With winter fast approaching, I haven’t had much time to reminisce.
Today something made me remember some of the things my Grandpa Hans
Johnson used to do. He was only in school until about the mid grades
(4-5) and then he had to work. Even as a kid, I was amazed at some of
the things he could do with no more of a formal education than that.
They never had electricity until he was over 50 years old, yet people
used to have him repair their electric devices of all kinds. I remember
watching him take someone’s electric iron apart on his kitchen table
once when I was probably 7 or 8 years old. I asked him how he knew how
to fix it? He said, ” If one man was smart enough to make it, the next
man should at least be able to fix it.” As I got older, I also found out
that most things aren’t as complicated as they at first might seem. He
had a simple way of figuring out what should do what, and why. My
Grandma told me that one night her brother Otto and my Grandpa Hans
decided to build a crystal set radio from scrap parts, wire, wood, and
other junk. They had a plan from some magazine like Popular Mechanics.
She said it was in the dead of winter so they thought it might be
something to do one cold night. I only know enough about a crystal set
radio to know it involves wrapping fine copper wire around a tube and
using a battery for power. She went to bed but woke up in the wee hours
of the morning to the sound of music playing in the kitchen—and two
guys grinning from ear to ear!

They lived through some tough times and knew how to repair things
rather than to buy new. Some of the old farm equipment should have been
replaced but he just kept on fixing what broke and continuing to use it
until there just wasn’t anything left, then he got another one! I gave
an old D John Deere tractor of Grandpa’s to my wife’s uncle, as he was
really into restoring them. Years later he retired and had an auction
sale, selling several restored JD tractors and many parts. I asked him
which one was Grandpa’s old D , thinking I might buy it back if he still
had it? He grinned and said that there was hardly a single piece on the
entire tractor that wasn’t worn completely out! I told him that when
Grandpa couldn’t make it work anymore, it was probably shot! I remember
Grandpa taking the tires off his ’34 Chevy truck, when the cords started
to show, and then putting them on the front of the tractor and running
them some more! This may sound a bit miserly but he always had money for
things that were really needed. He was able to slowly buy land and
expand the farm while others couldn’t make it and headed out for other
places. Most of the people that made it through the tough times, at
least in this area, did so by dedication to hard work and by being
careful with what little money they did have. He was definitely one of
those!

The extremely hard labor of those early days also made him a very
physically strong man. He died when I was 15 so I did get to work with
him for several years here on the farm. There were times when Dad and I
couldn’t quite lift or move some real heavy equipment part or hitch for
a piece of equipment and Grandpa would come over and lend a hand. When
he grabbed on, things were going to move! Later, after Grandpa was gone,
my Grandma sold the house and my parents moved a newer house to the same
location. John Boguslawski and I were tearing out the old foundation to
prepare for the new one. The north wall was made of stacked rock, mostly
bigger flat rocks from along the lake shore. We could handle most of the
rocks by hand, as we were pretty big and healthy guys about 19 years
old, but a few were huge. I would guess they weighed 300-400 pounds. We
lifted them out with the old Farmhand loader and chains. I remember John
asking me how the heck they got them in there in the first place? When
Dad came to see how it was going, I asked him. He shook his head and
told us that Grandpa and Axel put them in there by hand! He was a very
kind and gentle big guy. I once asked Dad if he ever saw Grandpa get in
a fight? He said no, but he saw a guy who was going to hit Grandpa once
and it didn’t turn out the way the guy thought. He said they were
traveling on a curvy mud road and met another car right in a mud hole.
Neither car could stop and they both got stuck just about against each
other. Dad said the guys jumped out of the other car and one said,
“Johnson, I’m going to knock you on your ass”, after which he swung at
Grandpa! Dad said Grandpa caught the guys fist like a baseball and then
just said, with his Norskie brogue, “Oh, I don’t tink so.” He just put
the guys hand down and let go of it. Dad said the guy was suddenly as
sober as a judge! I would imagine his life was flashing before his eyes,
as they say! I’ll attach a picture of my grandparents, looking the way I
best remember them. Thanks Gary!

Dick