Survived A War, Crossed An Ocean, And Chose Joy - Johnny

A regiment marched past a third-grade window and changed everything. That image—nerves buzzing with music and boots—became the first chapter in Johnny Akkerman’s extraordinary journey from wartime Holland to small‑town Minnesota, where work, mentorship, and community would give shape to a long and generous life.

We sit with Johnny as he recalls food scraped from gardens, nights split by bomber engines, and the odd tenderness of liberation: Canadian trucks, flares in the sky, and a slice of bread so white it felt like a miracle. At 23 he boards a Dutch ocean liner, lands in New York, and rattles west on a stop‑and‑go train crowded with strangers and kindness. Minnesota greets him with relatives, a modest house, and a factory where a patient foreman teaches welding, blueprints, and the confidence to lead. That lesson in trust becomes Johnny’s signature: encourage others until they can do it on their own.

The road turns into a career installing dairy equipment across 47 states, then Spain’s Granada and the hills beyond Rio. Eventually, he trades airports for roots—marriage, kids, and decades in plant maintenance—while pouring energy into the town’s shared heartbeat: JCs, Lions, Vasaloppet. He helps build what neighbors need—an ice arena, a swimming pool, and the iconic orange Dala horse—painting its intricate design from scaffolds and later guiding its restoration like a rolling art studio under open sky.

Between service and steel, there’s play: learning golf at 47, cheering every shot, and yes, stepping into a swamp up to his neck before finishing the round an hour later. Johnny talks health and longevity with disarming clarity—genes matter, movement helps, and joy is fuel. On faith, he’s secular but grateful; for him, right and wrong come from family and the daily practice of showing up.

Come for war memories and immigration grit; stay for a masterclass in purpose without pretense. If you love stories about resilience, mentorship, civic pride, and the art of making a place better than you found it, this one will stick. Listen, share with a friend, and leave a review telling us which moment hit you hardest.

0:00 Meet Johnny: Roots And Music

1:08 Kindness, Work Ethic, And Leadership

4:56 Golf, Friendship, And Joy In Play

8:18 The Regiment On The Street: War Arrives

12:38 Hunger, Rations, And Night Bombers

17:45 Liberation And The Whitest Bread

21:36 Crossing The Atlantic To America

25:26 First Jobs, A Mentor, And Skills

30:08 Adventures Installing Dairy Plants

34:21 Family, Settling Down, And Community

Transcript

Meet Johnny: Roots And Music

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to Supernaut, where we explore the inner and outer dimensions of the self. Today we have on Johnny Ackerman. Johnny was born in 1933 in northern Poland. He had his town taken over by German military in third grade for three years. And at age 23, he took the five-day boat ride over to New York City. So, Johnny, I asked you to pick a song for us to listen to before we started. What song did you pick?

SPEAKER_06 0:27

Yeah, John Denver. Yeah, yeah. That's the kind of music I like. You know, there was there were so many top tunes. Uh, you can pick anybody in in the uh late 40s, early 50s. It was a fantastic movement of single person singing, and uh, and just John Denver used to happen to be one of them that, you know, enjoyed listening to. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Yeah. Rocky Mountain High by John Denver.

SPEAKER_06 0:53

Yeah, yeah. Rocky Mountain High by John Denver, no kidding. It's just just a just a fantastic voice that he has, and and it never seems to get old to listen to it. No, that's for sure. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

Everyone describes you as a kind, encouraging, and positive person. Did that attitude come naturally, or was it something life taught you?

SPEAKER_06 1:20

That's a pretty damn serious question. I I might have that from my mother. My dad was uh you know, kind of an aggressive, uh looking forward, uh uh always trying to do something for the family, make sure that everything was well provided. Uh but he, uh, my mother was much more laid back and uh and uh kind of take care of the family because we had a large family through the years and and then just make sure there's food on the table, which was difficult during the war times and and especially after that. So where do I get that from? I I have no idea. I don't know. No.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

Has it helped you in life to be that encouraged?

SPEAKER_06 2:07

It might have helped me uh applying for a job to say, okay, I know I can do that, or I'm able to do that because I've done it before, or and I might have a little bit of a problem when I was a boss. If there were jobs going on that seemed to take a long time, I would have a tendency to, but damn it, uh, let's get this over with. I can't do it as quick or whatever. And that sometimes that might have rubbed off a little bit, because I was a foreman for about 15 people at one time in a maintenance business of the plastics plant. And that went on for many, many years. And and it maybe at one time or another, some of the guys say, Well, Jesus Christ, if he can do it better, let him do it. But you know, that that kind of attitude that and I I probably still have a little bit of that. I I I don't know. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

The guys that golf with you say that every shot that anybody takes, you are encouraging about that shot.

SPEAKER_06 3:09

Well, yeah, well, you know, it makes a person play better.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

Yeah.

Golf, Friendship, And Joy In Play

SPEAKER_06 3:13

You know, if you have fun to play golf, you know, and the guy hits a beautiful driver or have my slice on that hook, at the same token, you know, maybe I could help him change his grip a little bit and say, yeah, what the heck, you know? Oh yeah, or definitely it it golf is gotta be fun, you know, and and it is a lot of fun. Holy crap. So I wish I was better at it. But it was it was it's fun. It is absolutely a great time. And I know, you know, some of your maybe not relatives, but the kids have played with Steve Hooker's kids, for instance, you know. And the the son that he has, uh, Chad's son. He's just a fantastic young man. I just love to play with him. He's so outgoing, such a nice personnel. Super. I got a couple pictures of it at home that we had during the deer season. We had a great deer camp together, and and all the Okas family was involved in that. Steve uh was a buy in it, and then the boys took over afterwards. And uh I have some great pictures at home. But just looking back at OSA just fun. Yeah. As far as uh uh did it help my aggressive attitude, uh, which I think I probably did a little bit. I don't know. Some people took it good, some s maybe a little bit of a smart ass, whatever. No. I I don't I don't think it was that part. No. But I had I had a um uh decent schooling, you know, I able to speak several languages, that helps a little bit. So I no, you know, I had a great uh the the uh the school system in the Netherlands was really good, super good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:58

Can can you tell me about in third grade when the German officers came to town? You can remember the exact moment, right?

