Verdi Gilbertson - Gilbertson: An American Family Adventure

About the front c over

Photograph from the late 1930s after the rain began again and the bumper crops returned. Gerhard and Selma are on the ground admiring this great potato grown on the Gilbertson farm. Carl and Guri look at it from up on the wagon. Gerhard used all the organic farming methods that were practiced in 1938, such as crop rotation, organic fertilizer and cultivation for weed control.

Verdis Web Page

www.verdieg.blogspot .com

Front cover photo: Giant potato grown by Ruby Gilbertson, red barn built by Kay Gilbertson Dammer, Wood carvings by Verdi Gilbertson, John Deere tractor provided by Verdi, photography by Keith Gilbertson

Gilbertson:
An American Family Adventure

By Verdi Gilbertson
with his family

Edi tor
Keith Gilber tson

AuthorHouse

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.authorhouse.com

Phone: 1-800-839-8640

2014 Verdi Gilbertson. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 10/27/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4969-4695-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-4696-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-4754-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014918430

Artist Name: Keith Gilbertson

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Dedicated to my wife Agnes, our children Gregory, Kay, Kathy and Keith.

Our ten Grandchildren, Emily, Danny, Bryan, Mark, Neil, Sarah, Laura, Eric, Matthew and Jacob

Our great grandkids, Elizabeth, Rebekah, Violet Kay and Jack

To my parents who were my first teachers. You learn in the school you go to, was of one of my mothers a favorite expressions. My parents taught me very well at home. My ancestors who told me the stories of settling the prairielands of Mandt Township. My teachers at District Fifty Four country school who helped to build my creative spirit. The teachers at Milan High School who fostered my interest in the world beyond.

Our children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and our extended family members who have contributed stories for this book. Ruby and Lyle Gilbertson and their girls Dawn, Robin and Tracy for keeping our home place looking great and welcoming us for so many years. My son Keiths English as Second Language students from all over the world who have read our first book and contributed many kind and interesting comments. The YouTube viewers who have taken the time to watch and comment on many of our videos. My daughter Kays second grade class who have read and listened to my stories about growing up on a farm in the 1930s. All the good folks at Valentinos in Montevideo who make sure I enjoy my delicious breakfasts with good company. Thanks for listening to my stories, some of which are in this book.

Thanks to the many readers of Verdi who have offered kind and generous comments. We hope you enjoy our second book.

When our first book, Verdi, was published in 2010, many people were reading it and every so often someone would ask me, Verdi, when are you going to write another book? The response to our first book has been a pleasant surprise for us and we never expected so many people would like it. This gave me motivation to expand on the first one with a few more stories about life on the farm and more of my World War II experiences. We decided to include some of my thoughts about inspiration, motivations and the challenges of bringing out our best every day. Time for me is well spent when working with a wide variety of creative activities.

Other people wanted to know more about our extended family experiences. One reader suggested we include stories about the next generations in another book. This time we decided to include a chapter with adventures of our traveling family. The kids, grandkids and even our great granddaughters, Elizabeth, Rebekah and Violet contributed stories about places they have travelled to so far.

Inspiration s: You are never too old to set another goal or dream a new dream, CS Lewis. These words are on a wall plaque in my studio.

With this new book we hope to inspire young and old to set goals and keep wondering. I very often think about what I can do now to pass on something that may be of use to someone else. It may be setting an example, working on a variety of projects; maybe I can be an inspiration to others. As a means of inspiring we include on the pages, examples of a few projects that are happening in our studio and in the workshop garage.

My earliest motivations came from my parents and my country school teachers when they took interest in my school activities. Parents taking notice and acknowledging accomplishments helps children.

Many of these stories were recorded on a video camera by Keith. He collected them on YouTube and then transcribed my stories into a written form. Then we went back and added, subtracted and generally edited the stories to the words you will read in this book. As Keith sends me the chapters he has typed, I pull them up on my computer or droid to review, make any needed changes and then pass them on to him. The primary motivations for putting this book together came from our enjoyment in writing the first book and the readers generous response.

By Keith Gilbertson, ed itor

Another book? When my dad first told me that people were asking him about writing a second book, I smiled and thought, well, thats great but I am not really ready to work on another long-term book writing project. One autobiography is definitely a tremendous accomplishment for Dad and I figured he should be proud and satisfied with, Verdi . The more Dad mentioned putting together another book, the more I could tell he was serious. I asked myself quite a few times, Why not? The experience of working on a book together with my father was such a life altering and enriching labor of love that it would be a shame not to tackle another writing project a gain.

During this very enlightening and enjoyable time of writing both books weve had many deep, truly personal, meaningful, and engaging conversations about the old days of course, but also about the present and the future. Beyond telling old stories, we have opened up many spiritual and philosophical discussions about faith, family, life, wonder, inspirations and motivations. These types of conversations with a parent do not often take place over the phone, email or even during a large family get together. They are more likely to happen one on one by a wood fire, near the typewriter and over the course of long thoughtful conversations with each o ther.

With the idea of another book in mind, the thoughts, feelings and nuggets of advice from my dad became the focus of the words we chose to share with our family and the many others who have shown more interest in Verdis life than we ever anticip ated.

Chapter One

Writing Adventures: The Book Branches Out

The cover from Verdi published in 2010

T he initial purpose of writing and publishing our first book, Verdi, was to give our immediate family and extended family, stories about of my life and the people I have been associated with. This included the people I have depended on for help like my parents, my brothers and sisters, pastors and teachers. We wanted to give some kind of credit to the people that have helped form my life. When we started, the main audience was intended to be our own family circle so they would have many of my stories to read and remember now and as the family continues to grow. It started with just our children, our grandkids, great grandkids and maybe a few relatives beyond them. It was a history of my life and my family. So that is what the expectations were. Well, then we saw that other people who I had never met were picking up this book, looking at the pictures, reading and they became interested.