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20050812 Baraboo WI 65/84 Cloudy, mostly cloudy, cool. Picture Link
We left Dunn County at a reasonable time and ran three hours down I-94 to Baraboo. We checked into the Baraboo Hills campground, set up the trailer, and hooked up its utilities. Then we drove the few miles to North Freedom, WI, the locale of the Mid-Continent Railway Museum.
We bought tickets for the train ride, then toured the place while waiting for the train to come back from the other end of the line. MCRYM has a wide variety of old railroad Stuff, quite a bit of it restored to original condition and on exhibit in one of the "barns". They need a little more money to get their premier steam engine back to running condition (maybe next year), so we gave a little bit.
The train ride was done by an Alco S-1 switcher, two ex-Lackawanna coaches, one ex-Lackawanna combine, and one Duluth, Missabe & Northern caboose. We rode out to end-of-line at 15mph due to the condition of the light rail used to build the line in 1907. It's gradually being upgraded.
The volunteers ran the train very well, and provided briefings on the equipment, the original rail line, and the museum. The whole thing was very well done.
We drove to an RV place and bought a little part to replace one I'd lost. Then out to top off on diesel, and on to the campground.
We sat around the trailer for a while until we dragged out the grill and did hamburgers and things on the picnic table. It was nice to have a cool, albeit humid, breeze to sit in. It's forecast to be no higher than 82* here for the next week - that's the sort of Wisconsin weather I'm accustomed to.
We didn't bother to try to do any of the circus things here. We did that with Susan and Bill when they were kids in the late 70's. I remember Dolores taking the kids into the big top while I sat outside with Grover our hound (dogs not allowed in big top). Along came three elephants gripping trunks to tails as they came along in a row. Grover just knew that these big things were bad. The hair came up and he hunkered down to attack position and barked like crazy. The elephants paid no attention. Everyone around laughed.
I just finished a book named "The Reunion" by Steven Fortney, a sort-of cousin by marriage. His uncle Tom married my aunt Elsie. It's a great little book. He says he wrote it as a study in linguistics (that of the Norwegian-Americans, of which he is one) and how that affects us. The Wisconsin Lutheran accents and phrases ring true, as does the behavior of the clan. There's guilt and remorse and love and regret and sadness and lutefisk and lefse all in a portrayal of one day's reunion on the farm north of Wheeler, with offshoot explanations and sub-stories.
I've been to the farm where the "Reunion" took place (he writes it as it took place in 1983), before it took place. Once was with Aunt Elsie, who is named in the book several times. She introduced me (I was probably 16 - that would make the year 1956) to Caroline Fortney, the wife of the then-owner of the farm, Henry. There were a whole bunch of people there in the big back yard under the trees, not as many as in "The Reunion", but quite a few. I remember Elsie saying "hi" to many people, then we left to go home.
A later trip there was with my Uncle Ed, who had some sort of business there; it was an in-and-out visit.
Elsie's best friend, Myrtle Larson, was also of this Fortney clan. They were buddies back when, and when Elsie retired from nursing in Detroit and returned to Menomonie they picked up where they left off.
When we met my brother John in Menomonie several days ago, he gave me a CD of pictures of Elsie and those around her, especially her husband, Steve's uncle Tom. He must have been a real man. Big, probably 300 pounds when he died. Smart. Big Ten wrestling champ at U of Wisconsin. A player in Detroit (MI) politics. He died in 1944 at age 40 in the hospital where Elsie worked. She never remarried, or as far as I know looked at another guy.
Tom was a real practical joker. I do remember Elsie saying Tom kept her laughing all the time, sometimes till she was nearly overcome. The book gives a few of these times.
Elsie died in 1979. Steven Fortney, brother John, Tom Larson (Myrtle's son), myself and others were pallbearers. Now Tom & Elsie's remains lie in the Wheeler WI Our Savior's cemetery, with many of the Fortneys.
My dad was younger than his sister Elsie and Tom. He certainly emulated Tom. He tried to make it at U of Wisconsin. He wrestled as his sport there. Money was terribly tough to make and he had to drop out to work. Then he met Mom; they were married in 1936 and moved to Holland, Michigan where there were better prospects.
We crossed Michigan many times to visit Elsie in her upstairs apartment at 16179 Lauder Avenue in Detroit. She was always a sweetheart. Years later (1975?), Dolores & I and the kids visited her in her mobile home on 23rd Avenue in Menomonie. She gave a great lunch that the kids loved. I hope she knew how much we enjoyed it.
We'll go on tomorrow morning to Stoughton. We hope to re-meet Steven Fortney there, and to visit my cousin Cynthia in Oregon and to visit Dolores's brother Joe in Madison.
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