Back to the farm: Sandquist celebrates
95th birthday at former homesite
NANCY DASHWOOD
Staff Writer
It turns out, you can go home again. And, if you
happen to be Bernadette Sandquist, you can go
home and party, too.
On a recent steamy summer afternoon, Sandquist
arrived at the Luce Line Orchard in rural Watertown.
Although she hadn’t been to that location for ap-
proximately eight decades, she remembered it well.
Sandquist’s family had a farm on that exact loca-
tion back in the 1930 and ‘40s.
As sometimes happens in smaller towns, word
about the farm’s early days had meandered from
Sandquist’s son, Jim, to Luce Line Orchard owners
Rich Pawelk and Terri Traen. The owners not only
invited Sandquist to come visit her old homestead,
but offered to host a 95th birthday party for her, as
well.
Sitting out on a spacious shady patio area behind
the refurbished barn, Sandquist, whose maiden
name is Carlson, gazed around her former home
site, and commented that things had changed just a
bit since she’d been there last.
As family and friends began to arrive to celebrate
with her, Sandquist shared a few memories.
Life on the family farm
Sandquist said she vividly recalls the farm didn’t
have electricity anywhere in those days. “That’s just
the way life was,” she said.
She remembers helping her mother with chores
whenever she could. “We helped mom in the gar-
den, and we picked eggs in the coop,” she said.
Sandquist also described her mother as lenient.
“She let us sleep in until 6 a.m.,” she said.
Sandquist and her three sisters, Janice, Lucille,
and Loretta, attended school in Watertown. She
graduated with the Watertown class of 1942.
Learning to teach via the train
Following high school graduation, Sandquist took
Photo by Nancy Dashwood
Bernadette Sandquist recently returned to the farmstead
where she grew up, which is now the site of the Luce Line
Orchard. The orchard’s owners Rich Pawelk and Terri Traen,
and Sandquist’s son, Jim, organized a 95th birthday party
for her, and many friends and family members attended.
Above, niece Linda Danielson listened as Sandquist shared
a family photo and a memory or two.
More BIRTHDAY on Pg 12
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