"EXCERPTS, Opus 0-18"
by
Carolyn M. Nelson
1942
This is a report that Carolyn prepared for "English 12A, Room 308, Period 7, Denfeld High School, Duluth, Minnesota." It tells of "Excerpts" of her life from birth (age 0) to age 18, thus, the Opus number.
Carolyn has always been very artistic, as you will discover as your read this. The cover, shown below, was her design. Since her father, Carl Sigurd Nelson ("Sig" to all his friends), was a printer and an artist in his own right, Carolyn had access to many various types of papers. The cover material is an example. It is obvious from the layout of the cover and the following pages that she inherited much of her artistic talent from her father.
This picture was used as a kind of "Frontispiece."
It was on the right side of the page just inside the front cover. The cap and gown signify "graduation." Just above the picture and on the same page was her grade for the paper.
Carolyn laid out the paper by showing photographs on the left page and handwritten
text on the right page. Here are the two pictures from the first left page, i.e., the page
facing her "Page 1." The first picture is Carolyn at 4 months of age. The second is Carolyn
at the age of 18 months. It was taken in 1925 in her back yard at 1021 North Central Avenue
Duluth, Minnesota. The text of the first page follows the two pictures.
The first of the next two pictures was taken when Carolyn (and her parents) were visiting
Carolyn's cousin "Agga Wee," or more properly known as "Agnes Marie McCann," but you
know how three and half year old kids have trouble pronouncing some words. Agga Wee lived
on a farm just outside of Anoka, Minnesota, about 125 miles south of Duluth. These pictures
are facing page 2.
These next two pictures were pasted on the left hand page (facing page 3) and
I didn't separate them. Besides, you can see what Carolyn wrote next to them.
Here is the infamous bike that brought Lew and Carolyn together - she's the cute Swedish blonde
holding it. This was several years before we met. The bottom picture was taken in her back yard.
The picture below of Carolyn sitting on her front steps faces page 5. The material in her skirt
has been used as a pillow cover and is now (1997) at our beach house in Aptos, California.
Here is our bathing beauty, only she labeled the picture "frog legs ?"
We are now at the last pages of the report. The picture on the left side of the page shows
Carolyn at age 18 dressed in her snow suit, standing in her driveway surrounded by snow.
She wore this snow suit whenever we would go skating, which was almost every day in the
winter. We tell people that we "courted on ice."
