"I just say be yourself and enjoy life."

"I never remembered it as hardship."

My full name is Merle Glen Nelson. I was born on a farm outside of Seava (1), Minnesota. S-E-A-V-A, which is south of Willmar, in Kandiyohi County. I lived with my great-grandfather on a farm outside of Sacred Heart down Hawk Creek for my first few years, then we lived on a farm outside of Madison in Lac qui Parle County, and up until about my first grade and then we moved to Madison, Minnesota. I was twelve-years-old and then I went to work for two bachelors, and I lived with them until I graduated from high school. It was at the end of the Depression and my parents had uh-my sister was born, and it was just- economically they couldn’t care for us all, so I went and worked for two brothers. They were called Art and Louie Torgeson, and for room and board, I lived with them. And I mean I seen my parents almost daily but I just lived there from I was twelve ‘till I graduated from high school. It was just uh, something to do. We had to do it. Most people had no income but everybody was that way and no one felt any different from anybody else. I think it probably uh made our families closer together. There was no fighting; everybody helped one another and it was- actually it was better. You did a lot of bartering, you know, you didn’t have money so you bartered work for animals or something else. No, it was a good time actually. I never remembered it as hardship. I remember that, now looking back, yes, there was a lot of things we didn’t have or couldn’t afford. But at the time you didn’t miss ‘em because you never had ‘em.

Picture Credit (1)

We had a lot of distant relatives that came from all over that had lost jobs. Some were from New York; some were from Chicago. I think at one time we had about eighteen people lived on the farm. Either nephews or cousins or uncles or aunts, but everybody had a job and we all worked together. My [future] wife, she lived across the road. I knew my wife from the time she was first grade, probably. She was kind of a whiner. We belonged to 4H and you’d have parties where girls would make up a picnic basket and you would auction ‘em off and the monies would go to whatever the club wanted to do. And I would always go over and talk to her older sister and find out how my future wife, how she decorated her basket so I knew what basket to bid on. So that’s probably my first date. And she, later on in life, she’d always say uh, “How did you know, how come you bought my basket all the time?” And then finally her sister blew the whistle on me. She just give me heck. I think she liked it that I bought her basket.

"I did it my whole life."

Picture Credit (2). Merle working in the Philippines.

[I worked] on the farm until I got older. Then I went to work with my father and my grandfather who were carpenters. I had done it because that’s what my father did, and that’s what my grandfather did. And then when I went into service, that’s what I did there too. I did it my whole life. I started in the Korean War. I went in in ‘52 and I got out at ‘57. I joined the navy and I belonged to what was called the Construction Battalion, SeaBees. And we built airstrips and all types of interstructure mostly for the Marines. I went to the Philippines and we helped build Subic Bay. I was there for two-and-a-half, almost three years, in the Philippines, and I was discharged from there. When we built Subic Bay we moved more dirt and more material than they did at the Panama Canal.

"We just had a heck of a time."

Picture Credit (3). Merle, Janice and kids.

From the time I started the service until I was discharged, I was in the United States 62 days out of a little over four years. I was married after I got outta the service. My wife and I were married in ‘59 on October 24th. I had four children. I had my older son names Jon. I had a daughter named, uh, Kristy, who passed away. I had a daughter named Judi and I had Paul. The girl died of Hailey’s Membrane Disease. It was, um, a birth defect. She was unable to survive- she survived two days. Today they would probably be able to solve that problem, but not at that time. My wife and I had no relatives here so I dealt with it by myself because my doctors would not allow my wife out of the hospital until after. It cost my wife problems later on.

I tried to have them [my children] raised up the same [as me]. I mean, I know people at that time were giving children allowances. I never believed in that. They all worked and when they needed something we got it for them. They all did, and they all turnt out good. I never promised my children something that I wasn’t able to do. If I made a promise to them, I kept it, and if I said something I made sure that what I said I was gonna carry through.

He [Paul] will pull your chain at all cost so I think he’s the closest to me. My oldest son, being he’s the oldest, he figures he’s boss. We one time crawled up in the church belfry and, uh, tied copper wire to the clapper. And strung it over to another building, and at night we rang the bell, and the minister came running out knowing full well someone’s in the church ringing that bell, and when he went inside and there was no one there. I believe to this-my dying day that he knew the good lord was ringing that bell and it was us across the way. We just had a heck of a time.

"She was the catalyst that held our family together."

There were times I wouldn’t sell ‘em for a million dollars but there were time I’d woulda took a nickle for ‘em too. I never got mad at my children. I they made mistakes I pointed out their mistakes but I never got angry. They wrecked my cars. I just never got angry. They didn’t do it purposely. I never met a child that is evil. I mean, you have to teach ‘em that. Most kids are just happier- they’re mischievous, they’re adventuresome, they get into trouble but they don’t do it to be mean. That’s something I teach you. It’s easier to hug ‘em than spank ‘em.

My [wife] was kinda the one that put oil on stormy water. When all of a sudden things were startin’ to get a little testy or she could see I was gettin’ a little irritated with my children or someone, she’s the one that would calm me down. She was a calming effect on the whole family, and I see that too now, after her passing, she was the catalyst that held our family together. They were always there. Upon her passing, they have not been this close or they still come but not like they used to. She passed away ten years ago, the fourteenth of January. She had battled cancer for over two years, she had I think around 180 chemo treatments. She never complained. I’d been a bitchin my whole life but she never did.

I wouldn’ta done a darn thing differently. I made mistakes, I would probably make the same mistakes again. But I never did anything I’m ashamed of and I’m happy I did whatever I did. I’m satisfied. I think [a good life] is one that you can raise and not have any regrets on where you went and look back and see your children and your grandchildren and your great-grandchildren succeed, and if you can see that you had a good life.

"Just absorb it."

I’d just say be yourself and enjoy life.  Don’t try to model yourself after your parents or what they did or what I did, because you can’t. You’re gonna have to do the best you can with what you got now. I told my boys, if anyone is willing to teach you somethin’, if I’m willing to show you how, even if you don’t think it’s revalent at the time, listen. Because once I have showed it becomes yours and I can not take it back from you. It’s yours, and if its free, take it. So if anyone is willing to show you something or help you along the way, just absorb it.

Footnotes:

1. Svea, MN is a small town in Kaniyohi County with a population of about 100.

2. After fact checking, we found she actually died of Hyaline Membrane Disease which is a condition where the lungs do not fully develop and fill with fluid.

Picture Credit:

1. Nelson, Merle. Family Photograph. Provided 30 September 2015.

2. Nelson, Merle. Self Image, circa 1955. Provided 30 September 2015.

3. Nelson, Paul. Family Photograph, circa 2005. Provided 07 October 2015

Story Facilitators:

Brittany Nelson, Mallori Johnson, and Hannah Paulsen