Interview with Wesley Ollila and Clarence Ollila Interview by: Kathryn Johnson Aura, MI Subject: Life in Rural U.P. START OF INTERVIEW Kathryn Johnson (KJ): Okay, I am in Aura, Michigan and I am with Wesley Ollila and his son Clarence Ollila. Wesley, can you tell me your birth date and where you were born? Wesley Ollila (WO): I was born in _________, Michigan, January 15th, 1916. KJ: Thank you and Clarence, the same? Clarence Ollila (CO): I was born on January 1st of 1952 and born in Hancock, I think. Was it Hancock? WO: Yes. CO: The first new year’s baby at St. Joseph’s Hospital. WO: In Hancock, that year. KJ: Did they give you a prize? Did you get presents? WO: Lots of them, lots of them. KJ: You must be lucky. Well, Wes can I ask you how did you end up coming to Aura? What brought you here and when? WO: What year did I come to Aura? KJ: Yup and why? WO: 1920. KJ: And why? WO: Oh because work was scarce in the mines up there where my dad worked. My grandpa had bought this farm or this land up here, Camp 5 (?). So, my dad moved up here and worked in ___________ saw mill in Pequaming. KJ: And so, did you go to—was the Aura School built yet or did you go to school in Pequaming? WO: In Aura, ____ school up there.

CO: Behind Junior ___ place? WO: Yeah. CO: Makela’s or across from Makela’s Field or no, Junior’s field? WO: Yeah. KJ: What kind of farming or what kind of work did you dad do? WO: My dad worked in the saw mill. KJ: Oh yeah, that’s right you just said that, sorry. WO: Yeah, the saw mill. KJ: And how many brothers and sisters did you have? WO: I had one brother and two sisters and they’re both passed away. KJ: Can I ask you, when you were growing up, do you remember any community gatherings or visiting peoples houses where they were playing Finnish music? WO: Music? KJ: Yeah. WO: The only kind of music they used to have is mostly of violin and a few, like the _______ and the ____ they Button Bach ____, that’s about it. Oh and they had them organs, pump organs, you know? CO: And then how about that Violet ______. WO: Oh, you mean, that kind of music. Yeah, she’s been here, Violet ____. KJ: Oh yeah, I sure have heard of her. WO: Well, that first Fourth of July get together picnic that the Aura people had. They had her for music and she was only 14. CO: 14 or 15. WO: She had just started to play professional. CO: Maybe 15 or 16 at the most. WO: And it started raining and they called it a shindig. They made it of lumber and _______ with no roof. They have one of them down here and they were dancing and it started raining and the guys got an umbrella and held it over her head but she kept on playing.

KJ: Wow, would that have been where the old hall is? Or was that on somebody’s farm? WO: Down towards the—where that old house was, about in that area. CO: Yeah, where Wade Nygood lives now, maybe from the old hall, maybe quarter to half mile down the road. Right passed ________, there’s like a trailer house there now. It was a field at the time. WO: Yeah. KJ: So, do you know whose field that would’ve been or who would’ve brought her into town? CO: I don’t know who would’ve brought that Terppanen into town. WO: By god, she lived in our ________ at the time. I don’t know who brought her here but it had to be a Model T. CO: The Model T Days. KJ: That’s right. Do you remember anybody playing music in a house, like when you would go to visit? CO: She said that—did anybody play music like in a house to visit or something like that? WO: Well yeah, they used to play the pump organ and sing, sometimes church songs, you know. KJ: Would they sing in Finnish or in English? WO: Sometime in Finn, sometimes there was enough you know, that could sing in Finn, so they’d sing in Finn. CO: How about that story about that— WO: Oh, have you heard the good story about the one musician? His name was _____ and they had a Christmas program at the old school and he played a little bit and used to make faces when he really played that violin and just squeaking, you know? Well some of them people started laughing so he got mad and when he started home, he took that violin and hit it on the fence post. CO: He smashed it. WO: Went into a million pieces, he says it was the violins fault for the squeaky noise that was coming out of it. KJ: That is funny. So, do you remember when the old hall was built? When the first hall was built and who built it and why they built it? WO: This church or the hall? KJ: The hall, the old hall.