SPEAKER_06 5:05

I was sitting in third grade. We had a uh a school room, probably about the size of this room, with windows. And we had fifth grade, sixth grade, seventh grade, eighth grade, ninth grade. Uh rooms look maybe twice, three times the size with windows. And the street was 30 yards on that side. And all of a sudden, we heard music. I'm sitting by the window in third grade. Here comes a small regiment of German soldiers with music, probably a regiment of 40 people.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

And that was uncommon? That wasn't something that had ever happened before?

SPEAKER_06 5:40

That was the beginning of the war, 1940. It was the beginning of the war. And and uh this was 1943 when this happened. The war had been going on for three years already, and the Germans were kind of being moved out of Europe into the northern part of the Netherlands and back into Germany towards the Hamburg and Bremen area because that's where we lived in that line. So, and and uh they stayed with us for holy crap, I don't know, uh probably a year from 1944 to 1945 when they were chased back into Germany. And uh we would march for them in the mornings. They exercised uh and uh got used to 30, 40 soldiers. Uh, they didn't go to school, but we were uh uh educated by uh the teachers that them took us in private homes. So they they they the the teaching kept going on. But you know, uh one year seventh, eighth, sixth grade, it's not you know, probably not that difficult to teach uh uh compared to seniors in high school comparisons.

SPEAKER_01 6:48

So was it scary or just normal?

SPEAKER_06 6:50

Well, after a while you get used to it, you know. Well the whole war was scary. It was a matter of uh uh short yourself food. Yeah, because you had to grow we had to have a garden. I mean, we my dad uh r rented a a piece of property where we had a garden, and you know, we had to turn that over by hand and plant uh vegetables. Vegetables, potatoes, vegetables, potatoes. There was no meat. There was no meat.

SPEAKER_01 7:17

For how long did you not have vegetables?

SPEAKER_06 7:19

And if you want some uh sweetener, you boil some sugar beets. See, the crop growing kept going on because the Germans shipped it all out east, all towards the eastern front. When they invaded Russia, they needed food to supply with them, you know, and that was that went on for like two and a half years. That all the food that was being raised was shipped. The good foods, you know. But if if if there was a cow that died, or a uh horse that died, there was a slaughterhouse in out of town, a small slaughterhouse, and the guy and his bicycle uh with a bell would ring a bell and drive through town.

SPEAKER_03 8:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 8:00

So if you were lucky to get a piece of meat from a horse, that's about it. Yeah. And that was in 1944, 44, 45.

SPEAKER_01 8:09

What would your parents tell you, kids, about it? What would they say? What were their feelings at the time?

The Regiment On The Street: War Arrives

SPEAKER_06 8:16

Well, I was just a young man, you know. I was born in 1933, so I was only seven years old when the war broke out. What do I know about it, you know? Well, they they they were just, they were worried about getting food on the table. Yeah. My mother and the we were lived in a farm community. The farmer still had cows. The cows had my mother would go in the mornings at 4:30 and help the farmer milk cows. And she was, she always told me how fast she could milk cows. She could like milk, my like nine cows she could milk. She was the fastest. So, and of course, that helped us because you're able to take some milk home. Yep. Yeah, it was a tough time for, especially the last two years. The first three years, 1940, 41, 42, 40, we didn't know much about the war until later on and the bombers started flying over. You will not believe. At night, we lived in a line between England and Bremen, Hamburg, and Germany. Direct line. And in 1944, the bombers started flying over. B-52s. I mean, like hundred at a time. At night you could see it, and you can see the streaks of the firing of the Germans shooting out of flares. It was probably early 1945 when the bombers flew over during day raids. And you would not believe 30, 40 of those big bombers at a time flying over a town. And one was shot down.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

You saw it?

SPEAKER_06 9:55

Well, we saw we saw when the Germans picked up the pilot.

unknown 9:59

Wow.

SPEAKER_06 10:00

And in our town, and they had him in a they had him in the back of a truck, and he was shot in the lake. And I'll never forget we walked over there. As a kid, we walked over there. In the back of a German truck, he sat. And that was right above our our little town in the northern part of Holland. Yeah. Oh, that was, but uh there were like like 50, 60 airplanes at a time flying over later on this big bombers. Then pretty soon, boom, if you could hear it, that's close by. Yeah, it was it was a crazy upbringing for uh for a young person, you know, when you're 12 years old.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

Yeah, that's surreal to think about that you actually saw that that we only see in movies.

SPEAKER_06 10:40

I'll never forget that. I mean, sure.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 10:43

No, that was that was that was a crazy deal.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

Was there anything you were missing uh from before the German officers came?

SPEAKER_06 10:51

Yeah, I was missing Santa Claus not bringing any presents.

SPEAKER_01 10:54

Oh yeah, yeah, with Christmas coming up.

SPEAKER_06 10:59

Uh well, yeah, the the food shortage, the food shortage, that was terrible.

SPEAKER_01 11:06

Yeah, as a young kid was it so hard to understand.

SPEAKER_06 11:09

We had food and now we had all the food in the world here.

SPEAKER_01 11:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 11:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 11:15

Exactly. The food shortage was wicket. Yeah, you know, when you don't have any milk and you don't have any stuff like that, you don't see any ice cream for Christ's sakes.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 11:26

No, none of that stuff.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

Did you get closer with your neighbors?

SPEAKER_06 11:31

Well, we had neighbors. We lived in a small town. We had neighbors on both sides.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 11:36

Uh we got along with that. The problem is there were a lot of sympathizers that belong that uh uh actually were pushing for the Germans. I would say ten percent of the nut the Dutch population was pro-German.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

So was it hard to know who you could trust? Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_06 12:00

Yeah. It uh you just remember now, I was young.

