On August 22, 1907, Norris Calvin Hagen was born in Ashby, Minnesota, the second son of Andrew and Josie Hagen. In November of 1907, at age 3 months, with his older brother Arnold, and his parents, Norris was transported into the homesteading community near Alamo, North Dakota. You can read about the early days in the book that Norris wrote, Vikings of the Prairie. During his life, he was a farmer, teacher, basketball coach, newspaper editor, federal employee, faithful church member, and most important to me, a simply stupendous-could-not-be-better-or more fun-generous-and-good dad!!!
We loved going to baseball games together, as well as fishing, hiking, camping, and conversations held outside while fertilizing an apple tree or roasting marshmellows over a fire. God is good to provide such excellent parents! We Hagens are so fortunate.
The picture above is from the luncheon held on August 22, 2007, at Grandma Sharon's in Williston, in honor of the 100th anniversary of my Dad's birth. It is a good feeling to remember a good man.
3 comments:
It seems hard to imagine Norris would be 100 years old as talking about all of the Hagen's you don't think of a century passing. If you also read Arnold's graphic detail on his early memories, provided by Ardy, you can imagine how difficult everything had to be in just living. We are so fortunate to have had all the "new fangled" things technology has provided to us. Wish others of you could have been with us on this great day of visiting.
Great picture of everyone! Another thing your Dad loved was gardening Andrea and he was very active in the Billings, Montana garden club along with Andy's aunt Anna Freeman. She knew your parents very well as she was also a school teacher. She would ride with him sometimes to meetings! Small world!
Janie, I didn't even know my dad was part of a garden club. This is a way to learn something new every day. He sure was an enthusiastic gardener. Once he bought 100 blue spruce trees (little ones) and said they would send me to college. I don't think it worked that way, but he did sell someof them.
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