WO: Yeah, I remember when they had built that shindig and then they moved it, then they built the hall on top of it. CO: Part of the shindig was the hall then. KJ: Okay, so they took the floor. Do you remember who built the hall? WO: Who built it? It must’ve been all them, just like they did this hall, they had farmers. There were people that lived here, yeah. KJ: Okay, and do you remember any gatherings at the old hall? CO: Any gatherings at the old hall? Or anything that went on there? WO: Well yeah, there was the Athletic Club but nobody knew or the ____ took over so that’s why the other guys had come and built this. And they left that for the ____. KJ: So when the new hall was built, where did that come from or who built it? Or you know, where did the materials come from? WO: The materials, the guys all got together and these people, Heikkinens, the Ollila’s, the Locksy’s, ______, the Kerrinen’s. There was a big old barn out in the back of Baraga. They tore it down for the timbers and they ______ back in the swamp up here on this _____ Line Road and they start building that between Christmas and new year’s and on March 23rd they had the opening dance and I went and got the orchestra. I knew some young fella’s in Mohawk, Copper Country and they come and they play at the opening dance. CO: And they stayed at your barn too? WO: Yeah, they stayed a night at the farm and we brought them back the next day. KJ: Was there a cost to get into that dance or was it free for everybody to come in to go to that opening dance? WO: Yeah, no charge for that, no. KJ: And so then over the years with the new hall, do you remember who some of the popular musicians or favorite musicians were? WO: Oh yeah, there was one Mike Nezeiro. He was a—what would you call him, not a ______ but a Croatian. He was from _____ville. He played quite often there and of course, Violet Terppanen played just about every year. She would ______ played there every year. And they had the ______, real good Finnish musician. And of course, they had the—I think they call it the Carl Koski Orchestra. That was in the family, the accordion and the violin, maybe drums and stuff. KJ: Do you know the Siccula trio? The Siccula family, are they from Aura?

CO: Sicculas? WO: Yeah, oh yeah. She played for her husband, Leonard Siccula. They played at the dances, yeah. KJ: I heard that Viola Terppanen would stay at their house when she would come into town, do you know if that’s true? WO: That I wouldn’t know. CO: Probably. WO: She had to stay someplace. KJ: Yeah, so that’s—would you ever house musicians and have them stay at your house for the night when they would come? WO: Who? KJ: You. WO: Viola used to come and have a cup of coffee here and sit down awhile before the dance started. She maybe walked down this road for exercise and then she’d come in and have coffee with us. KJ: Oh, that’s nice. WO: And then she was born in Iron River. KJ: Ironwood? WO: No, she lived in Iron River. She was born in Michigamme. She had a sister too that used to come with her once in a while. Her old ___, one of her old ____ is in a museum in Gaastra, that’s by Iron River. CO: Yeah, Gaastra or Caspian or something between there, outside of Iron River. WO: Yeah, it’s on the wall there. KJ: So, in thinking about more recent musicians, like Helmer or Kenny Salo, have you seen them perform over the years? CO: Have you seen them perform over the years? WO: Oh yeah. CO: Lot’s. WO: And then they have the one orchestra that they call the “Stump Jumpers.” Remember that? CO: Yeah, that was Raymond and Erland. They call themselves the “Stump Jumpers”, oh god.

WO: And then of course, we always had to listen too, what’s his name? He carried the accordion. CO: Oh, Ronnie Borg. WO: Ronnie Borg, yeah. KJ: So, what do you think about the Jamboree and do you think it helps to share Finnish music with the younger generations? WO: Yes, yes. KJ: Have you been to all the jamborees? WO: Yeah. KJ: I know you live right next door. Do you enjoy the jamborees? WO: Of course, I do. We look forward to it every year, for that jamboree. CO: Some of the campers come in a week ahead of time. WO: And stay here. CO: They’re playing out here for the Jamboree. WO: They stay on the grass there and one _____. The _____ was full and there were two musicians dancing in the kitchen. Well, one of them performers at that time was from Maine. KJ: Oh all the way. WO: Yeah, from Maine. He came with that Bill Stevens, or he knew bill. KJ: Can I ask you, where did you learn how to dance? How to waltz and polka? Do you remember who taught you? WO: Well, when I started walking around and then maybe got some timing to it. That had to be at the old communist hall. Or no, it could’ve been here too because I was in the 11th grade when they—when that hall opened up. CO: Well, you were working there, you should remember. WO: Yeah, there was something when they built this, the ladies would have a big, you know, park full of potatoes and meat and stuff but that bread, they baked at home. And they had a little house in the back, it was made out of tin and that was their cook camp and they would eat there and have coffee anytime they feel like having a cup of coffee. There was one guy, he had the blueprints up in his head, he build that hall in Herman, it’s exactly like this one but this is a little bigger then Herman Hall. What would you call him, who had the blueprints?

KJ: Architect maybe? Carpenter? CO: He didn’t have any blueprints, they were just in his head. KJ: He’s talented, wow. CO: Did he build the Aura one first or second? WO: Herman first. CO: Herman first, it was basically the same but this one was a little bigger. WO: Then they— CO: Engineer, he engineered the project. WO: Shingles, they got a bunch of shingles to put on the walls from Pequaming but then they didn’t have enough money to buy nails for it. So, they took them out on credit from that _______ Hardware. All their bills were paid, if they had to take something out on credit, they paid for you. KJ: So, you mentioned the Aura Athletic Association. Did you participate in that? WO: Yeah. KJ: What happened? People would compete in sports? CO: She said was it sports or? KJ: Which sports? WO: Yeah, there was running, broad jump, shot put, you know pushing shots like that, throwing javelin. I never really ________________, whatever we liked. Well then, when my sons, when Jeff was born in Germany, they said that your Grandpa had been a communist in the army. Well, Harold Heikkinen corrected that for them people. He was no communist. He was just a young ___________ like __________ and didn’t know if he was just communist or whatever it was. KJ: Sure, yeah. So, after there was a sports competition, would there be a dance and music? CO: She said, after like if you had sports, would there be a dance or something? WO: Yeah, it’d be like maybe on a weekend. There’d be a dance for the ones in the Athletic Club and of course _____________ they have their own that they, they had the shot-put and see who was the best runner and who jumped the farthest and… KJ: Have you heard of the Ladies Club of Aura or the Aura Ladies Club? WO: Ladies?

