Gary, Erling Landsverk and friends, (Family Stories from our Dad)

When our father, Clifford Metcalfe reminisced about school days, he’d speak highly of the two teachers who were positive influences in his life. He referred to them as; Miss Olson (Potratz) and Mr. Larson. Even as an adult he held utmost respect and fondness for Miss Laura Olson (Mrs. Potratz) and Mr. Harry Larson.

“There was a school function to be held. Our dad, was asked if his mom, was coming?(Rose Metcalfe, at that time, was a HUGE robust woman later was diagnosed with diabetes) He said, “Yes.” His class mate Agnes said, “Can she get through the door?” Our father said, “I grabbed her by the hair and the next thing I knew Harry Larson had me by the hair pulling me off….. His mother, asked dad why he was in a fight & he wouldn’t tell her.”

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Vickie L. Metcalfe

 

 

 

 

To Dick&Brenda, Oh Wow, what I wouldn’t have given to go see you guys play at Hostfest. I still have your C.D. in my player in my van.Listen to it still to and from work.Gotta love the Pauncho & Lefty song,and Rebel Soldier,my two favorite. I love the history of the South,and beleive me when I say South Carolina is full of history…there are some pockets here and there,that I swear don’t realize the Civil War is over…that can really get crazy sometimes.

 

In 1990 I was traveling by mule and covered wagon,with a wilderness program for troubled teens by the name of “Vision Quest, based out of Franklin Pennsylvania.The kids on the wagon train were inner city kids from New York, Philadelphia’and Pittsburg.We had 13 wagons pulled by mules. We started out in Franklin PA,and our destination was Kissimee Florida. We would go 20 miles a day,set up camp.(Which was real tepees that held 16 kids each) We had like 92 kids on our train both boys and girls,with 98% of the kids being African American. Everything went smooth til we got to Dunlap Tennessee. We had a point scout who would ride way ahead of the wagon train,and ask farmers if we could set up camp overnite on their property,and be gone by sun up. It was so funny,cuz I have no idea what the point scout was telling the farmers,but I think they thought it was a bunch of boy scouts,with pup tents. When we would come rolling through there yard with 13 covered wagons pulled by mules,with the point scout,and rear scout,and a Wagon Master looking like “Bat Masterson” and started setting up our 7 life sized teepees,with ninety-something wilding out inner-city kids…you should of seen the look on some of these farmers faces…sheer terror you could tell,cuz they were chasing there kids into the house,just scootin them along.

 

Well everyone along the way welcomed us for the most part,the news media would chase us down in some parts…But…….Now we get to Dunlap Tennessee……Oh Wow. Well to set the stage of what I’m fixin to tell you…I was told that Dunlap,Tennessee is where the KKK was founded….So needless to say it explains,all the ignorance showed to us,that eventually got down right dangerous. The point scout went a couple hours ahead of us,and asked the sherriff in town if we could set up camp on the fair grounds for the weekend…The sherriff agreed. By the time we pulled into town,the towns people were waiting on the side of the road to greet us til they saw that most of the kids were African American. We proceeded thru town got down to the fair grounds and started setting up camp. I was down where we were feeding the horses,and mules,I had 5 kids with me closest to the road. Pretty soon I saw these 4 guys coming down the hill,hollering and waving. Well we were told,that when the public comes down to see us when we go thru these towns,that no matter how tired we are that we were suppose to take the time,be friendly,and show them around. So I started walking towards the road with 3 of the kids(girls) waved and hollered hi. When they got closer I could see one of the 4 guys had something in his hand. As they got closer I could hear them yelling,get out of their town with these “n—er kids”blah blah blah. When they got right up to me I saw what the guy had in his hand was a 5th of Whiskey…finally I told them flat out the Civil War is over,and i didn’t have time to listen to their ignorance and asked them to leave. As i turned to walk away with my kids,the guy with the whiskey bottle, spit at me and called me a ni–er lover,and yelled,”If your not out of here by dark were gonna come back and grind all those little ni–ers up and feed them to our cattle. Well by then I had 3 girls hanging onto me digging their nails into my arms.I went and told the Wagon Master,so he went into town to talk to the sherriff. The sherriff said’,You should of known better than to bring all them n—ers into our town. Later that night,which was a Friday night at about 11pm. all the town outlaws came out in force driving up and dowm the road,honking horns ,yelling hate talk,and shooting in the air above our teepee’s. Some of the male staff said they could hear the bullets whizzing thru the air.It was my night to sleep in the tac trailer that night,but Heather,came and got me.She said the girls were scared,and they said,”Go get Miss Aggie to come and sleep in our teepee,she isn’t scared of those guys,she told them they were stupid today”. Well I went and slept in the teepee but it had nothing to do with not being scared earlier that evening,it was a case of my mouth getting ahead of my brain.The next day,about 8 of us had the day off,so we walked into town to have something to do. When we went into this little cafe to get something to eat,we all had our red Rough Rider tee shirts on. Everyone was staring at us,and whispering…no one would wait on us… The sherriff was sitting up at the counter,just like in the movies,with that brim hat on,big cigar in his mouth,round dark sunglasses,and kept turning around and looking at us.Finally he said”You can sit there til hell freezes over,but we don’t serve ni–er lovers here”and started chuckling.As we got up to leave,he yelled after us”There’s only one way out of this town and it’s thru our main street,and you better have a shovel with you to pick up your mule s–t,or will pick it up for you,and chase down your wagon train and throw it in your covered wagons on your “little n—–s.As everyone from my group kept moving,towards the door I just stood there staring at this sherriff dumbfounded,pretty soon,Brian grabbed my arm,and said,”Don’t say nothing,lets go…He kinda jerked me back to reality…As we walked back to camp,no one said a word…I think we were all lost in our own thoughts…Who would of ever thought this kind of craziness still existed…So anyway Dick and Brenda, Like the song goes…”Then the rebel soldier dies”… Those of you who have the opportunity to go listen to Dick, Brenda,& Ron perform…I know you won’t be disappointed….thank you all for everything!

 

Ms.Aggie

 

 

Good grief…Those guys have really aged…..