living with two other girls in an apartment (kind of like going off to college early). She returned to Delft and rode in an “old rickety” car with neighbors to Windom for her junior and senior years, graduating from Windom High School in 1938, after being chosen as the Eagles’ Homecoming Queen in the fall of ’37.
Following a year of teacher’s training at what was called a Normal School in Lamberton, she taught country school near Delft for two years before marrying Lowell Knutson in August of 1941 and moving to a farm north of Heron Lake where she became the “best mom” four sons could ask for during the next three decades.
She certainly took care of us well and did all the things that stay-at-home moms did as a farmer’s wife during the “good old days.” We never realized how lucky we were!
As my older brother, Dane pointed out Sunday, “Ma” has lived through 18 presidents, starting with Woodrow Wilson and has seen many changes during her century-long life. Many years ago, she wrote quite a history about her life in Delft during the 1920s and 1930s, which Dane read to those at Sunday’s gathering. That was most interesting, as was the column written by Dave Fjeld in last week’s Cottonwood County Citizen about Erma and her lifelong friend Maxine Faust, also from Delft, who taught kindergarten in Windom for decades. Maxine and Erma have now come full circle and live at the Mikkelsen Manor (assisted living) in Windom. Maxine turned 100 on March 22.
When I was in college in the early 1970s, Erma finished up her four-year teaching degree (from Mankato State) and spent time as a teaching assistant in Storden through the late 1980s. She was always encouraging and supportive and among other things, she bought us books, including several editions of the Chip Hilton Sports Stories, which my brothers and I all read — more than once!
I believe it was by reading books like Touchdown Pass, Championship Ball, Payoff Pitch, Backboard Fever, Backcourt Ace and Buzzer Basket (books about Chip Hilton and his friends from Valley Falls, written by Clair Bee) that I learned some of the skills which I would later utilize to write about sports myself. So once again, I am thankful to Mom for helping me write up these weekly Bleacher Views.
After hearing Dane read her “column” on Sunday, it appears that genetics — along with environment — may have also played a role in my love for putting my thoughts down on paper. Thanks Ma, you’ve been the best and you’ve lived a good long life — having survived childhood pneumonia and that terrible winter of 1936! Your friends and family love you!!!