SPEAKER_01 12:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 12:04

So the the question you're asking, uh I can only remember those uh from what I could see the parents talk about.

SPEAKER_05 12:12

Yes.

SPEAKER_06 12:12

You know, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 12:13

Yeah.

Hunger, Rations, And Night Bombers

SPEAKER_06 12:14

And you have to be very careful what you said because uh if you were anything pro-German at all, what they call an NSB or a national socialistic bewaging, they call that, you were pro-German. Yeah, yeah. And you know, it all started in the 30s. The the 30s were difficult, no different here. The 30s were very difficult years of uh uh struggling through it.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

Can you remember any uh acts of kindness from other people in the community?

SPEAKER_06 12:47

Well, there were some acts of kindness, yeah. Especially when my mother worked for the farmer, and they would give us some extra stuff. Oh, though there was no doubt about that. Yeah. Or or the neighbor next door, uh, he would have some apple trees behind a house, and we were able to get some extra. Oh uh yeah, but there wasn't much to give. The town we lived in wasn't was not a very well-to-do town. The farmers on the outside, they were well-to-do. But uh the interior, we had a bakery in the middle of our town. But you know, there was there was there was nothing going on. Country was at a standstill. It was at a standstill for especially from 43, 44 into 45. We were dominated by the Germans until they left.

SPEAKER_01 13:38

Do you remember hearing that the war was over?

SPEAKER_06 13:40

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Um it was probably the 15th of May 1945. The troops were already within 10 miles from where we lived. We knew that. They were moving north. There's a large city that we lived 10 miles from on the on the north side of it, and they were already bombing that city. So we knew, we knew that the Germans were being chased out.

SPEAKER_02 14:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 14:10

And and uh the night before the war was over with, they had left. They left on a horse and wagons back into uh the small border town into Germany, which is probably about 30 kilometers or 18 miles, whatever. And and they left the night before. And and they escaped back to Germany, although it didn't help them because the war was over with. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:36

Did you celebrate?

SPEAKER_06 14:38

Celebrate, yeah. We were just happy.

SPEAKER_01 14:41

What did you do to celebrate?

SPEAKER_06 14:43

We well we we got liberated by Canadians.

unknown 14:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 14:47

All of a sudden we had large trucks coming into our town, and they stopped, they celebrated, and they shed rockets off with flares, but beautiful because those were the same flares they used to find bombers, and they were using those. They were shooting us up. And they had the whitest damn bread I have ever seen. I'm not kidding you. And they were Canadians, yeah. Pure white bread. It was fabulous. Wow. I remember, I mean, us kids walking up to the back of those trucks when they came into town. Yeah. Mm-hmm, 1945. The Dutch have the red, white, and blue flags and orange flags. The the, you know, it's it's a kingdom or whatever. And uh the large orange flags are from here to the wall, and all of a sudden, quite a few of those came out. You know, you were not allowed to have a flag out during the war, you know. Oh my god. Red, white, and blue, and then orange, the with with the house of orange, they call it, which is a kingdom, the queen, the queen was Wilhelmina. Yeah, she was she was the queen, and and they all went to England. All the family of the royal family in Holland all went to England. And that's where they survived the war. Yeah, they were not in they were not in Holland. Okay, they all went to England. And of course, it was only you know four forty miles away, and England was being bombed pretty heavily. Wow, no kidding. The V2 ones, the rockets, and uh, that was pretty wicked.

SPEAKER_01 16:22

So looking back, what do you think that experience did for your life? Anything positive or just negative?

SPEAKER_06 16:36

Let me let me put it this way, don't ever go through a war. Yeah. It's terrible. You know, and uh uh just just the just the just the the the size of the the the bombers flying over, the noise at night being shot at, uh uh knowing what's going on. Uh yeah. When you're a child, uh it's probably totally different when mom and dad are worried about the kids, they're worried about, you know, yeah. Oh we should never have another war. It's terrible.

SPEAKER_01 17:10

Did loud noises scare you for a long time?

SPEAKER_06 17:14

Well, at night when you're laying in bed and you hear boom, boom, you see flares and rockers and yeah, planes flying over within probably a quarter of a mile above you.

SPEAKER_03 17:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 17:25

Like 50 at a time. Scared, absolutely, because there was no protection. We didn't have any place to go. We laid in bed. Uh-huh. In a small town, and a direct flight path. No kidding. Uh, Edward, that was the scary part.

SPEAKER_03 17:43

Yeah.

Liberation And The Whitest Bread

SPEAKER_06 17:44

No kidding, that was a scary part.

SPEAKER_01 17:47

So then when you were 23, you took the boat ride over to New York City. What was it like when you got to New York City?

unknown 17:57

Oh.

SPEAKER_06 17:59

Well, let's see now. We got a message all of a sudden. Dad applied for immigration. It took three years before our name came up. And all of a sudden, we got a message. Uh, you have to be in Rotterdam the 29th of January. You will be leaving on a Dutch on a Dutch Ocean liner and immigrate. So get get your visas, get your papers, and and be there when the ship leaves. So we we had to go into the city of Rotterdam and You had to sell everything? Yeah, oh yeah, yeah. And that was a matter of weeks to get rid of it. Although we know we were gonna immigrate. So so so some of the household was slowly, you were not gonna buy anything for sure. So it was suitcases, you know, and uh and a lot of uh a box, probably the size from here to the wall, where we did we had some beautiful furniture, old-style furniture, that were all put in that box and and that was shipped on the same tr on the same um uh uh uh ship.

SPEAKER_01 19:07

What was the ship like? Did you meet any?

SPEAKER_06 19:09

Oh, the ship is a beautiful ocean line, what you see today. Yeah, you go have you been on a cruise? Oh, it looks like a cruise. Yeah, a cruise ship, that's ice.

SPEAKER_01 19:19

That must have been exciting.

