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.
Amazingly, my father’s birth certificate was lost when the local city hall burnt down, and, in later years, that omission of protocol proved to be a trouble point when it came 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.
