Spelunking….. One of my Scout Adventures.
Back in 1975 I was working as an Exploring Executive in the Westmoreland Fayette Council all of 24 years of age. I got hooked up with one of our Explorer posts from Murrysville. They were going to do spelunking in a cave in Derry Township on the ridge called Coon Cave and they needed another adult to go with. It was a Saturday in January, a good time of year for caving.
The weather was cloudy with temperatures in the mid 30’s. We parked at the Game lands entrance by the gate and had to hike in about a mile to the Cave. When got to the cave we left our packs with extra clothes on the side of the hill covered with a poncho.
As we entered the cave we went about 200 yards and started going thru water that was a about waist deep. We continued on through the cave and the water stopped and we kept going gradually down in the cave follow makers on the walls along with other graffiti. It was an hour or more we reached the bottom and we ate our lunch and started back up thorough the cave. When we got close to the end we had to through that water to get out.
When we got out of the Cave we were soaking wet and to our dismay, the weather had taken a turn for the worse. It was snowing, blowing hard, temperatures down in the 20’s and there was already 2-3 inches of snow on the ground. The only thing we could do since we were soaking wet was to strip down out of our wet clothes and get dry clothes out of our packs and run to the cars.
We made it back to the cars, no frostbite or hypothermia. We had a fun day, it ended well with a story to tell. We were PREPARED!
My start in Scouting- 1959
In the fall of 1959 I joined the Cub Scouts in Pack 32 which was chartered by Edison School PTA and we met at my elementary school, Edison school. We were located in the northeast corner of the city of Erie, in area bordered by the Hamermill Paper Company on the west, General Electric on the east, the shore of Lake Erie on the north, with East Lake Road and East 12th street as the major thorofares in the area. North of East Lake Road there were 8 north / south streets that each were about 3 blocks long. This was the Baby Boom era and these streets were packed with kids.
When I joined Pack 32 we also had a Pack 55 chartered by the Mount Calvary Catholic Church, which also had a large school. For the most part the boys that went to Mount Calvary joined Pack 55 and the Edison school kids joined pack 32. That was driven by the fact that Mt. Calvary School got out at 3:00p.m. And Edison School at 3:30 p.m. and that the den meetings for the Cubs were held right after school. So I remember 2 dens on every street one from Pack 55 and one from Pack 32. Each pack had about 8 dens with about 8 Cub Scouts in each Den. So we had over130 Cub Scouts between the two packs in our neighborhood.
The dens met weekly in the home of the Den Mother. My den mother was Mrs. Wilson and Gordon’s was Mrs. Coleman. At the weekly den meetings we worked on crafts, holiday decorations and gifts and prepared for our den’s part in the monthly pack meeting, which was doing a skit or a song or our crafts based on the monthly theme like circus, magic etc.
One story I remember is we were working on a decoration for Thanksgiving and Mrs. Wilson wanted us to puta grace on the decoration that we said at home. After a lot of questions, one Cub wrote” Pass the potatoes, let’s eat. Amen.”
The dens were organized by age. Each Cub had his book of the rank we were working on and the achievements were done at home with our parents and they would sign off and when you completed the work you got you badge at the next pack meeting. The pack meetings were fun for us and the whole family. The ranks were Wolf, Bear, and Lion and then you did Webelos for 2 months to prepare to join the Boy Scout troop.
After World War II the first National Service Project the Boy Scouts of America undertook was a Get out the Vote Campaign for the 1960 Election. We passed out door hangars at every home in our neighborhood. That was the Kennedy-Nixon election and I remember still the two story poster of Kennedy that was on the Mt. Calvary School building. Kennedy was a source of pride for the Catholics in our neighborhood.
After my first year my Dad became Cubmaster, a position he held while all of us boys, Gordon, Jeff, Doug and myself were in Pack 32, at least 10 years. Mom was a den leader for Doug and Jeff and she was President of the Edison School PTA, the Pack sponsor.
This was just the beginning of our family’s journey in Scouting.
Grandpa Tales Part 3
With my grandma’s confirmation bible and Sunday School book I found a little red book titled ”Sjung Svenska Folk” I think it says Swedish Folk Songs. Inside the cover it has his signature John F. Carlson Kuserud, 27/3,1912.
Inside the front of the book he wrote a love song in pencil. My daughter Erin, helped me read it and will print it here:
Let me be!