SPEAKER_06 19:21

Well, no, yeah. Exciting and scary. Well, you know the war was over. It was exciting. What's gonna happen? Yeah, when we left Rotterdam, we went to La Havre, France, and then we went to to Cobe Islands, and then from Cobe Island to New York City.

unknown 19:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 19:40

Did you meet took five days, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

Did you meet any interesting characters on the Well we met some we met some people?

SPEAKER_06 19:47

It was it was a ship full of immigrants.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 19:49

And they were all going to Michigan. They were they they lived probably with five miles from where he lived. Because we knew those people. So the whole ship was full of people that were immigrating. Yep. And it all ended up uh either in Michigan or we ended up in Minnesota, some maybe in California, whatever. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 20:07

How long before you went from New York to Minnesota?

Crossing The Atlantic To America

SPEAKER_06 20:12

Oh, it took probably a full day and one night. And it was a it was a stop train. It stopped every damn little town that you can think of. And uh and us not being used to colored people. We had black porters on board. And and uh they were super nice. I mean super nice, you know. Uh uh it was an experience. The train was loaded with people. It was actually a bad trip. From but from New York to Chicago, it stopped at every community that you can think of. It took like uh a day and a full day and a full night to go that far. And then we had, we were lucky when we arrived in New York, there was a lady that converted English, Dutch to English, and and and she was with that immigration group. It was all pre-planned. And she helped us out getting getting on aboard the train. And then we got to Chicago, we had the same help again. Because none of us could speak English. We couldn't speak English. Oh, it got limited, you know, yes and and no, and that's about it. So that that that was that was worse than flying. That that train trip for a day and a half, or almost two days, from New York to sh to Minneapolis was worse than being on a boat. The boat was beautiful. You know, seasick, but it was beautiful. Yeah, and then we got picked up uh by uh the the people that sponsored us, uh in in St. Paul.

SPEAKER_01 21:44

Did you have a relative in this area and that's why you came to Minnesota?

SPEAKER_06 21:49

Yeah, my dad. But they came they came a hundred years ago.

unknown 21:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 21:54

They they lived south of Morey were farmers.

SPEAKER_01 21:56

On your dad's side.

SPEAKER_06 21:58

My dad's side, right.

SPEAKER_01 21:58

Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 22:00

And they were uh Nick Acker Nick Nick Nick Ackerman, yeah? Okay and Henry Ackerman, farmers. And they were good. They were really, really worked out really well. And we stayed with them for two weeks until uh dad found a job right away. Uh he sponsored buying us a house. Yeah, houses were relatively cheap those days. And uh right downtown Mora, small home, perfect. So we moved into that.

SPEAKER_01 22:33

And somebody took you under their wang. Who was it that took you under their wang?

First Jobs, A Mentor, And Skills

SPEAKER_06 22:39

Well, I I was a I went to a trade school in the Netherlands. I I was still going to night school, as a matter of fact. I was uh not only a painter, but but as a signed painter. I had a really good job. I had a good job. I worked for a large sugar beet company. I was uh a painter at at the at the plant. So I had a really, really a well-paying job, uh, 45. We still work Saturday mornings those days, you know, half a day. Uh and I was I was still going to night school to further my education because if you want to start your own business, you had no choice. You have to become uh from a beginner to a master craftsman. If you didn't have that master's degree, you could not start your own business. So you know, when you were a own business person, you had that education. Yeah. So that was that was that was that was the good part of being uh, you didn't have any flunky that owned his business because that this he was not able to. So that was good. So I was I was good I was a painter, a sign painter, a decorator, and there was nobody in Mora that would hire me. There was a place in Malacca at one time that had the painting business, but they were not hiring, so I was out of work, didn't have anything to do for about a month, applied for a job at the at the big plant and water that made dairy equipment. A huge plant. They had like 500 people working there. So I was hired. Dad went to work, my dad was a welder. I mean, he was a really so he got hired right away, which was really good. You know, and the wages, you know, compared to what he was making in the Netherlands, was just fabulous. Holy crap. Anyhow, the uh desponses helped him find a house, bought a house. Uh I got a phone call about the middle of March that they would hire me at the same plant, uh, polishing stainless steel, because they were a big manufacturer of equipment that was shipped all over the USA to make powdered milk and condensed milk. You know, sweetened condensed milk, you know what that is. Came all the out of those big machinery. I mean, tubes this big and higher than this, and dryers, the size of this room, would be sprayed and got powdered milk, and all made out of stainless steel. So it was a that was a fantastic place. So I was hired, and I learned how to polish inside the shop. It was a really a good foreman out of Ogilfe that kind of took me on my wings. He was really a super guy. Don Warson was his name, Watson. And uh, so I worked in the plant for three months. And then he asked, Do you want to go travel with somebody and help install equipment that is being used all over the USA, powdered milk and that kind of stuff? Well, what the heck, adventurous, right? I mean, I couldn't, I didn't have a car, I couldn't even drive, you know. So yeah, I'd like to try that. So the guy kind of took me under his wings.

SPEAKER_01 26:00

What did you appreciate most about him?

SPEAKER_06 26:03

What did I?

SPEAKER_01 26:04

What did you appreciate most about him?

