How Mary Became Mae

Mary Mae Lydick Norenberg (1910-2003) was born in Cass Lake, Minnesota and lived her life in that vicinity. She was the daughter of Susan Marie Roy (1889-1957) and Horace Sawyer Lydick (1880-1956).

Probably because her mother, Susan, was a devout Roman Catholic, Mary was named after the Blessed Virgin.

But she was always Grandma Mae to me.
I never heard anyone call her Mary.

Interview

Christmastime 1985, I spent time with my grandparents. They told stories about their younger years and reminisced about their lives. Grandma also shared a typed transcript of an oral history interview she did in 1977.

The interviewer was Stan Johnson, Administrative Assistant, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Chippewa National Forest, Cass Lake, Minnesota. Grandma’s interview was likely part of the Forest History Oral History Project (1954-1977).¹Interview Mae Norenberg and Stan Johnson, April 26, 1977. Cass Lake MN. Karrie Blees has a typewritten transcription in September 2023. It is unknown whether or not the original recording is held with the other tapes at the Minnesota Historical Society. http://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/oh142.xml

School

During my 1985 interview, I took very few notes. However, I noted that Grandma told me that she started school on her sixth birthday. Here’s what Grandma told Stan Johnson about her schooling:

“… the Kitchi school was just a little over half a mile up the road from where we lived on what is now the Blackduck Road, but it was just a trail at that time; I started school there on May 1st, in 1916, and my first teacher was Mable Dugas, who was a Cass Laker, and she was homesteading over on Walker Bay. And she walked from Walker Bay across the Bay, across the west end of Kitchi Lake to our place, and then up to the school, built her own fires, and that sort of thing, and did all the janitor work herself. I don’t know whether they had a school board or what out there at that time. I don’t remember that part of it, but I know she did all of this and walked back home again across the west end of Kitchi and Walker Bay at night and in the morning she made the same trip again, all for thirty dollars a month.”²Ibid., page 3

“… and went to the Kitchi School for a month, and then that fall we were at camp [logging camp] so we didn’t go to school anymore. We didn’t really go to school regularly until we came to Cass Lake, and by that time, why my brother [Maynard] and one of my sisters [Verona] was ready for school too…  we seemed to learn out to read and write. I suppose our mother taught us.”³Ibid, page 16

“… I went to school, 3rd and 4th and 5th [at the old Cass Lake school built in 1904] and then my children went to that school….”⁴Ibid, page 16

Cass Lake School, circa 1920⁵Photo of Cass Lake School Class, circa 1920. Original owned by Mary Peterson. Digital copy made by Karrie Blees March 22, 2023.
Mae was in the 4th Grade

Mary became Mae

There is one detail that I did write down in 1985.

When Grandma started school on her sixth birthday (May 1, 1916), there were already 2 other girls at the Kitchi School named Mary. So, Susan Lydick told the teacher that her daughter could be called Mae.

She was called Mae ever since.

SOURCES

• 1
  Interview Mae Norenberg and Stan Johnson, April 26, 1977. Cass Lake MN. Karrie Blees has a typewritten transcription in September 2023. It is unknown whether or not the original recording is held with the other tapes at the Minnesota Historical Society. http://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/oh142.xml
• 2
  Ibid., page 3
• 3
  Ibid, page 16
• 4
  Ibid, page 16
• 5
  Photo of Cass Lake School Class, circa 1920. Original owned by Mary Peterson. Digital copy made by Karrie Blees March 22, 2023.