Alas you hurt me sadly
My heart is bleeding badly
Oh sadly, yes badly
And I cannot stop the flow
My lifeblood is ebbing slowly
Chorus
Let me be, let me be
Give a kiss, one kiss
You might do this
What’s a little kiss to you
See the state you got him in
Have a little pity dear
A little kiss is not amiss
It never can be amiss
Give a kiss, one kiss
You might do this
She said I will make a difference
Just see what can be done
Chorus
Let me be, let me be
She laughed at me
I was trying, Oh trying
She saw that I’ve been crying, yes crying
At last she said
Now dry your tears,
for henceforth I shall be yours
chorus
Let me be, let me be, ah let me be
Give a kiss, one kiss
You might do this
A little kiss is not amiss
It never is amiss
Translated from friend by JFC (John Ferdinand Carlson)
Also in the book I found a song that my Grandpa used to sing….. I still remember the words and tune.
Du Gumla, du Fria. I sang it to Google and it brought up the song on YOUtube. It is the national anthem of Sweden.
When I was a teenager Grandpa said he would pay me to learn Swedish….. I never took him up on it. But at church we did a Swedish Christmas pageant where we sang Swedish Christmas carols. I can still sing them today from over 50 years ago. Next time you see me I will sing one for you.
In closing, when I was a teenager I would repeat the words and phrases my Grandpa used. My Mom warned me, don’t repeat those words, they might be made up or be bad words!! Well I still use some of those phrases today and nobody knows or cares what I am saying!
Helen and John Carlson
They were married in 1916 in Erie, Pa. Their first house was on Front Street a block off East Avenue in the northeast corner of Erie. They had 3 children, John Leroy born in 1919, Donald born in 1921 and my mother Dorothy Mae Lucille on December 26, 1922. They all went to Wayne School and graduated from East High School. Both Uncles served in the Army in World War II. Uncle Roy fought in the Battle of the Bulge, was a seargent and was wounded there. Uncle Roy came home and started working at first with my Grandpa in his painting business, then he did it on his own. Uncle Don went to Colordo School of Mines, became an engineer. My mother was a secretary right after high school working for Dr. Fortune, an orthopedic surgeon, in 1941.
My Grandpa was a painting contractor and had rental properties. In the late 1940’s he built a couple of small homes. After I was born we lived on West 35th in Erie, one of the two Grandpa built. My parents Wilbur G. Waite and Dorothy Mae Lucille Carlson were married in January 1951. Then Grandpa took on building another home at 202 Parkway Drive in Erie. That is the home we moved into in late 1952. Grandpa was 66 years old when he built that home.
My Dad, nicknamed Curly, was in the Navy during World War II and served as a corpsman. When he went in he weighed 100 lbs. When I was young he weighed maybe 120, with short dark curly hair and always had a tan. During the time before and after we moved in he was working around the house and doing landscaping, one of our neighbors, Mrs. Reagan told another neighbor that she thought my dad was Harry Bellefonte moving into their neighborhood. LOL.
My parents owned that home until 2004 when my Dad passed away. My mother worked for the Doctor’s that continued Dr. Fortune’s practice until she stopped working in 1977, close to 36 years. My Grandparents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 1966. My brother Gordon and I and my cousin Karen along with David Johnson and Gary Youngberg formed a group and performed with our musical instruments at the their reception in the Bethany Lutheran Church Hall. We played 3 or 4 hymns that my Grandparents liked. Karen and I played clarinet, Gordon trumpet, Gary played his accordion and David played the piano. I think we did okay as I remember!
Lot’s more stories to come!
Helen Maria Carlson was born in Erie, Pa. and she lived with her parents at 1014 German street in Erie. She was born in 1894. She was born a Carlson and married John F. Carlson but they were not related. Her home was located ½ block south of their Church, Bethany Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Church. The home stayed in the family and my grandparents rented it still when I was around helping to do maintenance on it in the 60’s and 70’s.
Last week I found two of Grandma Carlson’s books that I forgot I had. The first was her Swedish confirmation bible. She was confirmed on May 24, 1908 and it was signed by Pastor Forsberg. Under his signature there was written: John 3:16. In those days the services were all in Swedish.
The second book was her Sunday school book, with her signature inside the front cover, dated September 19, 1910. The first half of the book was in Swedish with the order of worship for Sunday school and Swedish hymns they would sing. The second half was in English.
When my mother was confirmed at Bethany they had an English service and a Swedish service every Sunday.
Inside the Bible I found a clover pressed in the pages… no, it was not a 4 leaf clover! An Easter card for my Grandma from the Sunday school dated 1911 and a beautiful Christmas card from 1908.
Also there were 2 postcards, one that my grandma sent to my parents on May 30, 1954 from Hot Springs, Arkansas. Another card written by my Grandpa from Texarkana on June 3, 1954. The stamps were 2 cents! Wow! My grandpa’s card was addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Dody Waite. That was my Mom’s name, his daughter. That was his sense of humor!
I have a lot of fond memories of my Grandma and these brought a lot of them back. When were kids she would babysit us when my mother was working. We, the four of us, were a handful. Her way of keeping us in line was to thump us with her finger on our ears! It hurt and we listened when she did that!!