Adventures Installing Dairy Plants

SPEAKER_06 26:07

Oh, he he he knew. He took me underneath his wings. He showed me, he called me, he taught me how to drive, he taught me how to become a welder. Not only the but all of those beginnings, I was ambitious. I was strong, I was physically in great shape. Uh so I worked for him for probably a year. We traveled from Kansas to Mississippi to all over the USA in a pickup, but all the equipment on it that we then repaired and installed equipment. So after probably a year and a half of that working for him, they asked me, do you feel like you want to do this on your own? You be the boss, you'll be having your own pickup. Oh, God, it's an adventure. So I said, Yeah, we'll give it a shot. So I had a helper that went with me. His name is Dickinson, Keith Dickinson, I'll never forget it. He's a super nice guy. So we worked together, we traveled together, we installed equipment. All within the US and Canada for about a year and a half. And then uh I was asked, you want to go? We have we have sold several jobs in Spain. Would you go with uh a supervisor and you install that equipment, being in Spain for whatever time it takes? Wow, what an adventure. And I think the reason they probably asked me to go because being I was born in Europe, I just left there, gave me a chance to go travel back to Holland from Spain, you know, just a hop skipping a jump. So we went to Spain, the Granada Spain, one of the most beautiful cities in southern Spain. Have you ever heard of the song Granada? It sang drum and it drum or sing Fan Granada. It's a beautiful song. Anyhow, it is a town, it's it's built by the Moors. Moors on the outside of Spain, they're they're black people. They built a cathedral. Um, probably Oh my god, uh, the the the inside coupon was all mosaic, mosaic, the little pieces of rock. So we stayed, we worked in, we worked in Granada for like three months. We put equipment in. And that was that was really a fascinating town to be uh because the the girls with the castayettes and the the the dance, oh my god, it was it's just fantastic. So that was fun. I back to I went back to Holland, a couple of side trips. So anyway, we got the job done. Get back to the more we got the we got the job done that needed to get done after three months being in Spain. Then we went back to the US, of course, and started all over again, different towns. And then the and then then uh a little bit later on, there was a job in Brazil. Another one of our people that would be would have been my boss. They uh uh kind of an engineer. So flew to Rio de Janeiro on a 24-hour flight trip and spent three months out there and just outside of Rio de Janeiro, inland. That was interesting. So but uh it was an experience. It was fun, it was good. So that basically my job by those people uh was it was it was neat, it was a great learning experience traveling all over the US. I s I spent more time in in California than any state. Fabulous. I thought California was just beautiful. I worked in um 47 states off and on installing equipment and in a in about a in about a 15-year period. So and then uh got tired of traveling, kids grew up. Uh so basically that was my traveling experience, installing a dairy equipment. And then uh kids grew up, got married, uh girl from Brunswick area, wonderful person, got married, had children. And uh got tired of traveling, kids kept growing up, so I quit uh traveling plastic plane anymore. I'd been there several years and asked me if I want to come in and work to maintenance equipment, tomatoes work. I'd done that for the next twenty five years. Basically that's my life and more after that. Oh, it's been a great town. Yeah, joined the JCs, joined the Lions Club, joined the Vassalope, become involved with the community.

SPEAKER_01 31:18

Yep.

SPEAKER_06 31:18

We've done a lot of that.

SPEAKER_01 31:20

When you went back to Holland, what was that like?

SPEAKER_06 31:23

Oh, it was it was unbelievable just going back and seeing some of the people that I grew up with.

SPEAKER_03 31:29

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_06 31:30

Yeah, but because my sisters were still there. Oh it was not like, you know, I hadn't seen them for a while. They did not immigrate, I told you earlier, the other didn't go. So that was super. Spent a week there, that's all, just a few days. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:48

What was your first impression of America?

SPEAKER_06 31:51

Pardon me? My first impression of America? It's big. It's it's a you know, it's a it's a long drive from if you drive from St. Paul to Mora, you're driving across the Netherlands, east and west. You know, Holland is one-third the size of Minnesota. So everything is big. Everything is far away. When you go up north, hell you go. 400 miles for Christ's sake from the southern part to the northern part. You know.

SPEAKER_01 32:21

What was your first impression of the people?

SPEAKER_06 32:25

Well, the people are no different. The people at Genders, the people were nice. The the people were curious because we were immigrants. You know, and uh I have been told certain things that maybe I didn't like. Well, why the hell don't you go back where you came from? There were some really jerks. There were some some there were some people who were not very nice, you know. Because I I was probably a little outspoken, a little forward in my opinions at the time or two, and and I something I didn't like, whatever. Well, why the hell don't you go back?

SPEAKER_01 33:00

So they only said that when they were mad at you.

SPEAKER_06 33:03

Probably.

SPEAKER_01 33:04

Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 33:06

Mad or or something else.

SPEAKER_05 33:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 33:08

Yeah, whatever. Yeah. But I loved it. I I think fan as the US is f fabulous. Absolutely fabulous. At least you can you can say, well, uh, maybe I don't like our previous president, I don't like this one, whatever. You know, at least you have that opportunity. And and and and uh just stay on the on on an even keel side so you don't get some people get very opinionated and get in trouble. No, I I I I I think uh because you have such a variety of people from different countries. Everybody, everybody came from someplace. You think about your great-grandparents or grandparents, where the hell they came from. Yeah, yeah. They came from Norway or Sweden or from there was a tremendous amount of people from the Scandinavian countries, Sweden especially. Yeah, yeah.

Family, Settling Down, And Community

SPEAKER_01 34:06

So the guy who took you under his wing, do you think that could be why you are so encouraging now? Because you had such an encouraging person? Yeah. Did he help you become the encouraging person that you are now?

SPEAKER_06 34:23

Well, he's the one, he's the one that after traveling with him after about he he was the foreman. He did all the welding, he knew all the polishing, he he knew all reading the blueprints, he knew all of that. He gave me that opportunity to work with him, he would let me do some of those things later on. And I and after a year or two and uh getting into blueprint classes and all that kind of stuff, I was able to do it then on my own. But he's the one that helped me out. And I always appreciated that. Yeah. And unfortunately, uh, he quit his job and left town that I never got to hear about him again. You know, it was kind of sad.

SPEAKER_01 35:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 35:05

Dwayne Keister, never forget his name. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:10

So now you live on the golf course.

SPEAKER_06 35:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:13

Did you golf a lot last summer?

SPEAKER_06 35:15

Golf. I did not know how to golf until I was 47 years old.

SPEAKER_01 35:21

But did you golf last summer?

SPEAKER_06 35:24

Did I golf last summer?

SPEAKER_01 35:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 35:25

Yeah, oh yeah. Oh sure. Oh, I will golf again this summer.

