Carol Crabbe's family swears by her lefse, which she makes every holiday season and used to sell in grocery stores in Bottineau and Minot.
Carol Crabbe has always been a busy lady.
Throughout her life, she’s watched over children – siblings, her two sons, then grandchildren.
She’s not afraid of work, having held as many as four jobs at one time. From milking cows on the farm to baking at restaurants, grocery stores, a donut shop and even Minot State University, her Norwegian work ethic hasn’t been tempered with age.
“You have to take advantage of jobs. They're available if you want to work more than one,” she says.
Carol whipped up 90 homemade donuts for her brother on his 90th birthday in September. Later this month, her kitchen turns into a lefse factory, before her holiday candy-making season kicks in.
“We got the Pierce County Tribune every Wednesday,” Carol’s first-born son and North Dakota Living Advertising Sales Manager Duane Crabbe recalls, “and my dad would sit down to read the (Barton) news and say, ‘Well, boys, let’s see where your mom’s been this week!’”
WEDDING BELLS
Carol enjoyed nearly 60 years of marriage to her husband, Larry, before he died in 2022. They met at the Bottineau County fair and were married six months later on Dec. 31, 1962.
“We didn’t have a lot of money, so we just went to the parsonage and asked the pastor to marry us,” Carol says. “We got married the next day. My mother lined up my brother and sister, they were my attendants. And my sister Marie, she was in grade school, and she played piano.”
Larry moved his new bride to Lawton, Okla., after the wedding, where they lived for 19 months during his U.S. Army service.
OKLAHOMA
“I learned things in Oklahoma I didn’t know existed,” Carol says.
It was the North Dakota farm girl’s first time out of the state and first experience with cockroaches. They lived in a studio apartment converted from a garage, and they shared a bathroom with the neighbors.
“They were nice neighbors,” Carol says.
Carol took a job working at a downtown dry-cleaning business. It was the South, during the Civil Rights Movement.
“It was a really rough street. African Americans were still picketing to get into the white section, and they’d be picketing outside, and all of a sudden, a car of white guys would drive up, and they’d be pulling switchblades,” Carol recalls. “I’d hide under the alterations desk.”
“Larry had a really good friend on base that was African American, and (Larry) invited him to our place, and (the friend) said, ‘Oh, no, I can’t do that, because that wouldn’t look well for you if you associate with me,’” Carol says.
Larry was a battery clerk on the Persian missile assignment, and he was proud of his military service. With two months left in his military commitment, Larry learned he would be sent to Germany, which meant he would be in Vietnam before too long, Carol says.
“I was pregnant with Duane, which saved him from going, because they weren’t sending dads over at that time,” Carol says.
PRIDE IN SERVICE
“Our time in the service, it was a wonderful time,” Carol says. “We had good friends from all over, wonderful people, you know. We’ve never regretted that, it was all good.”
Following the service, Larry and Carol became lifetime members of the American Legion and American Legion Auxiliary. Carol was even president of the auxiliary when they lived in Crosby, Dickinson and Minot.
“The Vietnam War, it seemed like people didn’t understand… I don’t know how to say it. They had strong feelings about it. People kind of resented some of the soldiers when they came back,” Carol says. “They weren’t very nice to them in some places. I can’t say where we lived we had any problems, but I think that’s one of the reasons we were so involved in the Legion and Legion Auxiliary.”
“Larry had an uncle that was in World War II. He was wounded three times, and nothing was done for (veterans). Either they just came back and went to work, or tried to put it behind them,” Carol says. “But the Vietnam soldiers had a lot of problems doing that. A lot of them were young, for one thing, inexperienced, and got into situations they weren’t really prepared for.”
Carol’s heart for those who have served in the military is evident, and her pride for her family’s military service shines through. She has two brothers who served in the military, her son, Dan Crabbe, served eight years in the National Guard, and two granddaughters are currently serving.
“You realize how important these people are when they come home. You feel for any soldier that comes from anywhere, and what they go through,” Carol says.
WORK, FAMILY AND LEFSE
Work has been a major theme throughout Carol’s life.
“Work was very important, not just in our immediate family,” Duane says. “My grandma instilled that. Grandma Harriet (Carol’s mom) thought work was the answer to everything. If you’re depressed, you work. If you’re happy, you work. If you misbehave, there’s a lot of work.”
One of Carol’s first job opportunities came because of her husband.
“Larry would tell everybody, ‘My wife makes lefse,’” a skill she learned from her aunt, Carol says, with rolling pins her family brought with them when they immigrated from Norway.
The rolling pins are heavy and grooved, made from a single block of wood.
“I have a collection of them from my aunts and grandmother,” Carol says.
Every morning from Nov. 1 through December, Carol would wake up at 4:30 a.m. to turn out 100 lefse in her home kitchen, then Larry would take them to work to be sold at grocery stores in Bottineau and Minot.
Duane fondly remembers lefse for breakfast before school and their flour-dusted kitchen.
“(The kids) always got the bad pieces, but they would beg, ‘Can we have a nice piece?’” Carol recalls.
It’s clear family is the reason Carol has worked hard all her life. Family was important to Larry, too, who entered the foster care system when he was 9 years old.
“He had seven brothers and sisters. They were all taken away, placed out, and he found some of them years after. He found a sister when she was 72 years old,” Carol says.
“The day we brought Duane home from the hospital, (Larry) sat down by his crib and said, ‘I finally got a family nobody can take me away from,’” Carol says.
Reflecting on her life, Carol says she is proudest of the family she and Larry raised.
“You always want to try and make it better for your children. That's kind of what you strive for,” Carol says.
___
Cally Peterson is editor of North Dakota Living. She can be reached at cpeterson@ndarec.com.
