The following is an excerpt from “Memories of Life …” by Arch G. Pease, pg. 45-51. Ellipses indicate text removed by ACHS for narrative purposes. Read his full memoir in History 21: The Vault and tune into History 21: The Podcast to hear an oral interview with Pease conducted in 1989.
Read MoreFolklore held that a tornado would never strike where two rivers met. Residents of Anoka, located at the confluence of the Rum River and Mississippi River, believed their community safe until June 18, 1939, 3:17 p.m. In this episode, hear the voices of Anokans who experienced the tornado as they tell their stories of that day.
TW: severe weather, injuries, death.
Interview transcript, map of location and Peterson’s video of the aftermath available in the episode show notes.
Hosts Rebecca Desens, ACHS Executive Director, Sara Given, ACHS Volunteer Coordinator and Erin McBrien, ACHS Archivist.
Read MoreWhat stories would you tell about your parents? Charles L. Horn, Jr. took time in 1993 to remember his father and namesake Charles L Horn, Sr. He shared details on everything from Sr’s signature mustache and the first days of Federal, to President FDR’s secret visit to a Federal-run ammunition plant during World War II.
Hosts Rebecca Desens, ACHS Executive Director, Sara Given, ACHS Volunteer Coordinator and Erin McBrien, ACHS Archivist.
Read MoreOn board the USS Alabama in 1942, Glen Lindstrom set up his sewing machine, fabric and thread. He sailed with the ship as the on-board tailor, skills he picked up helping his mother, in the pacific theater during WWII. In this oral history interview recorded April 7, 2005 ,Glen describes why he enlisted in the Navy, and his time aboard ship.
Hosts Rebecca Desens, ACHS Executive Director, Sara Given, ACHS Volunteer Coordinator and Erin McBrien, ACHS Archivist.
Read MoreOn board the USS Alabama in 1942, Glen Lindstrom set up his sewing machine, fabric and thread. He sailed with the ship as the on-board tailor, skills he picked up helping his mother, in the pacific theater during WWII. In this oral history interview recorded April 7, 2005 ,Glen describes why he enlisted in the Navy, and his time aboard ship.
Hosts Rebecca Desens, ACHS Executive Director, Sara Given, ACHS Volunteer Coordinator and Erin McBrien, ACHS Archivist.
Read MoreOn board the USS Alabama in 1942, Glen Lindstrom set up his sewing machine, fabric and thread. He sailed with the ship as the on-board tailor, skills he picked up helping his mother, in the pacific theater during WWII. In this oral history interview recorded April 7, 2005 ,Glen describes why he enlisted in the Navy, and his time aboard ship.
Hosts Rebecca Desens, ACHS Executive Director, Sara Given, ACHS Volunteer Coordinator and Erin McBrien, ACHS Archivist.
Read MoreOn the first day of 2021 Terry Overacker died after over a month in the hospital battling Covid-19. In this episode, his wife and business partner, Gina, shares her deeply personal experience with this terrible disease, her grief after Terry’s death, and how sharing your story can bring healing.
Hosts Rebecca Desens, ACHS Executive Director, Sara Given, ACHS Volunteer Coordinator and Erin McBrien, ACHS Archivist.
Read MoreAnna Gorham taught classes of students at Franklin Elementary School for 26 years. In 1989, she sat down to record some of her experiences with education starting with describing the one-room schoolhouse she attended in Burns, and then what Franklin Elementary was like when she started teaching there in 1946.
Note: This recording is digitized from the original cassette tape. The recording has been enhanced where possible, but for clarity an edited transcript of Anna’s interview is also provided below.
Hosts Rebecca Desens, ACHS Executive Director, Sara Given, ACHS Volunteer Coordinator and Erin McBrien, ACHS Archivist.
Read MoreA sophomore at Anoka High School, Maddie shares her experiences over the past year of distance learning in the midst of a global pandemic and social upheaval. She discusses how it feels to go to school remotely, how it affected classroom dynamics, relationships, and her own mental health.
Hosts Rebecca Desens, ACHS Executive Director and Sara Given, ACHS Volunteer Coordinator.
Read MoreIn an oral history interview with ACHS in 2008, Denise DeMars shares her journey with the Columbia Heights Fire Department as their first female firefighter. She joined the fire department as a volunteer in 1978, became a full time firefighter in 1980 and navigated sexism in a male-dominated profession as well as the dangers of fighting fires. She retired as a deputy fire marshal for the state of Minnesota in 2012.
Content Note: this episode contains sensitive language we do not condone. About two thirds of the way through Denise Demars’ 2008 oral history interview she recounts a conversation in which the N-word was used in her presence in 1980. We have decided to leave this portion of the interview unedited, not to be insensitive, but instead to reflect how history must acknowledge the evolution of social mores and language. We invite you to think about Denise’s reaction to the power structure at the time, her reaction recounting the event 28 years later, as well as how you might handle the situation if you were in her place.
Hosts Rebecca Desens, ACHS Executive Director and Sara Given, ACHS Volunteer Coordinator.
Read MoreErin Freitag, ACHS volunteer and Andover resident, started 2020 teaching English in Yeonggwang, Korea. She shares her decision to teach English abroad for six years, as well as what those early months of the year were like in a different country. In the first half of the year she also made an international move back to Minnesota, and her experienced the beginning of Covid again, this time in the United States.
Hosts Rebecca Desens, ACHS Executive Director and Sara Given, ACHS Volunteer Coordinator.
Read MoreErin McBrien became the new ACHS Archivist at the end of 2020. She talks about job searching during a pandemic after graduation, what brought her to pursuing a masters degree in library and information science and her thoughts about being a custodian and advocate for Anoka County stories and history.
Hosts Rebecca Desens, ACHS Executive Director and Sara Given, ACHS Volunteer Coordinator.
Read MoreLocal newspapers are a bedrock of historical research, but those documents are created and run by people in the community. Listen to an interview with Arch Pease, editor and owner of the Anoka Union from 1946 until 1989, as well as it's with it's descendants Managing Editor, Jonathan Young.
Hosts Rebecca Desens, ACHS Executive Director and Sara Given, ACHS Volunteer Coordinator.
Read MoreSanta has had a second home here in Anoka County for over 100 years, and ACHS has the proof in our collection. Listen to the ways Santa has visited the County from farm life to Zoom visits with Steve Griffiths, the Executive Director of Impact Services.
Read MoreSelf-appointed family historian, Daryl Lawrence, shares the saga of discovering his great-grandmother’s hidden first marriage and divorce as well as finding a member of his family tree who was gay like him.
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