CO: Ladies Club, you mean like many years ago? KJ: Yeah, at the same time as the Aura Athletic Club there was something called the Aura Ladies Club? WO: That I don’t remember. CO: That must’ve been them ladies that helped with that lunch when the hall was built. WO: Oh yeah, yeah. They used to get together. CO: They’d get together and smoke. WO: Did you ever hear that story about Bill Nygood? He was a musician too and them ladies had a meeting at the Nygood’s house. And Bill had some _______, and he mixed it with orange juice and he gave it to the ladies and they didn’t know there was alcohol in it, pretty soon they were talking pretty fast. KJ: Wow. Can I ask you a couple more questions about what was going on with the Communists? Do you remember police ever coming and writing down license plates of people? CO: She said, do you remember anything about them Communists, if anybody ever checked up on them or anything? WO: I don’t know, only thing is _________________. Like that one fella, a friend of mine at that time, they never—they didn’t know what happened to him, no. KJ: Do you remember who was recruiting for them to go? Who was telling them to go? CO: Or like who was recruiting? How do you want to put it? KJ: Who’s convincing them to go? CO: Yeah, who’s convincing people? It must’ve been some kind of a leader. WO: They had stores, they had mass _______ and in Baraga they had a store. Yeah, that big ____ Communists up here. KJ: So, was the Co-Op in Aura sending money to Russia, do you know? CO: I don’t think the Aura one was in the Communist—the Aura one wasn’t in the Communist… WO: No, no, no, no. That was a nice Co-Op store, very nice and they had good clerks there, Isabel, remember? KJ: Oh yeah. So, when the community members decided to build the new hall, what was going on at the old hall that made the people made enough to build a new one?

WO: They didn’t like the idea of communism. KJ: Were there communist politicians or was there something specific? CO: Politian’s or something communists? WO: Yeah, some of them were. Like the Antila, he was kind of a chief. CO: So, the people decided they didn’t want the… WO: They didn’t want any part of it of Russia. CO: Or Communistic attitudes. KJ: What do you remember about Antila? WO: Yes, I remember him. CO: She said, what do you remember about that Antila? WO: He’d always give a little speech and he’d rise up on his feet, like this and he was talking and he’d talk about, I can’t remember the words he used to say. About so many years back, I used to remember a little bit of the speech. It’s the same speech every time. KJ: Oh geez. WO: So, that’s how I got it. KJ: And where did he go? Where did he—did he stay in Aura for years and years or did he leave? WO: He had a farm up here, where Elden (?) lives, that was Antila’s. And then when he got drunk, he’d ______, he had an iron gate. He’d ____ gate and drink that. Money from the gate, when he got drunk. KJ: So did he stay in Aura till he passed or? WO: Yeah, he was a bachelor, a single man. KJ: Do you remember who else he would’ve been involved with politically? Who would’ve been helping him? CO: She says, do you know anybody who was associated with him? WO: With him? CO: Yeah. WO: Well there was a few of them. I don’t know exactly how, they weren’t as bad as he was though.

KJ: Well, let’s switch topics here. With the jamboree this summer, how early do the musicians come or set up? CO: Some of them come close to a week ahead of time, 3 or 4 days some of them. _____ they always come Tuesday or Wednesday before the jamboree, so 3 or 4 days a lot of them. KJ: So they just camp out in the field then? CO: Yeah, they have a special spot. WO: We keep it mowed, you know. CO: They all pretty much know there place they’ve been coming for so many years. WO: I tell them that I give them 100 year lease and it’s renewable. KJ: Well, who are some of your favorite musicians? CO: She said, who are some of you favorite musicians? WO: Well, Bill Stevens of course is one, yeah and Helmer. CO: And ____. WO: That lady accordion player, she’s good. CO: That Gary Shlice. WO: Yeah, he’s Croatian, he’s from Wisconsin. He’s a good one. CO: Yeah, they all camp close to here and they’re practicing and playing steady. WO: And Billy White at maybe 6:00 in the morning you can hear him playing. KJ: That’d be nice to wake up too. So, are you a musician as well? Do you play any instruments? WO: I used to play a banjo. KJ: And did you ever perform at the hall or play at the jamboree? WO: Yes, we used to play at the barn dances in Bovine – Bill Nygood and myself and the Sandbank Boy. KJ: Speaking of barn dances, did you ever hear of dances out at George Marinich’s barn? CO: That’s the one, that Marinich barn isn’t it? She said, did you ever hear about any dances at George Marinich’s? I said, that’s the one. WO: Yeah, that’s the one.

