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Mountain Memories
Pages - 98 & 99
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.Rusty's Epilogue
There has been so much of Mountain's history that has been left unsaid.
It is difficult to telescope one hundred years of activities and the lives of thousands of people into a hundred pages. The good times and the bad have suffered from the lack of space to portray. There were many happenings I would have liked to have dwelt on in depth. There were a great number of citizens I would have liked to have singled out, whose activities merited elaboration.
The fifth generation of our pioneer ancestors have reached or are near adulthood. They can be proud for the most part of the stock from which they sprung.
I close this episode with the ending of World War II. The boys came home, their contribution to our nations defense and welfare complete. A grateful nation paid homage to their courage and to their sacrifice of self for the nations well being.
But everything was not a bed of roses for the vets' who returned. Jobs were not readily available and 52-20, the bill passed by Congress allowing veterans $20 a week for 52 weeks unemployment compensation, did not allow anyone to live high on the hog.
From 1946 to 1950 the young vets around Mountain were the life of the party, so to speak. They played ball, frequented the taverns, and had a good time in general. Slowly they returned to responsible civilian life. I say 'Bravo !' to them.
The town remains for those who live here, and lives on in the memories of those who moved away.
So be it.
Without our memory all happenings are cold as ashes - While memory lives as a burning coal in our minds.
Rusty Olson
September
28, 1971 Entered by Rusty's son - Jan Olson
It
was warm and hazy, the maples were a brilliant red and orange, the
stately
white birch were still full of yellow leaves. The famous fall color was
at its zenith.
After
supper, Grandpa Axel retired to the living room to watch the news and
weather
forecast. We never got the weather report, and there was no warning.
The
power went out at 6:12 p.m., and with the suddenness of Judgement Day,
the sky got dark and the wind began to blow. Through every window we
could
see the violence of the wind in the blowing dirt and objects. There was
no time to hide. Big trees were toppling over all at once,
and in
different directions. The air pressure felt as if the house
might
explode. It was terrifying for my grandparents and I. And then the wind
stopped. It rained big drops, but briefly.
I
ran outside to find a big box elder had fallen onto the garage, and a
wind
row of ten-year-old scotch pine were tipped over like dominoes. In
every
direction I looked there were trees down / the big balsam near the back
door had lost its top. In the growing darkness of the early evening
storm,
we could not access the damage. Suddenly I realized that the house next
door had lost its roof, the shed and garage had vanished! I ran across
the street and was relieved to find Ruth Klensch was unhurt. Down the
road
I found Clarence and Helen Way in each other's arms standing beside the
platform and rubble of their mobil home. The seven unoccupied mobile
homes,
that had minutes before stood behind Al Loftus's DX Station, had been
carried
off and ripped apart leaving a trail of destruction. Al's Station was
but
a shell of cement blocks.
The
home of the Melvin Trever family was totally destroyed. Amazingly there
were only a few minor injuries. Next door to them, the County Shed was
down. On the west side of town the hillside looked like a jungle, the
damage
to the trees was extensive, while the cedar swamp on the east side
received
the tornadoes final farewell. The shallow root systems of the cedar
stand
today, their timbers laid down 18 years ago as a reminder of the day
the
tornadoes came through Mountain.