The Ericksons

If you read the blog "Music Man" earlier, you would already be introduced to Grandpa Erickson. He immigrated from Sweden in his mid-teens and joined an older brother in Illinois. I have a picture of he and Grandma Erickson during their courtship. At the time, she was Hazel Emery and the picture shows Grandpa in a suit and Grandma in a long, Victorian gown with a very broad brimmed hat and parasol. He and Grandma are sitting in a horse drawn buggy which Grandpa is driving. They look to be in their early twenties. There is a dignity about them that comes through from this photo.

Dignity has suffered greatly in the generations since, and seems to have been all but abandoned. I fear my generation has to shoulder a lot of the blame. Now we accept and encourage outrageous behavior. Dignity and courtesy seemed to peak back around the turn of the last century or maybe earlier and we are backsliding-- rapidly. It really was a kinder, gentler world as far as acceptable individual manners and behavior when my grandparents were raised.


Anyway, a handsome and dignified couple are sitting happily in the carriage and posing for a photograph. Grandpa's apparently formal courtship of Grandma turned out to be successful. They were married and proceeded to have nine children. Three girls and six boys. The boys were outgoing, fun loving, teasing, and ornery. Traits they carried with them through adulthood. Grandpa was thin and handsome as were all of the kids. Everyone of the boys considered themselves to be God's gift to women and everyone else. Some could pull this off and get away with it. Others grated on you.

Dad was quiet and didn't have much use for people who were chatty and self absorbed, consequently he didn't have much use for most of the Ericksons and only one of mom's brothers was actually welcome to come visit. Nothing was ever said, but dad didn't have to say much to communicate. So, I saw most of Mom's family once a year on Christmas night at Grandma and Grandpa Erickson's house. It was a noisy chaotic affair. It was a small house filled with cigarette smoke and people who were drinking too much, talking loud to be heard, teasing and laughing. I was a shy kid from a much quieter environment and was very uncomfortable. I hated being teased by people I barely knew and kept moving and dodging, looking for the least populated and threatening area. Grandpa Erickson had a thick Swedish accent and when I was little, he was hard for me to understand and grandma had given up wearing her teeth years ago, so I avoided both of them as well. If you have ever watched the garish, surrealistic opening scenes of the movie Moulan Rouge, you'll have pretty good idea of what it seemed like to me. As I got older, I knew the players better, lost my shyness, and learned to deal with being teased. It became more tolerable.

The one thing that made these Christmas evening excursions memorable for me, was Grandpa playing the concertina accordion. From the first note, I was captivated. He and his older brother Eric would play song after song--sometimes alone and sometimes together. The music filled the house and everyone crowded in to listen. It was polkas and shotishes- songs with unpronounceable Swedish names- all haunting and melodic, filled with trills and runs. It was wonderful.

The absolute worst of my teasing Erickson Uncles was Uncle Dana. He was handsome, smiled easily, laughed infectiously and teased everyone. Surprisingly, Dad liked him. Dad's older sister Edith was married to him. That made their kids double first cousins. I believe Mom and Dad, and Dana and Edie were married at the same service. I suspect, Dana and Edie were dating first and Dana introduced Dad to his younger sister Ceola. That would have scored a lot of points with dad. I can't imagine it happening the other way around.

As a result, I spent a lot of time over at Dana and Edie's house with my older cousins. They had two son's Gary and Mike. Gary was the oldest. I have known a lot of nice people, but I never met anyone nicer than Gary. He was extremely handsome and looked like the actor James Dean. He was ten years older and had no reason to acknowledge my existence and yet spent hours without coercion or protest playing catch and carting me around on his bike. He was the rare teenager that could spend time with someone younger and actually enjoy it. He had grace and charm way beyond his years. He could tell a joke and laughter was almost musical. Everyone liked Gary. Mike on the other hand was a more typical teenager. He was handsome and likable too, but anyone that had to grow up next to Gary would have had some tough competition, so Mike grew up in Gary's shadow. I got to spend most Saturday's over at Dana and Edie's. Dana liked me and I suppose mom and dad felt it was good to get me out of a houseful of girls and send me over to emulate Gary. Dana was handy and always had a project on the weekends. I helped the best I could and this continued until I got a job at fourteen. As time passed, I became more helpful of course. Eventually Gary and Mike both got married and moved out. By the time I was ten, I was Dana's entire crew and what I lacked in skill, I made up for with good attitude and pair of young legs to go after things. I knew the names of all the tools and could pound a nail and had a long attention span.