KJ: Oh that’s the one where you would play? Okay, would you have been a teenager then or was that as an adult? CO: How old were you when you were playing? Were you a teenager or an adult then? WO: When I played at the… CO: Barn dances. WO: Well, I was around 21 or 22 years old, yeah. KJ: When you were performing, did you get paid or did you do it as a volunteer? WO: I think we got something. At Marinich’s, I think we got lunch and a little bit of wine. Yeah they used to bring a jug of wine and they used to make sandwiches and I can’t remember if we got money. Nobody hardly had any money them days in the 30’s. KJ: Do you remember when you would go to the dance what the cost of admission would be? Were they paying like 50 cents per couple or 75 cents or cheaper for people to come? CO: What was the admission for a dance? WO: By god, I can’t remember. KJ: Well, is there anything else you’d like to add about Aura or music or the halls or the jamboree, any funny stories? WO: Maybe, when they had a kind of get together down at Koski’s shore, they had boat rides with the ______ boat. About 20 people in that boat and of course, they had music. John _____ playing on violin while the boat was puttering along, down by ______. KJ: Oh yeah, that sounds nice. WO: He had a picture of that boat and you know, there were people in there and it burnt. CO: Yeah, this house burnt a few years back, you know. WO: We lost everything. CO: Probably about 4 or 5, something like that. KJ: Wow. CO: Yeah, almost went up with smoke or pretty close. KJ: Good thing you’re okay.

WO: I jumped out of the window in that room and Clarence was sleeping there on the couch. I got around and hollered and hollered. I don’t know how you go through that. The ____, that was all on fire, this room. CO: It started in like that corner there, see there was a stove pipe going up into the thing and I don’t know if that device might’ve slipped or spring broke or something. WO: And the whole end sparked and they fell on the floor. CO: Cause when your sleeping you don’t know nothing, so he hollers and I got up and I used to leave the kitchen light on so he could see to go to the bathroom and it was like looking at a Christmas tree light or something, black with smoke. I burnt my feet just running across here. It was a close one. WO: I had trouble sleeping them days and that light—I didn’t take a sleeping pill because we were going to visit my sister… CO: The next day. WO: Yeah, in Muskegon. Otherwise, I would’ve maybe not have woken up. CO: Well, neither one of us would’ve woken up, I don’t think. KJ: Scary. CO: Well then, speaking of different things, a job with this ____ senior, he has been on stage you know, in the hall. Sure. KJ: No way! WO: Walking along the ____. CO: Yeah, he’s been right on the stage even because he’s quite old, you know. KJ: He likes the music. CO: Oh yeah, checks around the trailers. They all know him, his name is Benny. They all know Benny, all these people. WO: You know, when your relationships—people that got quite a bit of money too. CO: Oh, Bruely. WO: Yeah, Bruely, you must’ve heard of him. KJ: I’ve heard of him, I’ve never met him but I’ve heard of him. WO: Yeah, he comes in here quite often. Well, his wife was born about a quarter of a mile from where I was born up in Mohawk or ____, yeah.

CO: He has—well he used to own this MG Electric company, he sold a lot I guess and he still owns a Boss snowplow from the factory. A really nice guy, they park over here and they come visit every time they come up because they got a-- they built a place for their daughter on the point. Some kind of half of a million dollar place and he’s got a two million dollar motor home that he travels around with and a brand new, usually jeep Cherokee or something that he tows. And they park the motor home and they travel from there. Nice, nice people. He’s originally from Hancock I think, yeah, nice guy. KJ: I’d like to meet him. CO: They’re always up at the—every year they come to the jamboree. In fact, there’s an electric post, this one guy donated the property for the parking for the hall, so he put electricity there. So I think, a half dozen motor homes can plug in there and everything. WO: And he pays for all that. CO: Yeah, paid for the whole thing and the juice and everything, so. WO: And you live in, Gwinn? KJ: Yes, I live in Gwinn and work in Marquette. WO: Do you work at the college? KJ: Yes, that’s one of three jobs. CO: Three? KJ: Yeah, I like it. It’s nice to be back in the U.P. Well, can I ask you a couple more questions about maybe my Grandpa Carl? CO: She said, can she ask you some questions about Carl? WO: Oh yeah. KJ: I never met him, what was he like? WO: A wonderful guy, wonderful man, good mechanic. CO: Wasn’t he used for making them tractors, remember them jokers? WO: Yeah, he must’ve made some of them too. CO: Carl? WO: Yeah. CO: Oh, at the same time maybe.

