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By JOEL STOTTRUP
Princeton Union-Eagle
Debbie Yankowiak, of Mora, found the fiddle contest results last Sunday during the Mille Lacs County Fair memorable for more than one reason.
One reason was that her nephew Robbie Nordstrom, Eden Prairie, won the young adult division. But secondly, he won playing the fiddle that his great grandfather, the late Fred Eastlund from the greater Princeton area, had once played.
Yankowiak remembers first hearing that old fiddle being played in the living room of Eastlund’s farmhouse about 14 miles northeast of Princeton in the mid 1950s. Yankowiak was six or seven then.
“It was there, in the linoleum-tiled living room, that I witnessed grandpa Fred make his fiddle sing,” says Yankowiak. “He would slowly and carefully get himself in a standing position and then play ‘Turkey in the Straw’ while tapping his foot and smiling his shy smile.”
 Yankowiak described her grandpa Fred as a “quiet man, bent down by the eroding effects of rheumatism. Movement was slow and measured.
“At this point in grandpa’s life, much of his day was spent reading in his favorite chair or sitting on the front porch enjoying the sounds of birds.
“The energy required to walk to the table for coffee with a lump or two of sugar was no longer easy. But a hidden reserve of spryness and energy surfaced when grandpa Fred would agree to play a fiddle tune for a grandchild. The bow would fly, the toes would tap and the music flowed.”
Now, 50 years later, his old fiddle is still “singing and bringing smiles to both the player and his audience,” Yankowiak continues.
Grandpa Fred died before Robbie was born and the fiddle stayed with the family.
Robbie began taking up the fiddle at 6. He did not use his great grandfather Fred’s fiddle because it was too large for him, but got by with smaller ones.
Robbie worked his way up to bigger and bigger models until finally taking up Fred’s fiddle.
By then new strings and a new bridge were installed. Yankowiak says that as Robbie practiced on it, “the sound of the fiddle grew in depth and beauty. The bow would fly, the toes would tap and the music flowed.
“The fiddle traveled to fiddle lessons, orchestra practice, county and state fairs, and weddings.”
Then this past Sunday, Yankowiak noted, her grandfather Fred’s old fiddle made it back to its starting place, the Princeton area.
That old fiddle, Yankowiak said, is “still singing and warming the hearts of others. I wonder if Robbie’s great grandpa Fred can hear the music.”
08/14/08 Mille Lacs County Times
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