Most Saturday afternoon's Dana took me fishing or hunting depending on the season and on Saturday evenings, we watched an endless stream of westerns. They started with Cheyenne at 5:00 and ended with Gun Smoke at 9:00. I can still list the shows and their time slots fifty years later, but I will spare you the trivia lesson.
Aunt Edie would make pizza and we would sit in front of the TV until the westerns were over and the News sent every one to bed.

Being around Dana, the worst of the Erickson teasers, taught me how to deal with it and turn some of it back on the teaser without being disrespectful. I realized he expected me to learn to dish out as good as I got-- so I did. We had a good time together.
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I always loved horses and Dana would take me over to Uncle Bob's once in a while. Bob and his wife Claudia had horses. Bob was much less of a tease and I got to know him a little bit. Enough so that they took me to the Fort Madison Rodeo. Their saddle club was in the parade and I rode down and helped them unload and saddle up and was surrounded by horses and horse people. It was wonderful.

I mentioned in a previous blog that Dana spent the war on a troop transport in the Pacific. His ship was attacked by a kamikaze pilot at least once, I don't know if it happened more times than one or if there were any other action in which his ship was involved. I am sure there is a lot more that would be interesting. Like a lot of WWII vets he drank a lot. Not during the day, but at night. He would sit in his chair in the evenings and drink beer after beer. He knew it was a problem but continued any way. Some time in his early fifties he quit drinking. I imagine some doctor pointed out that his liver and kidneys were deteriorating and unless he stopped he would die. He switched to drinking Pepsi, but he died of a heart attack at fifty nine- many years earlier than he should have.

As I say, I got my first job at fourteen as a carryout at the neighborhood grocery store and made some spending money. At about the same time, Mom was working at a factory with a lady that had two horses and lived just south of town. One was green broke and the other was barn sour and neither were much fun for her to ride as a result. Mom new I loved horses and asked if it was all right for she and I to come by and see them. The lady that owned them asked me if I wanted to put some time into them and try to keep them ridden down to a more manageable state. She just couldn't give the horses enough time herself. I was ecstatic. Both horses were gorgeous and I couldn't wait to start. I began riding them during the summer and I was out at her farm everyday I didn't work. It didn't take too long before both horses got much better. The older mare was the mother of the younger mare and both were quite nervous when I began but calmed down as the miles added up.

On week ends, I would ride one of them down to my Uncle Bob's farm. It was about five miles away. Once I got there, I would go trail riding with he and Claudia. Bob Boarded horses and a few of the other owners would go also. I'd saddle up about 8:00 in the morning and get back about 6:00. During the week I would ride by myself. I rode the younger mare so much that if I thought something, she would do it. After a while you and the horse become a unit. Neither of you can think anything without the other knowing. It is a strange phenomena that you probably have to experience to really understand. Anyway, I got to know Bob and Claudia well and they were good people. Bob would tease a bit, but nothing compared to Dana. Claudia was just a nice person and fun to be around.

Bob's farm is about 90 acres and I think one of the prettiest farms in Iowa. You come downhill on a tree covered, narrow winding road. It is nestled at the base of to a hill covered in hardwoods and has a stream running through the front yard. You get across the stream on a bridge just after you turn in the driveway. There is a small farm house, a barn and a couple of out buildings. Oddly, Bob has never lived on the farm and always rented the house out. He owned another small piece of land a mile or so away before he bought the farm and never bothered to move. He still runs the farm and had 26 head of cattle last year. He's in his eighties, spry sharp and going strong. He goes down to the farm everyday to do chores, putter around and hang out near the cows.

I visited him on my last trip to Iowa. I hadn't seen him in many years. We talked for several hours catching up and going over old times. I had forgotten what the "Erickson laugh" sounded like. All of the boys and their sister Bert laughed in a similar manner and it was good to hear it. I had forgotten it. It was a sound I heard through out my childhood and so many years without it, made it stand out. It was very good to hear it again. It made me wish I had made more effort to stay in touch.