Axel Christian Boilesen

Memories of Growing Up - Entertainment

 

Memories of Growing Up - What did we do for Entertainment?

By Axel Boilesen, 2012

When I was in war (WWII) I was some place in Germany going through the line in a mess tent when I heard "Hi Neighbor. What would you like?" When I looked up it was Leonard Vlach, a neighbor of mine who lived about a mile west of our Cotesfield farm. His greeting sounded so casual, just like we had seen each other every morning and nothing had changed. Leonard was my brother Floyd's age, about 7 years older than me.

His family were hard working neighbors and I can remember that when they ate at our house I could hardly get Leonard to pass the potatoes around our big table. The bowl would come to him and he wouldn't pass it on saying "I don't want any." He was the least likely person you'd ever expect to see in a kitchen.

But there Leonard was, serving hundreds of soldiers, acting like the Maitre d' of a fine restaurant.

Thinking of Leonard reminded me of the polka dances that were held in their barn years earlier when I was growing up. Leonard's family had a big new barn and I can remember how the hay loft opened up and it seemed like the barn was almost built for dancing. There was polka music and waltzes, and the Hotsy Totsy Boys and many other groups that came to perform in that barn.

I don't think there was any admission charge but some free-will collection covered expenses. Probably half of the music was Czech and the other half Danish. At any gathering it wasn't unusual for some of the Danes to pull out their accordian and start playing or fiddling. It seemed like it was in their genes. So music was appreciated by all and an important part of our social life.

We went to dances as a family driving in the farm wagon pulled by our horses. I can remember thinking my mom had a glow on her cheeks when she was ready to go out. She would fix her hair in curls and she just had a different way about how she acted for certain events. It's something I've always remembered.

Polka night was on Saturday nights. I first went as a really little boy. At that age I was probably carried home and remember acting like I was asleep whether I was or not. We always went as a family. You didn't ask about going or not going. The dances were a pretty good workout and I remember sweating alot. I don't remember the odor even though we were in a barn and it was summertime. I just remember the sweating and everybody having a good time. I always wished that I had been a little more of a dancer.

I don't remember how often the dances were held but it took some preparation to get a barn ready for a dance. They pushed the straw and manure into the corner of the barns so you had to be careful when walking around those edges. Perhaps refreshments were served at the dances and maybe deserts like kolaches but decades later when my sister Lois was at the nursing home in St. Paul, Nebraska Leonard used to take polka tapes and kolaches to Lois. I don't know what they liked better, the kolaches or the polka music.

Besides the dances, other social times for our family were going to watch my Dad play softball, going to the Deland Hall (West's Opera House) in Cotesfield for some local production or silent movie (and perhaps afterwards some ice cream at the Drug Store) or going to the neighbors or relatives. I remember being so surprised when my Dad got on the softball team and especially when I saw him on the ball field under the lights.

 

Deland Drug Store

West's Opera House c. 1908, later owned by Harry Deland. Home for visiting theatrical stock companies, regional dance orchestras and for showing movies.

 

1911

 

Performers for school play, circa 1930.

 

Pilgrim play performers, Axel on far right. Axel's sister Fern on far left.

 

 

Cotesfield News: The Phonograph, St. Paul, Nebraska April 29, 1931

 

My mom and sisters had their own social groups which included gathering with my aunts to quilt or can meats and fruits and vegetables, activities that might seem more like work than entertainment but I think because of the social interaction were nonetheless events that they looked forward to.

I can remember the patchwork quilts that my mom made from left-over fabrics she had used for shirts and dresses that were both colorful and warm.

Much of my own entertainment was self-generated. I played a large variety of marble games - a circle or 5 hole box shaped in a 5 foot square with a long marked line for lagging to see who could get the closest. I had a bag of marbles with my favorite shooters. WIth special friends I might gamble my shooters in an attempt to get one of their prized marbles.

Another activity was based on a circle drawn on the side of the barn that we used for target practice throwing a rubber ball. Target practice could also take place with a B-B gun. We played basketball with a hoop on a pole or on the side of a building.

When school mates came out to our farm we would sometimes ride calves in the barn. As we got older the car became the important commodity for picnics, girling, etc.

When I was young we used to play alot of cards: Canasta, Pitch, Hearts, Pinochle. They were family games and I had a pretty good time. The men played cards in the dining room and the women fixed lunch for the men in the kitchen. I don't remember my mother preaching to me or anyone else that cards shouldn't be played but you knew it was there since at some point she and my sisters stopped playing cards.

I don't think my mom and sister's attitude about cards affected my life much but maybe it did. You know a young mind, you get certain messages and guilts but they may not even be that real. I never remember my Dad talking about issues like this to me, why you do or why you don't do something, and I don't honestly know what his opinion was about my Mom and his daughters no longer playing cards.

Though our social life in the 1920's and 30's might not seem that exciting, and though our family went through some very tough times during the Depression (including losing our farm), at the time it seemed pretty good and I looked forward to the dances, and the ballgames, the movies and and the peanut buster ice cream at the Deland Drug Store and the visits and meals we had with friends and relatives.

 

My sisters (left to right) Lois, Fern holding my brother Garold and Axel, circa 1936

 

 

Crazy Quilt, Probably made in Cotesfield by Mary Calvin, Howard County, Nebraska 1877-1910

73" x 68" Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer: 1974.0122.001

 

The Nebraska State Historical Society (from their 2009 exhibit "Nebraska Gone Crazy! Crazy Quilts from Nebraska Museums" writes the following about Crazy Quilts:

Early crazy quilts were show pieces and were commonly draped over furniture in the public rooms of a home. Usually foundation pieced, tied, and without batting, these quilts were commonly made with the most opulent fabrics available and were embellished with elaborate embroidery stitching and fabric painting. Popular motifs were Japanese inspired images of insects, butterflies, fish, flowers, trees and elongated birds. Also used were designs and scenes found in books that were sometimes made into stamping patterns.

Later crazy quilts were more utilitarian and actually used as bedcovers. They featured sturdy wools and cottons, had little to no decorative elements, and were filled with batting of some sort.

 

DBB Note: From a popular culture perspective I've inserted a 1925 magazine ad for the RCA Radiola 28 which retailed for $260 because it features a "barn dance" under Japanese lanterns with elegant men and women dancing and enjoying the music of the Radiola. Obviously this would not have been a scene known to my dad's parents and family in Cotesfield, Nebraska in 1925.

But when comparing the Warren-Manleys elegant barn dance with the barn dance at Leonard Vlach's one shouldn't underestimate the joy from an evening of getting together with friends, live music, dancing and whatever refreshments were being served no matter how the barn was decorated.

My dad's memory of his mother's pleasure in getting ready for such an event and going out with "a glow on her cheeks" is something he said that he always remembered.

His telling of that story likewise is something I will always remember.

RCA Radiola magazine ad, circa 1925