Music was important to Swanson life

Doris
Bergstrom
Posted 2/6/03

John Swanson's greatest love was music. It was as natural to him as eating. He began with an unpretentious harmonica that came with him from Sweden. His better instrument was purchased when he worked in Minneapolis. In his younger days, he carried the harmonica in his pocket ready to make music whenever he sat down.

Grandpa played the piccolo, the flute, the cornet, the bass horn, the tuba and the accordion. Since he had no formal musical training and played mostly "by ear," he may not have had a large range of keys. Yet, he was readily accepted and judged as a good musician by members of the bands in which he played.

Wherever Grandpa lived, he joined a band. Alys Johnson writes, "Kasota had a band made up of local men. Pa, a gifted self-taught musician, joined the band. He played the cornet and the bass horn. 'The Kasota Boys' had their picture on the inside covers of cigar boxes. Grandma (Peterson) had one of the boxes, but I don't know what became of it." When my grandfather went to Winnipeg to work in the stone quarries, he joined a band in St. Boniface.

There were interested musicians but no band in the Bock area when the Swansons returned to Milaca. According to Aunt Gertrude, when the group of men first met, they practiced in her father's shop on the farm. The Bock Military Band developed from these meetings. It was a small band that played for local events. They sometimes rode on a flattop in parades, playing Swedish waltzes and songs on their accordions and smiling merrily at the onlookers.

Alys writes about the photograph of the Bock Band, "This special event was likely a political picnic, maybe on the Fourth of July, about 1919. Our family would pack a lunch and come to events such as these. One time when we were there, Mr. Cravens, who owned the Mille Lacs County Times, gave a speech to the crowd in the afternoon. The next day, Bobbie climbed up in the back of the buggy and, waving his arms, pretended to give Cravensí speech. He did repeat some of the jokes that were told."

Other kinds of music

Music in my grandfather's heart was instrumental. Alys writes of other events that were music to the lives of the Swansons in their own way.

"When Pa bought the new Montgomery stove in 1922, a blessing to all of us was the water reservoir on the right side of the stove. We kept it filled and were rewarded with a good supply of warm water. Of course, the big teakettle sat on the stove and sang its soft melody to us as the water warmed." Grandma's singing teakettle was a source of pleasure that my sister, Viva, and I carried into adulthood by purchasing singing teakettles of our own.

Preparing for winter

A feeling of tremendous accomplishment followed completion of food preparation in fall. Summer was spent canning fruits and vegetables, making apple butter and jellies. Later the remaining vegetables were harvested and stored in the root cellar dug into the hill beyond the barn.

"With cold weather settling in, we prepared for butchering," Alys tells us. "The spring pigs were ready and also one of the cattle for beef. After living on smoked bacon and ham all summer and fall, we really looked forward to some fresh meat. Usually the first meal would be fresh side pork. We ate and ate. The liver meal usually came next....

"The meat was cut up and packed in clean snow or laid out to freeze and then put into a big crock and put in the pump house where it was cold.... The pig heads were made into sylta (head cheese). After cleaning, the heads were boiled in the wash boiler. The meat was picked off and ground, then salt, spices and some broth were added. It was set aside to gel and then was ready to eat....

"The next job for Ma was making sausage. She made liver, barley and potato sausage. The potato sausage was always a special treat and a way to use the odd ends of pork. Ma made potato sausage of pork, onion, salt, spices and potatoes, all ground and mixed together, then loosely put into casings (pig intestines). Stuffing the casing was a big job. Grandpa Peterson cleaned and polished steer horns and cut them the needed length for a funnel.... The sausage was put in brine in a stone jar and set in a cold place. Another good meat dish Ma made was pickled pigs feet."

Celebrating Christmas

Christmas Eve supper was a feast according to Alys, "We ate potato sausage, roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy, vegetables, rice pudding, home baked bread and steamed pudding with lemon sauce."

Afterward, there was the anticipated visit by Santa Claus. "The gifts had been hidden somewhere. Gertrude and I hunted all over, even in the hay barn, but we never found them.

"Pa always disappeared after supper to do some work in the barn. Finally, a bell rang outside the door and there was Santa Claus. We little kids were so excited. Santa asked Bobbie to sing a song. He took Gertrude under the table with him and sang for Santa Claus." I chuckle when I write this because ten years later, my sister and I were the ones who crept under that same table for fear of Santa Clausówho was none other than Uncle Bobbie.

Lighting the darkness

When darkness fell, kerosene lanterns were carried for outdoor light. They were hung on hooks in the barn to spread a measure of light along the rows of stanchions during choresómilking, feeding the animals and cleaning the stalls. Lenard West says gas lanterns which gave brighter light were sometimes used, but were less convenient. The mantle would crack and one needed a pump along to add air pressure to maintain a good flame.

Kerosene oil lamps were used in houses before electricity was available. "The light from the kerosene lamps was very weak," Alys says. "A kerosene lamp in the middle of the kitchen table and the bracket lamp on the wall were our kitchen lights. I can remember Ma frying meat for supper and taking down the bracket lamp from the wall and holding it near the frying pan so she could check the meat." When she was tempted to increase the amount of light by turning up the wick, the lamp would smoke and darken the chimney, reducing the light.

Lenard says gas lamps became available for in-house lighting, but were not often purchased. Then, of course, there were candles, but I recall none used for lighting at my grandparentsí home and Lenard states his family did not use them either. Candles decorated their Christmas trees though. I watched my aunts press the candles, thicker and taller than those used on birthday cakes, into small candle-holders and carefully clip them onto the branches. The lighted tree was exquisite, a memory I would like to turn into reality.

Like most other families, my grandparents purchased the popular and wondrous Aladdin kerosene oil lamp with its circular wick and fragile mantle that gave much brighter light for the family to read and study by, and for Grandma to do her mending. It, too, smoked if turned too high.

To Alys, happiness was preparing for sleep on a winter night. The heating stove in the dining room was banked to keep warmth in the house until morning. Grandpa cut wood chips "from a board for kindling, ready to start the kitchen fire in the morning." Warmed flat irons were wrapped in paper to help warm the beds. "All was peace and quiet and we snuggled up and slept."