Read an excerpt from “Teddy’s Road,” 

a short story in the anthology, On the Road Again by Byron Grush

On the Road Again

Duluth, Minnesota, and Superior, Wisconsin: The Twin Ports. At the end of the Saint Lawrence Seaway, this is the largest inland freshwater port in North America. Iron ore from the Marquette Range in Michigan, the Vermilion Range in Minnesota, and the Mesabi Range near Mountain Iron, Minnesota will be shipped from here to mills in Detroit and Cleveland. The season lasts only ten months; soon ice will cover most of Lake Superior and ice-breakers will be needed to keep commerce floating as long as possible.

Shipped by rail to Duluth, iron ore, coal, wheat, and lumber will be loaded onto freighters from dozens of long piers at the Twin Ports. Like slender fingers extending out into the harbor, the long piers can accommodate the monster ships: thousand-footers, whalebacks, lakers, and salties. Tall metal structures straddle the piers: cranes which run on elevated tracks to the waiting trains where huge buckets drop into the gondola cars to scoop up coal or ore, then run back to fill the holds of the ships.

Lars and Gustaf Johansson work on the loading crane at pier 8 on the Superior side of the harbor. Brothers, eighteen and twenty respectively, they are from a family of Swedish emigrants, and have two more brothers and three sisters. Only the eldest brother, Edvard, had been born in Sweden. The rest of their siblings, brother Henrik, and sisters Brit, Anna, and Johanna had been born in Superior, Wisconsin to Olaf and Sophia Johansson after the couple had settled here in 1909.

The crane is operated from a moving cage high on the elevated track; the bucket is suspended by cables below it. Lars drives the cage while Gustaf raises or lowers the bucket, pulling or pushing a series of levers. The work is stressful. Care must be taken to position the bucket properly. The cage sits at a dizzying height and can sway in a heavy wind. Staring downward, they see only mounds of black coal. It is a time for jovial banter, stories and jokes to take the edge off.

“Did you hear about the trousers that weren’t allowed to go to school?” Lars quipped.

“No, why weren’t the trousers allowed to go to school,” responded Gustaf.

“They were suspended.”

“That’s an old one. Did you know I was a life safer this summer?”

“Oh really? What flavor?”

“Ha, ha. The other day my sight was getting so bad I went to get glasses. I couldn’t afford a pair so I bought a monocle instead.”

“I know this one. Now you don’t have 20-20 vision, only 1920.”

“Well, that was a good year. Look down there. Is that Martell? I’d like to drop this bucketful right on his head!”

“Ah, our illustrious boss. Keeping watch over his domain. Watching to see if we fuck up. Like to bump us, wouldn’t he?”

“It’s hard times. They’re talking cut-backs. Last hired, first fired.”

“Well, we’re safe for a while. I guess that stock market thing is to blame.”

“Well, I didn’t have any stocks…didn’t lose nothing.”

“I like to stand on my head, so’s I can watch my stocks go up.”

“Yeah, you and Herbert Hoover.”

 

Supper at the Johansson residence is a ritual affair orchestrated by Mother Sophia and strictly officiated by Father Olaf. Precisely at 5 PM the large dining room table is set by Anna and Johanna, while Brit is helping her mother in the kitchen. The boys usually congregate in the front room where their father is reading the evening paper. Edvard and Henrik have started a game of parcheesi. Lars and Gustaf are late in returning from the docks today―to father’s displeasure. When they come through the door it is quarter to six, fifteen minutes past dinner time!

“Lars and Gustaf! You are late. Stopped off at O’Hara’s for a beer, have you?” says father.

“No, Father,” answers Gustaf. “Mr. Martell cornered us as we were coming off the crane after our shift. Took us into the office for a talk. No beer, I’m afraid. And anyway, it’s Prohibition.”

“I do not approve of drinking, as you know. I don’t think your boss would invite you for beers anyway. What did he have to say?”

“May we discuss it after supper? Everyone is waiting.”

“Very well. Sit. We talk later.”

