Marlene Johnson: “We would go to Christmas Eve service at 11 o’clock”

By LeAnn R. Ralph

COLFAX — Marlene Johnson grew up in Colfax on Johnson-Olson Road.

Marlene was one of the Olsons for whom the street is named, and her husband, Ray Johnson, is one of the Johnsons for whom the street is named.

When she was a youngster, Marlene said her family always had a real tree, but when her own children came along, Marlene decided to have an artificial tree.

Marlene is a resident at the Colfax Health and Rehabilitation Center, and up until only a few years ago, she went to work every day at the family business, Ray’s Metal Works.

Marlene said the grocery store sold Christmas trees when she was a little girl. 

Church was always part of the Christmas celebration too.

“We would go to Christmas Eve service at 11 o’clock,” Marlene said.

And while Christmas programs were an important part of the season when Marlene was a child,  Christmas programs also were important when her own children were growing up.

“One year, when Mike was in kindergarten, he was all dressed up with a jacket and white shirt and pants but when he got up there (for his part in the Christmas program), he was all messed up. He was all twisted,” she said.

Marlene says she didn’t know how that happened in such a short time — only that the last time she saw him before he got up there for the program, he was as spiffy as could be — and then when he was actually up on the stage, he was not.

Christmas would not have been Christmas without all of the good Norwegian baking, but Marlene, who was busy working at the family business and volunteering in a variety of capacities for the community, such as serving as an Emergency Medical Technician as well as being a member of the American Legion Auxiliary and the Colfax Woman’s Club, did not bake lefse.

“My mother always made the lefse, and then Mike would help me make krumkake on an electric (krumkake griddle). It took two people to make krumkake, one to bake and one to roll them up,” she said. 

Winter in Colfax was a time for ice skating and hockey when Marlene was a girl.

“We’d go ice skating up at school. And we played hockey. We skated when it was below zero,” Marlene said.

At that time, the skating rink was on school property. In later years, the skating rink was at the Colfax Fairgrounds, and more recently, the skating rink has been located at Tom Prince Memorial Park.

Marlene says she remembers the warming shed that was at school, too, for those days when it was below zero. 

And while skiing also was part of the winter sports around Colfax, Marlene said she never went skiing.

Well, that’s not quite true.

She tried to ski.

“I went skiing. Once. The skis went down (the hill) first. Then I had to walk down after them,” she recalled. 

This was apparently enough to make Marlene decide that skiing was not for her. 

In the later years, after Marlene’s daughter, Pam Mousel, was married and had a home of her own, “we always went to Pam’s for Christmas morning. And we always had the same food. I always made the meat. And we opened presents down there,” she said.

When Marlene’s children were growing up, Marlene said she did most of her Christmas shopping in Colfax.

At that time, you could get almost anything you wanted right in Colfax, she said. 

In addition to Mike and Pam, Ray and Marlene’s family includes son, Craig (C.J.) and their youngest son, Mark.