Fargo teacher brings childhood memory to life

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.

The Details

MOORHEAD — After five minutes of talking with Emma Houska, it’s pretty clear she considers herself a numbers person.

She teaches algebra and geometry at Fargo North High School. She likes having a problem, showing her work and finding an answer.

“I’m not an artistic person,” she said.

But Miss Houska, I think your calculations are way off.

Exhibit A: a working carousel featuring 25 stained glass horses, all made by Houska herself. With every turn, artistry and engineering come together in motion.

Chris Flynn / The Forum

For the 25-year-old Dilworth native, the inspiration came from somewhere a little harder to measure: memories of making a carousel with her grandfather.

Houska was about 7 or 8 when Allan Neisen announced his project.

A contractor who also operated a greenhouse with her grandmother in Mahnomen, Minnesota, Neisen could build houses. His granddaughter hadn’t realized he could also paint, carve and create the sort of thing a little girl might dream about.

Her grandmother gave her a coloring book, crayons and a role in the project.

“You draw the horses, and he’ll bring them to life,” Houska recalled her saying.

So Emma drew horses and her grandfather carved them.

He ground the gears by hand and painted parts with whatever he had available, including her grandmother’s nail polish.

He worked without plans. Houska believes he figured out the mechanics after getting a look inside a carousel at Rollag.

When a project stumped him, he sometimes found the solution in his sleep.

“He wakes up the next morning. He’s like, ‘I had a dream. I know how to fix it,’” she said.

Chris Flynn / The Forum

Years later, inspiration found her while she was wide awake, browsing a thrift store.

By then, a former neighbor had given Houska stained glass supplies and tools. She taught herself to make little birds and picture frames, giving her creations away.

Then she spotted “A Carousel Ride,” a book by Jackie Nichols with a stained-glass carousel on the cover.

Tracy Briggs / The Forum

Memories of her grandfather’s project came flooding back.

“I’d always wanted to make something like my grandpa did,” she said.

She bought the book, then waited about a year to attempt anything from it.

Initially, she planned to make just one horse for her grandfather, one with his initials on it.

It turned out better than she expected.

Maybe she could make the whole carousel.

The book provided designs for the horses and base. It didn’t explain how to make them move or add music.

Her grandfather assured her that movement was optional.

Houska disagreed. “If your carousel moves, mine needs to move. And if your carousel plays music, mine needs to play music,” she had said.

The project soon gave them more than a mechanical challenge to discuss.

Neisen now lives in a nursing home and struggles with his memory. As Houska worked, their visits included updates on the carousel. She would show him pictures.

Sometimes, when she arrives, she isn’t sure he recognizes her. Bringing up the carousel helps them connect.

“You can see it in his eyes,” she said. “It’s really nice to have something to talk about, even if it’s like the same conversation multiple times.”

Building it strengthened another family connection, too.

Contributed / Emma Houska

For help with the mechanics, Houska turned to her father, Dan Houska, also a contractor.

Growing up, she had helped him build houses during summer breaks. The carousel gave her a new appreciation for his abilities.

She would spend weeks puzzling over a problem, then show him her ideas. He would suggest something she hadn’t considered.

Her father cut the plywood circle for the base and helped devise a system of ramps beneath it. Wheels at the bottoms of the horses travel up and down the ramps, while rubber bands help keep them straight, almost like roller skates going over ramps.

She also had to adjust the book’s dimensions to accommodate the movement, giving her a real-world example to share with her math students.

They had their own question: “Miss Houska, have you finished that carousel yet?”

Between teaching and schoolwork, she worked mostly on weekends, holidays and summer break. The project took about a year.

Chris Flynn / The Forum

Even family lake weekends became opportunities to make horses. She brought along her stained-glass supplies and got to work.

Her mother reminded her that the lake was for swimming and having fun.

“This is fun,” Houska replied. “I’m having a good time.”

Eventually, all 25 horses were in place. The carousel turned, lit up and played music, with a mix of her favorites and her grandfather’s.

She showed Neisen videos, enlarged on his television so he could see them better.

He had a question: “Well, where’s the benches?”

Houska could hardly believe it.

“I make this giant carousel out of glass, and you ask me where the benches are," she said with a big laugh.

There wasn’t room. She wanted all 25 horses.

Chris Flynn / The Forum

But she knew he was proud.

After she posted photographs in a stained glass Facebook group, offers to buy it followed.

She couldn’t part with it. There was the first horse she made, the other bearing her grandfather’s initials and the horses she made at the lake.

“When I look at it, I see my dad and I see my grandpa,” she said.

Now, her grandfather’s wooden carousel has a place in her Moorhead apartment, too. Neisen entrusted it to her to keep clean and working.

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Her own creation preserves those childhood memories while holding new ones made with her father. It also taught the math teacher something about herself.

“I used to think the perfection of math was what I enjoyed, like having an answer, having a solution to all my questions,” she said. “But it’s actually the imperfection of the stained glass that I like. You don’t have to be perfect.”

So will she try another project?

“I have joked with my parents about a Ferris wheel,” she said.

Her mother’s response?

• “Oh no, it’s starting again.”
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Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.

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Tracy Briggs has more than 35 years of experience, in broadcast, print, and digital journalism. She is an Emmy-nominated documentary producer/host and has won numerous awards from the Minnesota Newspaper Association and the North Dakota Newspaper Association. You can reach Tracy at [email protected].

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