SPEAKER_01 35:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 35:31

Hopefully.

SPEAKER_01 35:32

I heard one year that you golfed your age.

SPEAKER_06 35:36

Yeah. Well though, you have to remember the older you get, the easier it is to shoot your age.

SPEAKER_01 35:41

Yeah. What what age was that?

SPEAKER_06 35:44

No. It's been a long time ago since I shot my age.

SPEAKER_01 35:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 35:48

No, I I couldn't do that anymore. No. Although I can still play you know pretty decent. Yeah. I can still beat Steve Oakers. So he gets pissed off when I do that.

SPEAKER_01 36:00

Yeah. Um there's a story about you on hole 11.

SPEAKER_06 36:08

Uh oh, you mean when I fell down the water? Uh was it a swamp? We told you that story.

SPEAKER_01 36:14

I talked to a lot of people. But was it water or a swamp? You were trying to get a bottom.

SPEAKER_06 36:20

It was on the edge of a swamp, when it went steep like that, a grassy surface. And my my ball had ended up. It's a par three. It's a short hole, so I hit a nine-iron or whatever in the land on the edge of uh on the edge of the water, some grassy stuff. It looked like it was solid. So I stepped on it, and I was all of a sudden up to here. My neck and mud. They had to jerk me out of there, put me in a backup of pickup on the tailgate and a blanket, and I was living in town. I went from there, took all my clothes I was in my garage at home and jumped in the shower, and went back to the golf course an hour later.

SPEAKER_01 37:04

And finished around.

Golfing Late And Swamp Mishap

SPEAKER_06 37:08

I have a picture at home that somebody made. There's no secret, John can walk on water. Johnny Check, a friend of mine made that picture. That's good. He's still around.

SPEAKER_01 37:23

I heard that you have a um handwriting track.

SPEAKER_06 37:28

Oh, I told people I can drive I can I can write left-handed backwards.

SPEAKER_01 37:34

Backwards? Yeah. Can you say that?

SPEAKER_06 37:36

Well, I can try it again. And I've been telling people, no, this is really odd. No, this is John Ackerman.

SPEAKER_01 37:44

Okay. Where did you learn to do that?

SPEAKER_06 37:50

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 37:51

Just did it?

SPEAKER_06 37:52

Yeah. I've been I've been teasing people. I said, the reason during the war, I would write something left-handed and the Germans could get not figured out what I was talking about.

SPEAKER_01 38:03

Because that's what I had heard is that it was a trick you used in the military. I was so the enemy is kind of a child.

SPEAKER_06 38:10

During the war I was a child, you know, I had nothing to do with that, you know.

SPEAKER_00 38:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 38:13

You know.

SPEAKER_00 38:14

Okay, so just a joke.

SPEAKER_06 38:16

But but uh yeah, it's uh it's been an interesting year living in Mora, Minnesota, I can tell you that. Some fantastic people.

SPEAKER_01 38:26

You've painted the dollar horse a few times.

The Giant Dala Horse Project

SPEAKER_06 38:29

Do you know the story about the dollar horse? I was in the JC's many years back, many, many years back. And uh people had been in Sweden, the Sweden's sister city of Mora. And when you go to Sweden, the province Dallarna, there's a dollar horse, huge, the same size as what we got here. And uh I think it might have been Glenn Johnstone who uh was uh the original instigator that maybe we should have a sister city, being we were a sister city, copy a dollar. So the JCs were asked to participate in that. And uh there was a large group of people that were but had belonged to the JCs at that time. And Danny Schultz was one of the probably one of the first people that really got involved in that. And then we went to a farmhouse and we started framing. We said we're gonna the JCs are gonna build a dollar house. So um it was a small farm out of town. The guy had a big building that we were able to go inside and frame it with angle irons and stuff. Put that on a haywack, and when the framing was done, I mean this whole big thing, and it was a pad port, and he put the framing, the metal framing on top of that fat. And from there on, it was all filled in with different angles and belting this and belt. I mean, it's a huge project by a lot of people. And uh being there was a plastic, there was a plant in town that made houseboats, uh, you probably know that, uh, they make those beautiful houseboats and made out of plastic, you know, fiberglass. So when the framing was done of that of that big, beautiful dollar horse, uh, built to scale by an engineer more here that gave us all the, gave us all the measurements that should be here, this and this, uh, they came in and sprayed it. They brought their equipment and sprayed it. Yeah. And uh the spray color was, you know, like like this. Bronze. Kind of a kind of a cream, creamy color. And uh and when you paint over uh that type of spray, you have to have special paint. At least the original coat. And that was surprised too by company in town botel. And uh I'm not bragging, but I was involved being in charge of painting the dollar horse. So got all the original coating done with some help, got it all smoothed now, and then I took a dollar horse that we had gotten from Sweden, I took I took a copy of that and used that design to after, and we had to paint a horse orange for first, of course. That was a heck of a job, and then laying out the the the design. And basically I was the only one that did that. I'm not bringing up, I was the only one.

SPEAKER_03 41:40

That's right.

SPEAKER_06 41:41

And laid it out, laid it out, uh with scaffolding around it, standing on step leathers, and painted the design, they had the red, the blue, the white, and got that all done with. And it was done. Yeah, and then uh here we got it in more here. I repainted it every year for the next five, every for the last five years at a time. And finally, about five years ago, uh, there's a gentleman in town here, he was a he was also a painter, but he was really on the high-scale type, whatever. And he says, okay, we've got to we gotta find different paint and just paint. So uh he got involved, and we got the car company in town, spray it, painted a design again, helped him with that, sprayed it again, and now it's like painting, like what you got on a car. You put a final coat on it. Now it's we don't have to do it anymore. At least not, you know, for many, many years. Because it's got five years now. Because it has a coating on it now, like a car.

SPEAKER_01 42:53

Yep.

SPEAKER_06 42:53

So it lasts much longer than five years, much longer.