WO: Oh, you mean the ones that I was in? CO: Yeah. WO: Oh, we called it a tractor company. There was an old tractor company, Ollila and ________. I remade about a half dozen of these, they call them Jokers. You cut the rear end off and you put a tractor rear end in there. CO: That’s probably when Carl had that gas station down there in them days? He had a gas station, where you’d do repair work on cars. WO: Yeah, he had that kind of a ramp where you could drive you car up there and look under and grease it. KJ: Do you remember any funny stories about him? WO: No. KJ: Was he a serious man? WO: ____ I think he got cancer ____. ___ or whatever they called it. KJ: Hey, do you remember Ted Waisanen? WO: Oh, yes. Ted, when we added a room onto our home… CO: The other house, the one that burnt down, yeah. WO: He was the chief carpenter for me. CO: He was the worker. WO: Very, very good worker. CO: He was the master, you know the main man, the engineer. Oh yeah, Ted’s a nice fella and very smart. WO: And good handwriting, oh yeah. CO: He used to do income taxes for people all the time too. WO: He lived on the point up there for quite a few years, all by himself and he cut pulp (?) and he—didn’t he have a jeep that he __________. CO: I don’t know, maybe a farm tractor. WO: No, he had a Jeep I think.

CO: Did he? WO: Yeah and he carried lots of it into piles. KJ: Do you remember, did any of the Waisanen’s help build the new hall? CO: Did any of the Waisanen’s help with this new hall? WO: Oh, I’d imagine, yeah. Henry and Laurie, the twins and at first, the boy born in Aura was Bill _________ and the first girl born was Linda Waisanen but you might have that down already. KJ: I’ve heard that already. CO: Yeah, well Waisanen’s, they’re your cousins right? KJ: Yeah. CO: I haven’t seen Leo or Sunny for years, I don’t know where they’re located. KJ: Yup, I don’t know either off the top of my head. CO: I think Leo was in Colorado at one time. WO: Wasn’t there one that wanted a sleigh from me? He was around Chicago or something. CO: I can’t remember, then there’s the other family that’s Roger and then there was a Linda, I think. On Henry’s side then, there was Leo and Sunny and then there was a girl too. I think I went to school with her. KJ: There was. I can’t remember her name because I think I met them when I was a little girl. I know the ____ better. CO: Well the mother’s name was Mimi, yeah, Emil’s sister. Maybe her name was Linda? Oh, whatever. KJ: I should know but I don’t. I guess that’s a whole other project is to write all that down. CO: Sure, yeah. WO: You say you _____, I thought they lived in Calumet? KJ: He does live in Calumet and he was driving out to L’Anse. So, we met in L’Anse. He’s a pleasure to talk too. CO: You should tell her that story about that story when you were in Calumet going to school, who you met up there when you were in the boxing business up there. KJ: Who?

WO: Jack Dempsey. KJ: No way. WO: Yeah, he came and refereed. I belonged to an athletic club in Calumet. CO: Because they moved at one time, they were here then they moved back and came back because they had the ____. WO: They had a—they called it, what was it? Golden Glove. Yup, that’s the kind of association. Well, there were people that boxed and I belonged to that and we used to go and box with these people and then of course, they had matches. Well, they had Jack Dempsey come out there to referee. ________, he must’ve been hit there many times. KJ: What a treat! Alright. WO: Old man Waisanen, he was quite a carpenter. He built chicken coops, you know little ones and they are round, perfectly round, roof on them and in them days all he had was a hand saw. KJ: Are there anymore of those chicken coops still standing? WO: I don’t know, I was just wondering. CO: I don’t know. KJ: That’d be neat to take a picture. WO: Yeah, that’d be nice. CO: The only place I can think of maybe, where Mark lives but knowing him he probably tore it down even if there was one. WO: At the old farm up there, going past Helmer’s farm down there. CO: Oh, down there. WO: Where _____ lives. CO: I don’t even know if the barn is standing down there. KJ: I’m not sure. It’s not in good shape. WO: It’s got some manure in it. _______, pretty hard to tell the difference between _______ and the billy goat. CO: And the one Ed had with whiskers on it.

KJ: That’s funny. CO: Well, have you been to these jamborees? KJ: A couple of them. I remember going when I was real little and then you know, I’ve been to maybe one in the last couple of years. CO: Yeah, they’ve gotten pretty nice, lots of people. KJ: I’m looking forward this summer’s very much so. CO: Probably close to 2,000 people I think last year. KJ: Wow, that’s a lot. Well, Glenda said she was going to leave the hall unlocked for me so I could go in and take some pictures in there. WO: In where? CO: The hall because I think they’ve been doing some cleaning, some spring cleaning. KJ: And they’ve got a high school student art show there tomorrow. So, they were going to be setting up. Alright, well I think I’ll stop recording now and thank you so very much. CO: Sure. WO: Yeah. You can still talk about the old Aura though. Like when I moved here, there wasn’t a road, not one regular road, there were just old railroad grades. KJ: Wow, so who built the roads? CO: She says who built the roads? WO: Hebbard, had the railroads but then the county come and they start building. CO: Yeah, you had to travel with horse roads. WO: Yeah my uncle had the first car. He had that little Buick that my dad built in the woods. CO: Oh, the 1914 Buick. KJ: Wow. WO: My uncle’s, they took it apart, they took that body off and they were going to fix something in there. It was in a little shed. My uncles, they moved away and got married and that got left there. Well, my dad looked at it for a few years and ______ so he took the horse and he hauled it up along the railroad dump and put it in the woods there. It got buried and maybe people found some kind of a something that they wanted from there.