I have more boxes to go through, who knows what I’ll find!
Grandpa Carlson Tales- Part 2
My grandfather left his home at Kuserud in Sweden with his grandparents in 1902 at the age of 17. The first place I know that they settled was in Gallitzin, Pa. Grandpa began working in the Coal mine there. I have seen pictures from those days. His face black with just circles around eyes where he wore goggles. There was a double exposure photo with him holding a shovel and the other image of him holding a shovel. It looked like twin coal miners.
The next place I knew they lived was Kane, Pa. Not sure what he did for work in Kane. To my best recollection from talking with Grandpa that his grandparents died there in Kane. The reason I remember this was when I was in college, Grandpa made a tombstone out of a piece of marble he got from somewhere. I think it might have been from the old Bethany Church building that was torn down in 1961 after the new church was built. He took a hammer and chisel and did the lettering for the tombstone. When it was completed my uncle Roy and my brother Gordon took Grandpa to Kane to where his grandparents were buried and put the stone there. Somehow I missed that trip.
The next place he lived was Jamestown, New York. I think there he worked was the power company in a power plant from what I recall. Not much more about that other than when were young we would go to Jamestown to visit his friends and some relatives that moved there later. All these towns that he lived in had a lot of Swedish immigrants along with those of other nationalities.
His final destination was Erie, Pa. Eventually he started his own painting and decorating business. Winter months he did interior painting and wallpapering. The stories I remember is that he did a lot of work for Baldwin Brothers who built a lot of homes in Erie for many years. Grandpa ended up with some rental properties. There were 2 houses that we called flats that had 2 apartments on one each floor of a two story house. These were located ½ block from their home at 1108 East 4th street in Erie. The story I remember was that these houses came from Baldwin as payment for Grandpa’s work during the Depression. These were all of the design that Baldwin had built all over Erie. Eventually he had 8 houses that were rental properties. As a teenager I helped drive Grandpa around to do the maintenance work and collect the rent money. More about those times in later stories.
When I was a junior in high school Grandpa gave me a present…. a Conn Alto saxophone. I began playing clarinet in the 5th grade. After receiving the sax I played both instruments and eventually playing baritone sax for my senior year. The saxophone had a history. It was engraved with the name Gold Tex. That was the nickname of the musician that owned the sax. Grandpa told me he got the sax as payment for back rent from the musician. After a restoration the instrument worked very well. I still have it today.
All these stories are from my memories which can be sketchy at my age. Ha! Ha!
Also yesterday I was in my book shelf in the basement and I found two books that belonged to my Grandmother Carlson. Inside I found a lot of treasures…… another story for another time.
To all who read these stories, if you have stories you would like to share please do!
I will begin a series on my memories of my Grandpa John F. Carlson. He was my mother’s father. My mother was Dorothy Mae Lucille Carlson. She was the third child of John and Helen Carlson of Erie, Pa. Her brothers were John Leroy Carlson and Donald Carlson.
This story will begin with my Grandpa’s beginnings in Sweden. He was born in December of 1885 near the estate, Kuserud, which his father served as the foreman. His father was named Carl Anderson who was the son of Anders Johnson. This is how the Swedes were named until around the time of World War II.
He grew up on this estate, his home was on the property. It was a cabin with a sod roof similar to the homes build on the northern Great Plains of the United States. Here is a photo of an oil painting that my Grandpa did from memory in 1962 at the age of 77 years. He entered it a show. I have the painting in my home in the original frame.
He did an oil painting of the estate, Kuserud in 1966. He wrote a description of the estate in pencil and taped it to the back of the painting. A few years ago I typed up his description and I have a hard copy of my work. Here is part of the description:
“This is a picture of the big estate where I was born and spent 17 years of my young life. I had to start to do a man’s job right after I was confirmed, not full 15 years old. I had to drive a team of horses and the hardest work was to pitch the big load up in the hayloft above the barn in the terrible hot sun in July. They had 60 cows, 12 horses and 2 teams of oxen. All the work was done by hand. My pay was 90 cents a day, and two days labor was for our small tenant farm, 5 acres, with two cows. I worked here for 3 years and then we went to the United States (in 1902). My grandfather had he original contract since 1850. The estate became a prison farm for 100 men.” He goes on to describe all the buildings. “The big house had 42 rooms heated with fireplaces and 2 big kitchens without running water.” I won’t cover the rest of the description.
I have two other photos of Kuserud, from 1920 when my grandpa went back to Sweden for the 1920 Olympics in Stockholm and from 2001 when my cousin David Carlson visited the estate that now was like a state park in our country. Just one thing I picked up by comparing the painting and the photos was that Grandpa got the number of panes in the windows right!
My Grandpa and I were close and I have a lot more stories to tell.