I was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1932, right after the stock market crash.

My parents were John and Anna Matson, both born in Minnesota to Swedish immigrants.  Their parents were farmers.  Neither of my parents could speak English until they were 12, which was around the sixth grade.  In that Scandinavian area even the local schools taught only in Swedish.  In only rare cases did a student advance past the 8th grade level.  The value of their labor in the field outweighed their need to get an education.

The family presence in Minnesota was established in approximately 1880.  The location was about 60 miles Northwest of Minneapolis.  All of the folks that lived in that area were either Swedish, Norwegian, or Finnish. Typically, they came from very large families.  They settled, for the most part, on 60-acre farms.  They were not in the least bit wealthy, which meant that the farm labor had to be free, and it became necessary to raise huge families.  My grandparents, on both sides, each had 12 children.

In my immediate family I had 5 older sisters, always telling me what I was doing wrong.  I was the youngest in the family.  Only one of my sisters was born in a hospital.  Everyone else, including myself, was born at home. This was not unusual.  It was very common in those days.  Midwives were the order of the day, as opposed to doctors.

I recall when I was 5 or 6 years old, I’d accumulated a circle of friends from my neighborhood.  I can remember that whenever we would argue, I would say: “Well, my sisters say THIS!" or "My sisters say THAT!”  What my sisters said was gospel, and I would say so with great conviction.  And what’s more, I believed it with my whole heart.  That’s the way it was.   Of course, my friends did not always agree!

We lived in the same community from the time I was 5 years old, and we all attended the same schools.  We graduated from the same high school.  I’m the youngest and now I’m 75.  Both of my parents have passed, along with 3 of my sisters.  I still have 2 sisters living.

We haven’t had any serious illnesses.  I was quarantined once as a child for scarlet fever.  I never experienced any real problems where I felt bad at that time, but my sisters were all working and the county quarantined our house, which meant that my sisters were restricted in what they could do.  Nobody could visit us.  They had to get special permission from the county even to work.

Nickname

My nickname was "John Liver".  In the neighborhood I had a very good friend whose name was Philly Inhoffer, and another buddy whose name was Jacky Carmody.  Philly could not pronounce the middle name my mother gave me, which was Lewis.  Everyone called me John Lewis ("L0u-ee"), in order to distinguish me from my father whose name was also John.  My buddy, Philly, could not say John Lewis and the closest he could come was to  say "  John Liver".  That has been my designated nickname from that time on.  My entire extended family adopted that name as a nick name for me.