CO: But your Grandpa’s Model A, that was a rare one. ______ but who knew it was become popular or whatever. KJ: Right, yeah, I know. WO: Yeah, you mean that one that they—the Model A, it _______. KJ: Yeah, it’s in the museum in Detroit. CO: He didn’t sell it, they’re just leasing it. WO: We haven’t seen him for a while, have we? KJ: He went south for the winter and he came back for a couple of weeks and now he’s gone again. He’ll be again. WO: Where is he? KJ: He’s visiting his grandkids in North Carolina. CO: _____ in a little bit. KJ: Fishing and visiting friends, yeah. That’s okay, he’s retired. He can do that. CO: Yeah, sure. WO: He lives in Chassel, hey? KJ: Yeah, half the year anyway. WO: How about _______, were does he live? KJ: He has his house on the Waisanen road? WO: I thought he was renting it out? KJ: He’s renting it yeah, to Rhonda, so his daughter, my mom has a house in L’Anse behind the Family Dollar. So, he lives there sometimes and sometimes he’s out at Ivy’s farm in Pelkie and then he was in Lake Worth, Florida for the winter. CO: Lake Worth? We’ve been there too. That’s the Finlander capital of Florida. We were just a little north, we were in—well, no that’s where we were. That’s where we stayed. We were down there for about a month, many years ago. WO: Five weeks we were gone and that doctor that operated on me, she was born there. CO: Dr. Benny, she was a surgeon in L’Anse but now she’s working up in Calumet I think.

KJ: It’s a small world. CO: They thought we were from Canada, all them people. “What part of Canada are yous from?” No, we’re not from Canada. WO: Violet Terppanen played there too, they called it ________________. She used to play there and then after she passed away, what’s his name, Rosendaul or something, he played there. They’d start the dance about 7:00 then at about 9:00 they’d have biscuits and coffee and then go home to sleep. CO: Or go to the Croatian ones. WO: What was his name? He was a Croatian. CO: Franciscovich. WO: Who was the other one, what’s his name? Well, we went to the Polish hall, they were just tuning up there instruments, getting ready for the dance. CO: After the Finnish one was over. That one was just starting. WO: We danced there till 3:00 in the morning at the Polish Hall. I can’t remember where the hall was, that wasn’t in Lake Worth. We had to drive someplace. CO: _______ or something, not too far, a little bit south and we went to that Cape Canaveral or Kennedy Space Center that was nice, took a whole day. We got to see some moon rock and everything. The things where these astronauts, a lot of them had blew up in earlier things, these bunkers and that started that shuttle, that was ’75 when we went there, ’76, a shuttle wasn’t operating. I think they were starting to build it because the showed these tanks for the side of it and they had this humongous mover, it had tracks like seven feet. And it was going to take this device when they get it built because I can’t remember when they flew that shuttle the first time but it seems to me that they were working on it at the time. Huge, must’ve been the booster rockets or whatever they were building in there. WO: For a couple of days we went and visited ____________ up there at that Castle Rock. CO: Eagle Rock. KJ: Yeah, how are they doing up there? Are they okay? CO: Yeah, it was just before the snow storm there. WO: Yeah, they got a _______ camp and tent, a big tent. CO: Yeah, one guy that used to worst for the _____ Sentinel, I can’t remember her name, he was there. He lives in Atlantic Mine and he was up there to stay a night and there was no local one when we were there at the time but we were going to come a few days later but there was half a dozen or more. There was a lady from Duluth, she was involved with the mine around _____, give him a kiss and everything. The lady gave him a cookie and come and talked, you know.