SPEAKER_01 42:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 42:56

So that's been done now. That that's that was super, and that's what you see today.

SPEAKER_01 43:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 43:01

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 43:02

Well, it's so beautiful. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_06 43:08

Oh, the trees are fun people.

SPEAKER_01 43:12

And you carved dollar horses? Did you bring one with?

SPEAKER_06 43:15

I did I show you one.

SPEAKER_01 43:17

Yeah, did you bring one with today?

SPEAKER_06 43:19

No, I I didn't.

SPEAKER_01 43:21

Oh, okay. But you carved you carve little ones and big those.

SPEAKER_06 43:25

I have a dollar horse that I was gonna give to you and I forgot it at home.

SPEAKER_01 43:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 43:30

I I paint I paint big ones and little ones.

SPEAKER_01 43:32

Yeah, yeah, and you carve them yourself. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 43:35

Yeah. I do all the carving. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I got a couple of little things. I think I might look at my coat pocket. I I made a couple of little carvings for you girls.

SPEAKER_01 43:49

Oh, a Santa Claus. Beautiful.

SPEAKER_06 43:52

I have one for you for I have two of them.

SPEAKER_01 43:54

So you were in the Lions Club, the JCs were. At the country club and the Vaselope. Do you think service keeps a person young?

Carving, Service Clubs, And Pride

SPEAKER_06 44:10

The GCs were involved with the swimming pool. That was a big project to start with. And then uh I became a hockey coach for about 14 years. Got involved with building the ice arena. And that was fantastic. Indoor arena in the town of Mora. Got involved with the Jay C's building a swimming pool, you know. So all of those projects were not one person. They were a fantastic group of people. And there was always somebody in charge. So, you know, and so you always try to help out, and if you're a member of the Lions or the Jay C's, or uh the Tonamora, uh, the indoor ice arena is fabulous. And most of it was done that volunteer work. Same thing with the Dollar Horse, the swimming pool, the ice arena. It was an unbelievable group of people in the sound, the the Vassalovit. It was more so years ago than what it is today, I think. Maybe the people are more uh uh happy with what they have already. We don't need anything else or whatever, or not as aggressive or not as uh innovative. I I don't know. I don't know. It it seems that way to me, but I could be wrong.

SPEAKER_01 45:40

Is it important that we uh work in groups like that?

SPEAKER_06 45:44

Oh, I think it's it's if you want to live in a good community, it's important. Why do we have a beautiful golf course? Because we have a lot of volunteers to keep it beautiful. How many towns our size, our size, have a beautiful 18-hole golf course? Yeah, I've heard it's the or a beautiful swimming pool.

SPEAKER_01 46:05

Yeah. All done with those types of civic groups, and none have a beautiful big dollar horse like ours.

SPEAKER_06 46:17

Yeah, we're yeah, we're pretty lucky. No kidding. And that's what makes it living. That's what makes the town more livable. You know, it's always livable, but I mean it those little addits, little things. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 46:32

So all around it's been a good, happy life?

SPEAKER_06 46:38

No, I have no complaints. Oh my God. First of all, how lucky I am to get as old as I am. I mean, that's a certain amount of luck involved there, you know. Not because I worked very hard at it. I I didn't really spare my body. The the I didn't always watch my weight. I, you know, I exercised a lot. I I I I I rode bike for uh 30, 40 miles a day for for many, many years.

SPEAKER_03 47:05

Wow. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_06 47:06

Oh yeah. 30, 40 miles? Oh yeah. I when I lived in Summit Lane, I lived with the Dairy Queen.

SPEAKER_03 47:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 47:13

I would take that whole back road, a black topic all the way around a couple of times. I bike. Oh yeah. Oh, I have the uh Vander Wards and Mora here where I uh ran uh 80, 80 kilometers and biked 120 miles and canoeed uh 30 miles and skied 40 kilometers. Yeah, so I done that.

SPEAKER_01 47:35

Well, I'm not surprised then that you're doing so well. That's impressive.

SPEAKER_06 47:42

So I I always I always try to stay in stay in shape sort of physically. Physically.

SPEAKER_00 47:49

Well it shows. It shows. Well, uh yeah, well, yeah, but I enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_06 47:56

I enjoyed it because uh you feel good afterwards. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:01

So what's the secret to life?

SPEAKER_06 48:05

Genes, you gotta have the right family.

SPEAKER_01 48:08

Okay.

Health, Habits, And Longevity

SPEAKER_06 48:10

There's no doubt certain amount of exercise, uh, a certain amount of food. Oh, of course, you know, you you you can you can live a much better life by doing all those right things. And and and you might even live a few years longer. But if you don't have genes in the family that are, you know, in their 80s or 90s, whatever, uh, and I've I've I've asked the doctors about that, and that's what they tell me too. He says, sure, John, he says, eat good, eat the right stuff, exercise, but in the long run.

SPEAKER_01 48:46

What was the darkest or hardest part of your life?

SPEAKER_06 48:50

What was the hardest part of my life? Moving away from Holland.

SPEAKER_01 48:56

Emigrate. That was harder than the war.

SPEAKER_06 49:02

Yeah, that was miserable because I was a young man. I had I took dan when I lived in the Netherlands, I took dance lessons. I was a soccer player, a very good soccer player, as a matter of fact. I have pictures at home, a beautiful town to be stated. I was in an acting group. Uh, I was very much involved in the town we lived in. Uh what the hell, I'm prime of my life, girlfriends, ladies, you know, uh, uh, and a lot of friends. Yeah, uh that was by far the toughest part.

SPEAKER_01 49:43

Did you regret coming here once you were here?

