Reflections
Amelia Engelstad Striker (Grandma)
As I turn my thoughts back to our childhood and youth, I am grateful for the experiences of those years. Our parents gave us much for which we can be thankful. No, not the material things; they didn't have those. And because they didn't we learned to be thrifty, conservative and satisfied with much less. I remember my mother wiping the butter dish with a piece of bread. We learned to fear and love God; to have respect for those above us; to be concerned and considerate of other people, especially the unfortunate. Those were good years. The Bucyrus community to was a good place to get our start in life.
We often had itinerant preachers in our home. Then there were the visiting evangelists and missionaries. It was taken for granted that they would stay at our house, and we were the better for it. We were blessed by so many wonderful people coming into our lives.
My mother (Ida) helped organize the Women's Missionary Federation in the Hettinger Circuit (North Dakota) of the Lutheran Church. She was also the WMF president for a number of years. This involved much correspondence and our dining room table would stay covered with letters and materials for weeks. One year the WMF convention was to be held in our home church in Bucyrus. Mother told the ladies there would be a big crowd coming. Not able to convince them, she baked extra buns and cake that she had to come home for to feed the many who came.
Dad (Sever) was active in organizing the Badlands Bible Camp in the 1930's. Our whole family would go. We slept on straw ticks (mattresses) in the ranch house, and later some of us girls slept in a tent we borrowed from Pete Gallager. Those were time of great fun, living in the outdoors, cooking on an open fireplace, and listening to great men and women of God teach us from the Bible. Clara Jones was a favorite. Four of us girls asked her to come to our tent one afternoon. We asked questions and in her tactful way she got to the all-important question of us giving our lives to Christ. We all did.
Dad was a very sober individual; yet he was not unable to appreciate some humor. One time he told about the confirmands in class all laughing about something - he didn't know what. He soon discovered that his garter (men wore them to hold up their socks) was hanging down below his pants leg. One time when he was getting after my brother, the dog took after him. Neither father or son forgot that.
I was about a head taller than most of the girls in high school and was very self-conscious about this. Our superintendent, Mr. Mekold, must have been aware of my feelings; once when someone remarked about my height, he said, "Amelia is not too tall". I'll always be grateful for his concern. When I got away from home I found there were lots of tall girls.
One time a friend and I went down to the depot at night; the fast train was coming. We stood on the platform in front of the depot and wondered if we should stand in front of or behind the express wagon. We decided to stand behind it. After the train passed we were sure that we had made the right decision because it seemed that the suction created by the fast-moving train would have pulled us into it.
I was graduated from Bucyrus High School in 1939 and attended Concordia College for one year and then entered nursing school at Fairview Hospital in Minneapolis, graduating from there in 1943. I worked as a private duty nurse until May 1944. On June 7th of that year, Dale Striker and I were married at LaMoure, N.D. where my parents lived. Dale was ordained as a minister in the Lutheran Church four days later in his home church in Bucyrus.
His first church was in north central Montana at Big Sandy. We were much impressed with the western hospitality encountered there. This was wartime, and many of the young men were in the service; some did not return. That November we received word that Dale's youngest brother Lynn had been killed in action near Nijmegen, Holland.
Our first child, Gene, was born April 29, 1945. In September of the next year we moved to Albion, Nebraska. The morning we were preparing to leave we received word that my dad had died suddenly of a heart attack in Fargo, ND. Life is mingled with joy and sadness.
In Nebraska we moved into a beautiful, large, 25-year-old country parsonage. In addition to the house there were farm buildings which allowed us to keep milk cows, pigs, and chickens. Our four daughters, Ruth, Eva, Connie, and Faith were born there, as well as our second son, Paul. At milking time Dale would take the children with him to the barn and tell them Bible stories.
I also learned to milk, out of necessity. We had been invited to supper and Dale was dragging roads and had forgotten about the invitation. The people would have been hurt if we had not come so I went to the barn and milked the cows.
In 1955 we moved north to Maskell, Nebraska, a small town a few miles from the Missouri River. Luther was born there.
In 1957 we moved to Plaza, North Dakota where David and Jim were born.
In 1963 we moved to Landa, North Dakota where Mark was born. That same year Ruth was married to Dave Fowler.
In June of '69 all ten children were able to attend the celebration of our 25th wedding anniversary. Gene had just returned from two years of Army duty in Japan. Most of Dale's brothers and sisters were also able to attend.
In August of '69 we moved to Midland, South Dakota and then back to North Dakota (Churches Ferry) in '74. In all these places we found very wonderful people. For the pastor's wife, the hardest experience has been leaving each parish. I grew to love the people and then had to leave them. I find this very traumatic but "God is sufficient for all situations.
In Landa I began working at a nursing home, full time for awhile and then part time. I enjoyed getting into uniform again and found working with the aged rewarding. The paycheck was very helpful but it's hard to do two jobs well. My working put a strain on our home.
In 1982 Dale retired and we moved to Fairbault, Minnesota and built a house. Since then we traveled across the United States, visiting our brothers and sisters and each of our children. Every two or three years we gather for a family reunion. We also travel to the Striker farm near Bucyrus almost annually for church and school anniversaries and to meet with family.
Our family has been a joy to us. There is much work involved with a large family, but there are also advantages. Children learn to work out of necessity. A boy needs a shirt so he irons one. His basketball suit needs washing so he starts the clothes washer. One of our sons said that he was glad for the work he was required to do because when he got out on his own it was no problem finding a job.
A large family is not without problems, especially in this day of tension and turmoil. But the problems only make us realize that we need to depend on God and call out to Him. We have learned that He hears and answers our prayers. Some of our children have chosen to walk in the ways of the world after leaving home but we have prayed and prayed and most have surrendered to God and to His ways. God has and continues to perform His transforming work.
Family highlights include; camping trips, swimming and picnicking, family Bible camps, and a Billy Graham crusade in St.Paul. Perhaps some of the greatest family times have been when gathered together talking to God and sensing His presence with us. I agree with the psalmist, "Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised". To God be the glory.