WO: She gave me some cookies. CO: Yeah and you were watching the bull dozers. They were clearing for the drainage thing for the supposed mine there and he said right where we were parked, that’s where the hole or whatever is in the ground… KJ: Have you guys been going to Eagle Rock for years? CO: Well, we went there the other summer with that Alex but we always seen it there of course. And then I don’t know if your familiar with this little man, his name is Chauncey (?), I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of him. He’s from Big Bay. He’s like a fire marshal or something. He’s maybe about 100 pounds soaking wet because I asked, “Is the fire marshal big?” You think he’s a little strange and weird but he’s not. He’s so smart. He checks water and streams and all that but we met him at the jamboree a few years ago but maybe about a month ago we were going through the planes to Marquette with the truck and we met him on the road and we BS’d for about an hour. ________. “How you doing?” I hadn’t seen him for—well we seen him one time since the jamboree and we were picking blueberries. He said he was going to go check the Kennecott’s thing out. He said, “I hear they got some kind of a guard shack or whatever.” So, he puts these little vests on and a hardhat on. He’s got white whiskers, his hair is like this, he’s got rubber boots on and he’s got them on at the jamboree when he was here. He’s got a—if you see him, you’ll never forget him. He’s got this black shirt, I almost thought it was like a skin diving suit material and he’s got a compass on his wrist right here, he had the same garb on that day, oh my god. But that day we seen him, he had a wife and about a 10 or 11 year old kid with him. He is smart, holy cow. Interesting to talk too, yeah and he’s got a water cannon in the back of his truck there. First impression is he a little like simple but after you start talking to him, no way. He’s just really smart and a nice guy. So, he had stopped at Eagle Rock and the people said, “Was that the fire marshal?” I said, “Yeah,” They were chuckling a little bit. I was talking with that guy, he’s a really a smart fella. I said you betcha, just a little ________ though, maybe 100 pounds but them boots are just regular barn boots, rubber ones, you know? Holy cow, he wears them all the time. WO: That’s kind of how they are up there, pine trees and sand up there all around, then the great big rock. CO: That rock, have you ever been up there? KJ: I’ve never seen it, no. I’d love to go. I’ve always wanted to go. WO: You’ve seen it? KJ: No. WO: You can get up there by walking. CO: Yeah, you can walk from the back. There’s a trail up there. KJ: Do you drive out on the Triple A from here or do you go around and around?

CO: Well, we go from this way here Big Erik’s Bridge and we go right through to Big Bay. The simplest way is to cut through Big Bay because that other cut across road to Negaunee is—we took that last year we went out there, it was kind of rough. KJ: Is that the Triple A road? CO: It’s on what they call the Tripe A, this Eagle Rock actually. Triple A is the main Big Bay road, they call it Triple A. KJ: Is that the old Big Erik’s road? CO: Well, the Big Erik’s road goes to the Triple A road, then you hang a left. They’re basically connected. Yeah, you can go from either end. We go from Big Erik’s Bridge and go up and sometimes we go right through to Big Bay and come back to Marquette. WO: That fella who died who talked to us? CO: Fred Reidholm. WO: Do you know Fred? KJ: Oh, I never met Fred but I read some of his work and I’ve certainly hear about him, yeah. WO: Yeah, he got them books. KJ: How did you know Fred? CO: She said, how did you know Fred? You met him one time. WO: Yeah, I met him one time. He had a, what would you call it, get together with people in Skanee and he was talking to all the people and I suppose something to sell his books. CO: And give a… WO: A speech but I tell him that I’ve traveled quite a bit in the mountains, I even found oxen shoes, you know, from an oxen? I had a bunch of them in the garage. He said, “Someday I got to get a hold of you and talk to you some more,” Because I traveled quite a bit in those mountains up there. KJ: The Huron Mountains? CO: Yeah. WO: Huron Mountains and _________. CO: And I’ve been in the mountains too lots because this lumberjack had this place up from the Black Crick in Skanee, up a ways. They call it the “Silver Pits”, that’s where they were digging for silver years ago, that’s been in the 1850’s.

WO: That silver pit. CO: Well, I found a pick ax because I was working and walking around. I didn’t want to dump no trees out so I kind of kept the trees away if I could because I thought it was just a neat place. There were all these holes where they’ve dug and there’s trenches going from one to another. There were, how would you say, exploring for silver I believe. Yeah, that’s a genuine pick ax there. I could see parts of barrels and stuff. That one guy said, well how was the handle? I said not too bad of shape. It’ all been forged, there’s some kind of letters on it. That’s in the other wood shed. I got to get that before CJ finds it, my kid. WO: That Anderson homestead? CO: Right. WO: That’s old. CO: That’s up by what you called the Triple A road, what would you call it, what you just said. No, what did you call that? Big Erik’s Road they call it, where that meets the planes up there, there used to be Anderson Homestead. KJ: What was that or who was that? CO: The Anderson people, it’s in the… WO: One of them is buried in Gwinn. CO: Is it Gwinn? WO: Right outside of Marquette. CO: That’s not Gwinn, that’s before, passed the prison a little bit. What do they refer to that as? KJ: Harvey or Chocolay Township. CO: I think it might be in Harvey. Yeah, these people they lived up there for many years. Fred has all the stories about them people. WO: Did you read them books about them? KJ: Parts of those books but they’re, you know, 500 pages long, I need more time. WO: Well, book number two is the best one. CO: There’s one that’s more about the planes and all that and cutting of the jack pine and all that stuff is more interesting. Where was that, I’ll give you a trivia question. Where was the first practical ________ manufactured? KJ: I have no idea, where?

