Ruthton Recollections by James W Park

Ruthton Recollections by James W Park

The notion of writing a few pages of recollections about growing up in Ruthton, Minnesota in the 1940s and 1950s slowly came to me following the 2013 reunion of my class of 1954. Classes that graduated from 1951 to 1955 have organized joint reunions every five years beginning in the 1960s and continuing until the most recent one, that of 2013. Graduating classes averaged about fifteen to twenty-five students, so a joint reunion of all five classes was manageable, and each of us knew everyone from the other four classes. We have always had a large attendance, and the reunions have been spirited, nostalgia-filled celebrations of the good old days. These Recollections stem from this compelling sense of nostalgia together with the feeling that those times in that place were special in our lives. In addition, I have always been curious about the growing-up experiences of my parents and grandparents in places such as Denmark, Iowa, South Dakota, and Minnesota. But the only thing my brother and I have from them is the oral history. This is an effort to offer a more lasting perspective. Finally, the repeated though irregular attendance at those class reunions which were usually held in Ruthton allowed me to observe changes in the town. Those changes also inspire this written recollection of the way it used to be. My memories and those of friends and relatives form the basis for these recollections. They could have been formulated as a history, but because of the personal and informal nature of much of the material, Ruthton Recollections should not be treated as a history nor an autobiography. The stories and incidents chosen for inclusion were selected to illustrate the tenor of those times and the distinguishing characteristics of the period as I recall them. That selection process led to the omission of some stories whose inclusion could possibly have caused more pain than enlightenment for some readers. Finally, Ruthton Centennial (1988) provided a valuable source of detailed information
used to verify these recollections and to supplement them.