Oral History as related by Carl Ogaard to Mitch Mauer
My name is Carl Ogaard; I will be 65 this spring. I was born and raised in South Dakota, in a little town by the name of Lodge Pole. I went through 6 grades there. I moved to Lemmon after that and started the 7th grade. My dad came from Norway; therefore, I would be the first generation in the United States.
For entertainment, we went to dances and a lot of us went out to the lake to fish. We didn`t dare get into too much trouble then. Of course we didn`t have a highway patrolman back then that were really hard on you. But when you did get picked up, you better listen, because they weren`t too gentle with you. Most of our entertainment in the winter was sleigh riding, going skating, and going to dances. In the summer time we went fishing, that was if you had time. Most of your time during the week was working. I had to haul water for the cafe before I went to school in the morning. I`d go to school, and at 4 o`clock I`d get out of school and come home and haul water. In the winter time, I would clean the furnaces and stoke the fires. In the summer time, I would wash dishes at the cafe, work construction, and do just about what ever would come up. I used to spread gravel and get about 25 cents an hour. I think I worked for less than that when I set pins at the bowling alley. I got 4 cents a line working there. Then when I hauled water for the cafe, I got $3.00 a week. I got $2.00 a week for cleaning and stoking the furnaces in the winter time. You didn`t have much idle time. At that time a movie was 15 cents, a box of popcorn was a nickel and a Coke was a nickel.
I think that you just kind of went from job to job until you found something that you liked. I liked the service station business and I stuck with it. I was in it for close to 40 years and service was the name of the game. There were some things that you did for nothing, just to satisfy your customers. When they would come up to the pumps, you checked the oil, checked the tires, you would clean all the windows, and pump the gas just for the price of gas. At that time you could figure the profit you would make on gas would pay for all your utilities and the wages for one hired man.
In 1952, the gas prices were about 20 cents a gallon and the people griped about that. When I came to this town there were 21 service stations here. Everyone seemed to be making a living, some better than others. Where first I started was way down east of town where the radiator shop is now, right at the end of Elkhorn Street. We were open from seven in the morning to seven at night. We stayed busy most of the time.