January 7th…”WHAT WAS YOUR FATHER’S FULL NAME?”
Russell Conrad Noorlun was “Laid on a rock by a crow!”……at least that’s what his mother used to say as far as his birth on September 1st, 1918. Daddy’s first squalls of life emanated from within the boundaries of the Chippewa Indian Reservation near the northern Minnesota town of Mahnomen. Farmers were always good neighbors to other farmers, even when it came to a baby’s birth. When Grandma Marie’s moment of childbirth arrived for our father, a dear lady down the road named Mrs. Slette arrived just in the nick of time to assist in helping see that baby Russell arrived into this new life safely.
The etymology of our farmer father’s first name, Russell, basically means a ‘RED-HAIRED ONE’. Albeit our father’s hair was not red in color, specifically, but it was a handsome dark brown that looked so stylish as he’d comb it into a masculine curl that fell dashingly over and onto his forehead a bit. Now Dad’s middle name, Conrad, (meaning BOLD COUNSELOR) fit him to a “T” in that, our daddy was never shy to share his open opinions or counsel on life as he saw it around him. For instance, our mother would chastise him for going into our hometown of Kiester, Minnesota with dirty bib-overalls and muddy boots on. Our patriarch would retort to her, “Awwww, if they don’t like my gate, they don’t have to swing on it!!!” Of course, the first letter of Dad’s name could’ve stood for a R-omping good time in life, too!! Nothing pleased our patriarch more than to tease, prank or have fun with any and all who came near him. For instance, telling our blossoming teenage girl cousins to eat burnt toast cause “It’ll put hair on your chest!!”, to which they’d gasp in shock for no young lady would ever want hair on her chest!!! 😉
Amazingly, my father’s birth certificate was lost when the local city hall burnt down in their northern Minnesota town. In later years, that omission of documental protocol proved to be a trouble point when it came to Dad trying to verify his existence for the purpose of obtaining Social Security. What a challenge THAT must have been for the father of this Norwegian Farmer’s Son.
Norwegian Farmer's Son 