In The Summer Weather<\/p>\n
May 1924<\/span><\/p>\n At the grave on Memorial Day For August, Labor Day Weekend 1924 – I took Swedish at the University of Washington. Can I be in the choir?<\/em> Auntie came up from Grandma Elmer and Carl bases, Al a tenor, June 1924 THE READING CERTIFICATE<\/span><\/p>\n At the address on Commerce It is a Hookah Lounge In 1924 although experiencing There was a list of appropriate books Can one of these books have been Although the news held stories July 1924 – Kingfisher Lodge<\/span><\/p>\n Elmer, Al, Linnea’s piano teacher’s studio August 1924 THE SONGFEST IN HOQUIAM<\/span><\/p>\n We rode the train through the forest,<\/em> Or, we rode in cars through the forest.<\/em> The grand chorus sang, and the piano soloists In the Aberdeen Electrical Park The grand chorus sits for the photograph, Al had been in soccer in the Stadium Annual. In the paper from the area, The American, One could attend one, In the paper the KKK was to have fireworks. In November the election results Slumrande toner fj\u00e4rran ur tiden September 1924<\/span><\/p>\n There is a saved letter and its envelope <\/p>\n “In The Summer Weather” is a middle section to a poem in progress, and\u00a0refers to, among other sources, Thomas R. Pegram’s One Hundred Percent American The Rebirth and Decline of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s;\u00a0The American,<\/em> a newspaper from the 1920s in the Gray\u2019s Harbor area; and to the Photo Archives at the Northwest Room of the Tacoma Public Library for references to the 1920s American Legion Assembly Room.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Laura Jensen<\/a>‘s collections include\u00a0Bad Boats<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>from Ecco Press<\/a> (1978) and\u00a0Memory\u00a0<\/em><\/a>(1982)\u00a0and\u00a0Shelter<\/em>\u00a0<\/a>(1985) from Dragon Gate Press.\u00a0Memory\u00a0<\/em>was reprinted by Carnegie Mellon University Press in their Classic Contemporaries in\u00a02006.\u00a0Her work has been included in the anthologies \u00a0In Tahoma\u2019s Shadow: Poems from the City of Destiny<\/em>\u00a0<\/a>(2009),\u00a0Longman Contemporary Poetry<\/em>\u00a0(2nd ed.; 1989), and\u00a0Northwest Variety: Personal Essays by Fourteen Regional Writers<\/em>\u00a0(1987). In 1996 Jensen helped create the Distinguished Poet Series. Jensen has been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Ingram Merrill Foundation, the Washington State Arts Commission, and the Lila Wallace-Readers Digest Fund.\u00a0She lives in Tacoma and blogs at http:\/\/spicedrawermouse.blogspot.com\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In The Summer Weather May 1924 At the grave on Memorial Day they remembered Albert. My mother said to me, one relative of ours died in an accident down on the waterfront. For August, Labor Day Weekend 1924 – the … Continue reading
\nthey remembered Albert.
\nMy mother said to me,
\none relative of ours died in an accident<\/em>
\n down on the waterfront.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nthe Order of Runeberg planned a songfest,
\nSwedish-Finnish Runeberg Choirs from Tacoma,
\nand Olympia, and Hoquiam and Aberdeen,
\nwould sing, and their rehearsals began.<\/p>\n
\nOlder, a Swedish class at First Lutheran Church
\na song about the fox,
\nhow the fox crept over the ice.
\nR\u00e4ven raskar \u00f6ver isen.
\nFor vi l\u00f6v? May I have permission?<\/em><\/p>\n
\nLinnea said to Auntie.<\/p>\n
\nand Grandpa’s house, where the choir
\nfirst began in 1913 – their
\nSwedish-Finnish choir,
\nnext door and they rehearsed.<\/p>\n
\nLinnea, Ma and Auntie, singing.<\/p>\n
\nwhere the American Legion Assembly Room
\nonce was, there now
\nis a Hookah Smoking Caterpillar,
\nthe Cobra Lounge.<\/p>\n
\nwhere once Linnea Gorde
\nplayed A La Bien Aimee.
