As near as I can figure I was born at a very early age, at least I can't remember a thing about it.
Some of my early memories took place on the Jarmon farm. I started school while we lived on the Jarmon farm. I don't know if there were many in my class but I remember Lewis Nesseim and Edward Berdahl. It was also while we lived there that we got our first tractor and we ran into a car one foggy night by Fred Werner's and I got quite a cut on my forehead. After that we got a new black and red 1927 chevrolet.
I recall that we had a lot of horses at that time and the older children had a lot of fun riding them. We also had a lot of fun in the water tank on that farm.
I remember while living on the Jarmon farm Mom used to hook Nancy to the buggy and we would take butter and eggs to customers in town. I was always called Buddy at home and I remember when I first heard my real name. Mom had some lady friends over one afternoon and one of them asked her what my real name was and when she said my name was Roland I thought that was a terrible name as I associated my name with Dad rolling barbed wire.
When I was in the third grade we moved to the Whalen farm northwest of De Smet and I have a lot of memories from there especially school days. I still remember the names of most of our schoolmates at that school, although we only lived there for a year and a half.
When I was in the 5th grade we moved to the Spence farm north of Lake Preston and I can remember when Bobby started school quite reluctantly. Phil used to walk behind him with a stick half way to school. I also remember when Bobby was little he used to go outside and holler real loud, like Tarzan, and when he got mad he would go out in the yard and lay down and kick his pants off.
Probably the thing that I looked forward to most was going to town on Saturday nights. It was very unusual if we didn't go to town on Saturday night.
Someone gave Lonnie two goats and he didn't have any place to keep them so they brought them up to the farm. They were into and on top of everything. One Sunday Ann and Lud came from Sioux Falls in their brand new 1938 ford and before they even got out of the car the goats were on top of it. Lud got pretty mad at two goats real fast.
I always looked forward to the older kids coming home. I think I am glad I was one of the younger children as I really enjoyed having the older kids come home!
Another thing I looked forward to was threshing. It was fun! The threshing crew would come to our place and oh - such good food and so much of it. An event that my kids will not be involved in.
One of the big events of each year was "Watermelon Day" which came on Labor Day. We all looked forward to it and were there from early morning until late at night - there was always something there for all to enjoy.
The railroad ran through the Spence farm and I always ran up to the windmill to watch the train go by and wave to the engineers. Sometimes our dog Knute would chase the freight trains which went quite slow. One day he ran across the tracks in front of the train and got hit by the cow catcher and it boosted him over the fence. I don't think he chased the train after that. Thinking of dogs (of which we had quite a few) I don't think I ever saw a dog as smart as old Shep. If you told him to go get the horses, that is all he would bring home, the same if you told him to bring the cows home.
After graduating from High School I stayed at home for one year and then went to California with Lil. After living there for two years I joined the Navy and spent 5 1/2 years there, spending most of the time at Norfolk, Virginia and aboard an aircraft carrier.
After getting out of the Navy I moved to Rapid City and spent most of the weekends in Lead where Ag, Orp and Bula lived. In July of 1954 Edie found me and we were married in December of that year. After a few years we became the parents of Keith and David. We lived in Rapid City until August of 1973 when we moved to Colorado Springs to open a branch of the company I work for. We like Colorado Springs, the business is a success and our boys have turned into very fine young men.
We are happy and proud to be a member of the Rodvold family and feel that we have a lot to be thankful for. I am thankful that Ag and Don got the reunions started and hope that we can attend many more.
Roland Duane (Bud) Rodvold
1977