Today is Thursday so of course the meal is Ärtsoppa and Pannkakor (pea Soup and pancakes). The soup is made from dried yellow peas and pork broth, thyme, pieces of salty pork, and dashes of mustard. There are some slices of Gravlax, a cured salmon, and some Inlagd Sill (pickled herring). Crispy slices of Knäckebröd, a hard rye bread are at hand. After the main course, the thin pancakes with sweet blackberry jam will be served for dessert.

Johanna, the middle daughter, age eight, is telling about a school outing she had gone on today. The boys and girls were all together in a horse-drawn carriage during an excursion to see the Amnicon Falls at the nearby nature park. A friend, Christina Swensen, announced she needed to go to the bathroom. No such facilities were available. The carriage stopped. Their teacher told Johanna to go along with Christina into a wooded area while she relieved herself.

“Honestly,” Johanna was saying, “you’d think she had never gone behind a tree before! I had to show her how to pee.”

“Johanna! This is not proper talk for dinner table,” scolds her mother. The boys snicker and Father slams his fist down on the table. “Enough!” he says.

After the Pannkakor, Olaf sits in his favorite chair and takes a briar pipe from its stand on the side table. As he fills the pipe he motions for Lars and Gustaf to approach.  They sit on a love seat on which Sophia has draped a needlepoint chair cover. They sit stiffly, anticipating the inevitable confrontation.

“Now, boys, what is going on with you and your boss?” Olaf asks.

‘It’s the Depression, Pop,” says Gustaf.

“Pop?”

“Father. Sorry. Anyway, the docks are letting people go right and left. The old fart…I mean Mr. Martell says we can stay to the end of the month…maybe. But no bonuses. Longer hours as other people are fired. And no guarantees.”

“This is not good news. You must work hard to make your boss know your value.”

“We’ve been talking. Lars and I have heard about opportunities out west. Homesteading in Montana. Logging in Washington and Oregon. Farming in California. It can’t be any worse there than it is here.”

“Here you have family. Here you have hope. In the west you will have nothing. I forbid you to go.”

In the Johansson family you do not defy Father. Lars and Gustaf wait, keep working at the loading dock, but the desire for adventure does not dissipate.

 

Things get worse before they get better. Some say the Great Depression was caused by the stock market crash of October 24, 1929. Others say the crash and the failure of so many banks were only symptoms of an on-going decline. Bankruptcies, foreclosures, and unemployment affect every part of the country, including “The Treasure State,” that homesteading paradise of Lars’ and Gustaf’s dreams: Montana. The decline there began around the time of the Great War (to end all wars).

Under Abraham Lincoln’s Homestead Act of 1862, families could claim 160 acres of government land, and there was plenty of that in Montana. The Homestead Act of 1909 doubled the amount of free land to 320 acres. The boom reboomed and Montana’s population swelled. It was a hard life trying to farm the rugged land, hot and dry in summer and impossibly frigid in winter, snakes and grasshoppers, drought and dust storms. But the settlers persisted and soon Montana and its exploding population prospered. The Great War escalated prices of wheat and commodities. But increased production began to tip the scale.

In 1917 the rain stopped falling in Montana. Black clouds of grasshoppers descended upon the plains, devastating the crops. Intense winds blew topsoil away. In 1919 wheat prices dropped. Farmland prices fell by 50 percent. Half of Montana’s commercial banks failed. The exodus began as people lost their farms and moved west to Washington, Oregon, and California. Then came the Great Depression.

 

It is 1933. Franklin Delano Roosevelt has begun his first year of presidency of the United States. Roosevelt declares that “…the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” He institutes a four-day banking holiday to prevent people from withdrawing money from their banks. He begins New Deal policies, asks congress to repeal Prohibition, reforms banking laws. The recovery has begun.

Olaf Johansson has never trusted banks anyway, preferring to keep what little savings he has in the tradition place: his mattress. The family has struggled through the early depression years, it is true, but they have pooled resources, tightened belts, and carried on. Lars and Gustaf continued to be employed at the docks; ironically it was Martin Martell, their unpopular boss who was let go. The family, unlike nearly half of America, is solvent.