\nand the Cobra must change
\nthe caterpillar’s Hookah Hose
\nStems and leaves
\ninto a stinging snake. And is it
\nabout the stigma of things of the East?<\/p>\n
\nEnglish Only Laws, the Catholics, Jews,
\nand the Lutherans were to lay aside
\ndifferences and Initiative 49,
\nbrought forward by the Ku Klux Klan
\nto abolish private schools, was to be defeated.<\/p>\n
\nfor her grade level, because by June
\nshe had read ten. She could sit on her bed
\nshe could sit at the table
\nshe could sit with her feet up on the sofa.<\/p>\n
\nAlice in Wonderland?
\nShe pasted into the scrapbook
\nher reading certificate from Tacoma Public Library
\nand Tacoma Public Schools.<\/p>\n
\nof Ku Klux Klan rallies, of robes and hoods,
\nof crosses burning,
\nInitiative 49 was to go down to defeat.<\/p>\n
\nCarl and Ray, Linnea and Gilbert
\ncamped on the beach
\nwhere Birger and Eric lived.
\nBirger and Eric were brothers
\nof their father and Uncle Albert.
\nBirger and Eric worked at an island quarry
\nand they lived in a house on the beach.<\/p>\n
\nwas downtown at the Bernice building,
\ndown the street from the Assembly Room.
\nAuntie waited while Linnea had her lesson.
\nHer teacher said to Linnea
\nwith happiness, you are very good Linnea.
\nOr, you are very good, so you must practice
\nwith diligence, because you have talent.<\/p>\n
\nLinnea might well have said.
\nLinnea might well have said this
\nto her daughters. However, she was
\na talented piano player, and the sound
\nwas more likely to be Sommardansen.<\/p>\n
\nOr, we rode in the hired bus<\/em>
\n through the forest to Aberdeen,<\/em>
\n we rode in the hired bus, an arm<\/em>
\n at the open window, in our everyday<\/em>
\n dresses, and we rode on beyond<\/em>
\n Aberdeen to Hoquiam. We were there<\/em>
\n two nights, the songfest was all Labor Day Weekend.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nLinnea had to notice, were very pleasant
\nto listen to, and Linnea could believe
\nthat she could do as well herself.<\/p>\n
\nnearby those people,
\nwith the fires and the white hoods
\nwere gathered, and all the women
\nexclaimed about this, nervously, then
\nquieted themselves and said something about
\nnot letting it bother us.<\/p>\n
\nladies in shades of white
\nmen in black suits with neckties
\nin front of the B Street Finnish Hall,
\nAl on one side. Elmer and Carl on the other.<\/p>\n
\nJones Photography, Gray’s Harbor .<\/p>\n
\na column on the front page
\ndescribes the KKK Labor Day Celebration
\nat the Electric Park,
\nan amusement park, in Aberdeen
\nand a column on the front page
\ndescribes the Songfest,
\nthe Order of Runeberg Songfest.<\/p>\n
\nor one could attend the other.<\/p>\n
\nThe Lodge was at
\nThe Hoquiam Masonic Hall
\na new hall built the year before in 1923.
\nI wonder if the Lodge took everyone
\nto the ocean beach.<\/p>\n
\nfor Initiative 49 in Hoquiam and Aberdeen
\nwere almost 50 – 50,
\nbut Initiative 49 was defeated.<\/p>\n
\ntoner i fr\u00e5n stugor, fr\u00e5n f\u00e4lt och v\u00e4nen lid.
\nsang the choir. They sang in Swedish,
\nit was a foreign language.
\nSongs can lie sleeping, distant,
\nfar from time.
\nSongs from the cabins, from fields
\nand times so sweet.<\/p>\n
\nthat came one September day.
\nI find it is hard to interpret
\nall of it. But Faster Emelie
\nfather’s sister, thanks them
\nand says she would have written sooner
\nabout her brother Albert. But every time
\nshe tried she began to cry instead.<\/p>\n