Bea Henry About Her Family

George and I were married at Freeport, Minnesota on a beautiful day, April 28, 1942. George and I met on the 4th of July about four years before. We did not “hit it off” right away, but in time we grew to love each other.
George had a gas station, little hardware store and a garage in Freeport. He was a car mechanic. When World War II started we were forced to sell. He went to work in St. Paul, Minnesota for Northwest Airlines as a airplane mechanic and worked there during the war.
In the fall we moved to St. Paul. Our first apartment was very small, bedroom and kitchen and we shared a bath. Later we moved to a bigger place, living room, kitchen and a big bedroom. Rent was frozen during the war we paid about $35 a month, heated.
I worked at a department store “Golden Rule”. Georgette was born in St. Paul, April 23, 1944. After the war we bought land in Alexandria.
We built a little 14 x 16 building to live in while we built our garage, gas station and cafe. Building supplies were hard to find after the war. Somedays George would drive many miles to look for some and maybe come home with two bags of cement. We bought and tore down a old building to get lumber. We got the foundation in before the winter set in. Then we moved in to live with my parents at Freeport. George worked in a garage that winter; Ma was not feeling well, so I did the work.
In spring we returned to Alexandria to finish building and opened up the gas station and garage. We were with the Webb. Co. We called our place Northland Company. Later we had a cafe that we rented out. Our place was on highway 52 the main highway then. We had lots of traffic including trucks from the Pipe line. Later we added a bait store and a garage for a truck company.
We lived in the basement of the cafe when Lyle was born in 1948. George started to deliver gas to homes and stations. Clyde was born in 1950.
About 1952 we built on a home behind the cafe. It was nice to have enough room. The boys shared a big room and Georgette had her own room.
I worked in the station, before it was common place for women to work out side of the home. I also had the cafe for a while when Clyde was about 1 year old.
I liked the bait and tackle store. The boys worked in it too, they liked the worms, frogs and minnows.
In 1956 after 6 weeks in the hospital we had a premature baby boy, Gerard. He lived one day.
After a time we acquired more stations and was jobber for A.P.C.O. Oil Company. We started Viking Land Ice Company; a wholesale and retail ice business. There was a big demand for ice in the resort area.
George’s health began to fail and we sold our business and building in about 1971 and moved to Lake Latoka in a townhouse. George did a lot of fishing. In 1974 we managed the Hi - View Mobile Home Park for 13 years. In 1984 we bought a mobile home and moved it on a nice corner lot. George died in 1990. At the time of this writing I still live here.
Beata Henry, November 1992