Lars again gets the travel bug. Montana attracts him most of the western states; he sends away for pamphlets and road maps. Gustaf, on the other hand, is no longer interested in a road trip. It seems he has also been stricken, only in his case, the object of his attractions is a captivating lass named Margaret Pillsbury. Margaret is coming to dinner tonight―this must be serious. Without the support of his older brother, Lars will face another admonishment from father if he brings up the idea of western travel once again.

Sophia has prepared Smörgåstårta with roast beef, ham, and cheese for a festive meal. This is a sort of multi-layered sandwich cake filled with many good things, sometimes sea food. There is a side dish of Janssons frestelse, a potato casserole with onion, anchovy, and cream. For dessert, a Ostkaka cheesecake and fresh berries.

Before Gustaf takes the family car to pick up Margaret, sister Johanna teases him: “Gustaf’s got a girlfriend! Gustaf’s got a girlfriend!”

“Quiet, little one,” Gustaf responds, “or I’ll turn you over to Uncle Razor Strap!”

Uncle Razor Strap is the Johansson children’s name for their mother’s older brother, Sigurd Olofsson. It is rumored among the children that their Uncle was seen disciplining one of his own children at a family outing along the Brule River a few years ago, using something long and dark (probably a belt, but in the romantic imagination of childhood―a razor strap), therefore giving rise to the horrific appellation. Uncle Olofsson has occupied the position of boogieman since that much discussed and elaborated incident, although the man himself is kind, jovial, and brings the best presents at Christmas.

Sophia has instructed the girls to set the table with her best china. This is not a pattern which would fetch a good dollar in a sale, but its sentimental value makes it priceless; it belonged to her mother and was one of the few things Sophia was able to bring with her from Sweden. Pressed glass goblets, silver-plated flatware, candles, linen napkins, and a lace tablecloth complete the presentation. Anna, and Johanna, reacting to all the fineware, giggle―but very softly, not daring to comment on the elaborate preparations. The specter of Uncle Razor Strap is always nearby.

Margaret Pillsbury proves to be charming. She charms Father Olaf with her radiance and vitality. She delights Mother Sophia with her smile and pleasant manner. She has Gustaf enchanted and almost completely entrapped. Edvard and Henrik are a little envious of Gustaf; what a pretty girl…what a catch! Lars has mixed feelings: happy for his brother but annoyed at the loss of a traveling companion. The girls are jealous of the attention being given to Miss Pillsbury. They shuffle and squirm in their chairs, anxious to be excused. Margaret Pillsbury thinks the Johanssons are just about the most adorable family she’s ever met. And that Gustaf, she thinks, he’s a keeper.

The following day Lars and Gustaf are on their lunchbreak at the docks. Lars says, “I guess you’re kind of hooked.”

“I guess so. She sure is something!”

“I guess you’re no longer interested in going west with me.”

“I’m afraid so. Sorry, but you understand, don’t you?”

“Can I count on your help in convincing Pop to let me go?”

“I will. But here’s an idea. Why don’t you go talk to Uncle Sigurd? He did a lot of traveling when he was younger. He’ll understand. Maybe help out in some way.”

“Uncle Razor Strap?”

“He might even lend you some money, You could hop on the Great Northern. It heads out that way, doesn’t it?”

“The train? What can you see from a train? No, I’m thinking of the road. The Teddy Roosevelt Road. Goes all the way to Seattle and Portland. Minnesota is much like Wisconsin, lots of lakes and forests, but North Dakota has rolling plains of wheat…quite a sight. Then you get to Montana. The Rocky Mountains. Glacier National park! Then the fruit orchards of Idaho and Washington. Puget Sound. The Columbia River. The Pacific Coast. No, travel by road is the only way to see America.”

“I think you are forgetting an important aspect of this, Lars.”

“Oh? What’s that?”

“You don’t have a car.”