SPEAKER_06 49:46

Um I looked at it this way. Uh at my age, I'd bet I'd just gotten out of the service. You know, I spent 21 months in the Navy and gotten out of service. Uh, and uh I figured at my age, if I don't like it, what the hell? There's no reason that I can't go back. I know the language, I know the family, I I I know the town, I know the the country, you know, and then then there's always the distances were not a problem. Everything was already flying by airplanes, and you know what the hell. It was just the so that uh immigrating to another country like uh South Africa might have been different. You know, we had we had choices, either Canada, the US, or South Africa or whatever. My dad wanted to get out of town. He just wanted to move. He said, we're gonna do some adventures, we want to make a better life for all of us. And he did. He did. Yeah, but me leaving uh when you're 23 years old, and it was tough. Yeah, it was but I looked at it as uh being old enough that I could make my own decisions if I don't like it.

Hardest Choice: Leaving Holland

SPEAKER_01 51:06

What do you think the purpose of life is? Why are we all here?

SPEAKER_06 51:12

I'm not sure I'm gonna get it all that uh oh you don't want to answer? I am not sure that there is a purpose, that there is, you know, uh uh we're we're uh we're offsprings of people that have been around for a thousand years. Whether the what what did the beginners look like, we don't know. I I'm I I'm not afraid to admit it, I'm not a uh a very religious person. Uh not that I have anything against that. I think it's fantastic as far as for the health of the whole world. That is a you know.

SPEAKER_05 51:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 51:56

But I don't get myself too involved in that to become obsessed with it or, you know.

SPEAKER_01 52:02

Uh so if you don't think there's a purpose, are we here because of the Big Bang and evolution? Yes. Or that's what you mean.

SPEAKER_06 52:13

We are here because of an evolution. Obviously, religion affects a lot of people. And religion affects a lot of people in their behavior, which is fabulous. When it comes to churches, everybody should go to a church for the simple reason. My simple reason, there's a lot of great things come out of that, the teachings that the kids will learn. Do they want to later on to find out that religion is is more than or less than you know, I I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 52:51

What did your parents believe?

SPEAKER_06 52:54

My parents were not religious. Uh my parents never went to church.

SPEAKER_01 53:00

So church is good for knowing how to live life, you think, but it's not good for worshiping anything.

SPEAKER_06 53:12

I judge my life the way I live, not what the church dictates to me. I know right from wrong. Because my mom and dad told me that. Or you can you can you can find that out through life. You'll find out what is right from wrong. So, so, so, uh, and I'm totally happy with that.

SPEAKER_00 53:40

Great.

Belief, Morality, And Meaning

SPEAKER_06 53:41

I I have, you know, yeah. My my children are all born, they're all raised, they're all categorized, they're all went to church, they're all still active in church, uh, Carol, especially, the oldest girl. You know, she works at church every day, and and she's pretty active in and uh now. Uh my other daughter, Joni, she lives in the cities, she's totally different. You know, I don't think it matters to her if she goes to church or not. She she doesn't. You know, not because she does not believe in certain things, they just don't go to church. So uh my grandchildren, my grandchildren, yeah, they're all they're all they're all pretty churchy-going people. I think the church institution is fabulous. Yeah. No kidding.

SPEAKER_01 54:30

But you're not expecting to go up into heaven after you die?

SPEAKER_06 54:35

No, I I I but I'm d no. But uh but I'm dead, I'm dead. But I am, and I'm totally happy with that. I have no problem with that. I'm dead and then life is over with. It's just done.

SPEAKER_05 54:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 54:54

Uh you know and and like I said and I and I I'm not afraid about it. Absolutely not. So I'm having a good life, uh having fun. Uh certain things that uh, you know, that I can I can't enjoy because of my age, you know, the exercises is that kind of that all slows down and uh and uh my uh thinking process is slowly wittering, or whatever you want to call it. Don't always find my keys or Carol's my daughter's carols says, Where's your phone? I don't know. Said probably in the bathroom. Yeah, I don't know where my phone is. But I'll find it.

SPEAKER_01 55:49

Looking back on your life, what are you most proud of?

SPEAKER_06 55:53

Well, I don't know. I don't think I'd ever uh cheated anybody out of money. Uh I I've always tried to be uh I I I might have told a maybe s some lies or two. I'm not saying that. But I never hurt anybody. Uh I've I've treated my kids super. Uh my wife, family.

SPEAKER_01 56:21

Is there anything you regret?

SPEAKER_06 56:24

I suppose there are certain things that uh you might like to change or like to dun over.

SPEAKER_01 56:30

Uh how do you hope people remember you?

SPEAKER_06 56:34

Oh, that's their problem. I have no control over that. I try to be fair, I try to pay my bills and meet my obligations.

SPEAKER_01 56:46

Well, after everything you've lived through war, immigration, work, community, art, what does it mean to be human?

SPEAKER_06 56:57

What does it mean to be human? Oh if I if I was a dog, uh I'd probably be a happy dog. So you know, I I'm just um just a n I'm just that's just a normal person. I just don't know. What does it mean? There are probably certain things in the last 90 years that I would have liked to have made some small changes in.

SPEAKER_05 57:31

Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_06 57:33

I d I I don't know. You know?

SPEAKER_01 57:36

Yeah. Well, thank you for being such an encouraging person to everybody around you.

SPEAKER_06 57:42

We'll try to we'll try to maintain that sort of um attitude. So see what happens.

SPEAKER_01 57:49

Yeah. It's been lovely talking to you. Thank you for telling me about your life.

SPEAKER_06 57:54

I'm glad that you went.

SPEAKER_01 57:56

Well. And thank you for creating so much art in our community and being so involved.

Legacy, Gratitude, And Goodbye

SPEAKER_06 58:03

Yeah. You know, those are some uh b byproducts in life that some people enjoy it and some people don't. Uh I enjoy I enjoy having friends. I enjoy being with friends. Uh I'm not afraid to try anything.

SPEAKER_01 58:25

Uh all right. Thanks, Johnny. Thanks for coming on.

SPEAKER_06 58:29

So here's the go with us, sweethearts.

SPEAKER_01 58:31

Wonderful. It was great.

SPEAKER_06 58:32

Yep.