CO: Marquette. KJ: Wow. CO: Yeah, that was in Fred’s book, Marquette. WO: In a machine shop. CO: Yeah most people would think like Waukegan or Fon du Lac or something, no it was Marquette. That would be a good one to stump Karl—the weather man. KJ: Oh, Karl Bohnak. CO: Yeah because you always give him questions. He probably knows that though, I bet you. KJ: Well, you guys have some good stories. CO: Yeah, well Emil was in the hospital for a while, he has a bronchial infection or maybe he was just getting out of pneumonia. A few years ago, Karl Bohnak’s and ________ in the back of the hospital where the old folks stay, having some kind of films and he said you don’t want to go because your just getting out so I went back there. WO: Yeah, I tried to talk to Emil then. CO: Yeah Emil __________ was there and ________ Marinich was still alive and he was talking about the storm of I think ’37 would it have been? That bad snowstorm? Yeah, Emil said when they lived in that big house on the Huron Bay, he said that one side was drifted from half the house was covered with snow. It drifted so bad. Then that one winter it was so bad, they had to leave the deer—the deer would stay in the house it was so cold. KJ: Get out. CO: Yeah, sure. I don’t know if you ever, I don’t know if I can find it now. WO: Them deer didn’t like _______. CO: This is—I’ll show you the picture if I can find it quickly, this is probably a later—but they had deer all the time for pets. KJ: You know, I did see that picture. CO: Yeah, there’s Andrew Maki. That must’ve been the violin player. WO: He looks like a professional musician. CO: Well, he just has his arms crossed.

WO: He always wore army clothing. CO: Yes, yes. That’s what it looks like he’s got. WO: _______ that’s what we called him. CO: Yeah, Emil wanted to read this sometime because he had never seen it but if you’re familiar with this, yeah it’s in here anyways. I haven’t even read all this either. Oh, we had one before and it burnt before and bought one at the Jamboree there. KJ: Yeah, it’s Elsie’s book. CO: There’s Emil in one of those pictures and Oscar. That’s when they were younger. KJ: With the little pet deer, cute. CO: They used to pull sleds like dad said. They didn’t like Carlo Heikkenin for some reason. KJ: The deer? WO: ________. CO: _________, yeah. KJ: The deer’s name was Pawm. CO: The deer used to paw him. He used to paw him, sure. KJ: Oh, that’s funny. WO: That _________, he had a deer that used to go upstairs. CO: In the house. KJ: Would they keep them in the house when they were baby deer or when they were adult deer too? CO: This one was a small one and an adult, he used to go upstairs even. He had a brand new house on the _______ River and for years this deer would have young ones and come back and everything. I’ve seen a lot of pictures because my brother in law used to work for him and he had the motel across from the casino, he was part owner and I seen pictures of the deer. This is just about 3 or 4 miles from here. You’d feed it and it’d actually come inside and go up steps to go upstairs. KJ: Unbelievable. CO: Full sized doe. KJ: I want a pet deer.

CO: Right, yeah. WO: Somebody must’ve shot it or something because it isn’t around anymore. CO: I don’t know because he died of course. I don’t know what happened, if it got bumped but it was many, many years that it was around. One time we were working in the woods and I dropped trees, cut trees, power sawed, at lunch when my partner heard this different sound, he said did you hear that. I said yeah, that’s a little strange. I heard that one time out in the woods there, you know? And we heard it and I said, “I got to go see what it is,” Pretty soon, you know what it was? I dropped this great big tree and there was a little tiny fawn trapped under the top. So, me and my partner actually quit work for the day and I took my saw and I cut them limbs off there because I figured if it was hurt I was going to have to kill it and I took my shirt off and put it in there and I said, I don’t think its hurt that bad. I said it might be hurt but its legs are moving. I felt them, it seems to not be really banged up or nothing. So he said, the mother’s probably who knows, not going to want it or whatever. So we took it to the DNR because we’re good friend with the DNR up here, Stevie. Brought it to him and his wife nursed it, they took it to the vet, had it check, the vet says fine so she fed it with a bottle and then the thing you have to do to make it go bathroom and then it got bigger and bigger and brought it to my partners farm because he had a farm in ________. He had cattle. It was there for many years, that same deer. Then it finally left when it got old enough, a little bit bigger. KJ: Well, good for you. You saved the baby deer. CO: Saved the baby deer, yeah. But it was so strange, I heard the sound and I thought, what the heck is that? And we were having lunch and you could just here it and it was trapped. The limbs weren’t heavy enough where it didn’t bust anything. KJ: We like to feed the deer in the winter at our house. We live back against the woods so we put the deer corn out in the driveway and they come by and we’ve had 9 at one time. It’s kind of funny; we stand in the window and watch them. We call them Deer Conventions or Deer Parties and they do that, they paw at each other and you know. I get a kick out of it, I like deer. CO: we got a garden back here and they usual get quite a bit. They get most of the pears. We have a big pear orchard. They like them too. As far as hunting, I haven’t hunted many years for deer. They do pretty much what they want. WO: Aura had two real husky guys, Alfred Nygood and Charlie Maki, they had it when they were working in the _______ there. On a cold morning, they had 14 tractors, they pulled the lumber around and either one of them had that crank going. We call them the _______________. They’re husky guys. KJ: Alright, well thank you so very much, thank you so very much. CO: Sure. WO: Yeah. END OF INTERVIEW