Memories Cooperstown ND Main Street

Sandra Askelson '61

One of my earliest memories is of the Cooper Hardware Store with a red front next to the old Johnson Store. They also sold toys and before I was three I was given two dolls. One had a red fabic with tiny bouquets of flowers for its soft stuffed body. It had some sort of a red dress. The other was a paste bodied doll with a red gingham dress. That doll happened to have dark brown skin. It is somewhat surprising that in the 1940s Cooper had an integrated doll display. I didn't notice the skin color until I got older but I remember Mom and GrandPa acting surprised that I chose that doll. They didn't know that I simply liked the red gingham dress.

While in country school we would come to town in May for Play Days. Athletic competetions would be held on main street, there would be free movies and each school could enter a float in a parade. Kids were really hyped up over the event. Water balloons and water guns were rampant.

Gorseth's variety had a wonderful toy selection with lots of farm equipment toys and doll things for under $1. We often we allowed to go there before returning home to the farm and choose a toy. Sometimes we would have lunch at Orpha's cafe which was next to the JC Penny Store. We really liked the orange pop and hamburgers which were plain hamburger in a bun with dill pickles and catsup on the side.

Once in the late 40s Dick Johnson a Cooperstown native who had become a test pilot came to town. My dad and uncle had played ball with him so we went to several events. I remember that on the Sunday when Dick Johnson was leaving he flew a plane over main street. He flew it so low that when we were standing near Stone's Cafe we didn't have to look up very much to see it.

Cooperstown being the larger of several small towns between Valley City and Devil's Lake took pride in its schools--especially the music department. For those of us who went on to post secondary education we were also very grateful for the quality of our math and science under Arnold Maurer.

Most years in high school we girls were forbidden to wear jeans or slacks. Boys had to wear belts. In winter boots or overshoes were required. I remember Maurer standing in the front hall checking feet. Some of the boys who for one reason or another had no overshoes would send their friends who had the right foot gear in first. Those friends would go up to the senior

room and thow their foot gear down to the next needy student. As far as I know, Maurer never did catch that trick.

The mischievous moments are fun to remember: water guns in study hall, erasers tossed through the transoms from the coat rooms, stealing mercury to sabatoge the dime extraction process in chemistry to get even with the lab partners who were pilfering our lab glassware.

Our journalism class won a higher state rating in the Grand Forks competition than other classes in the preceding few years. We didn't want to seem boastful so we didn't publish that fact-- (probably should have).

So many of us are grateful for the experiences of living in and near a small town in our youths. Though North Dakota "exports" many of those who spend their youths in the state we all have learned many lessons about community life in the micrcosm society of Cooperstown and continue to feel a sense of belonging to our town as well an appreciation for the efforts of many who contributed in the past and those who continue the city's legacy today.