ppp"The late Amelia Nottleson gives a fleeting glimpse of life in the village of Scandinavia when she was a girl in the 1870s. A Lars Nilson--also known as Nils Larson--operated the store. Yes, I remember Nilson's store. Everything came open. Barrels of crackers stood open. Brown sugar stood open. Everything! No system or anything. And I remember when the street was all open. At Nilson's store there were many steps to come up and everyone had sheep here in town--why, the sheep would go up on the steps and sleep on the porch there during the night. And you had to be very careful how you walked in the morning. All the women around here sat out in the street and milked their cows. They tied the cow to the fence and sat and milked right out there in the street. Where were the cows during the day? They let them loose! Cows could go all over creation. You had to go and hunt them up, and sometimes they'd come home by themselves, one following the other." (From The Indian Land by Malcolm Rosholt). According to cemetary records, Lar's last name was spelled Nelson.