North Star Lane — Home

A series of regional stories with your host Michael Goldberg.

In our second episode of North Star Lane Michael welcomes two storytellers who talk about their connections to home. 

Doris Kolodji grew up in the house next door to the house her father grew up in. His mother still lived next door. Doris has raised her own family and spent her life in this place she calls home. 

Recording artist and community builder Annie Humphrey, tells of finding home while stationed overseas.  

Music provided by Sam Miltich.

For more information including links to accompany this discussion see:
https://ncdn.work/northstarlaneE0002.html

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

Michael Goldberg 0:00

Hi there, I'm Michael Goldberg on North Star Lane in northern Minnesota. We're collecting stories from folks who care about where they are and care about their connections to the place and to the people. Today, we have two stories about knowing where home is. One of them, from recording artist and community builder Annie Humphrey, tells of finding home while stationed overseas. We'll hear first from Doris Kolodji, who grew up in the house next door to the house her father grew up in. His mother still lived next door, and has raised her own family and spent her life in the place she calls home.

Doris Kolodji 0:40

So, Michael, I grew up in Chisholm, which is the center, exactly the center of the polka universe. And Iron World was there, you know, when it was Iron World, and there was lots and lots of polka dancing there. I grew up with a father who loved to dance, and my father, these are these are the things that that still to this day, 50 years later, are still so intense and strike me so deeply. And that is that guys like my dad, who was just hardened in so many ways, those guys worked in the open pits and their fathers worked underground and their parents were immigrants, and in a lot of ways they had really hard lives, and there was no fluff really anywhere. But when those old timers got on the dance floor, it was like magic. It was, they were transformed. When those old timers got on the dance floor, they were transformed. Michael, I you know, I used to go out with my mom and dad, you know, when I became, I don't know, 18, whatever the age was then. And I would go out with them just to hang out in the polka bars and dance and watch old people dance. I just loved going with them to hang out around the polka scene. There were old timers, lots of them, that could hardly walk, old people that could hardly walk. And when they got on the dance floor, they would just float. People that had really hard lives. And I'm telling you, they all you know almost came in there with walkers or a cane, and they'd come to Siobhan O'Neill and Chisholm or the Frankie Kramer's dance bar and Gilbert there, and they would just seem so decrepit. And they would, you know, they'd get to that booth and they'd sit down and order a beer. And when their favorite song came on, or when that button box really got fired up, that button accordion, they just would smile and grab their partner and they would just move with grace and ease. Just something magic to watch. That that is what is still with me. That's those old timers that had a hard life and they didn't smile much, and they just worked really hard, and some of them so old they could barely move. When they got on that dance floor, it was a different world. Old timers they shake their finger at you and say, you know, if you work hard, it's okay to play hard. And when they were on that dance floor, they were playing hard. After every song, you know, my dad would say, Clap for that musician. Don't be stingy, clap for that musician. He's working hard. So even though I grew up in Chisholm, in the heart of the pulpa dancing universe, I married a young man from the east coast. And, you know, it my dad really did kind of worry about was this kid ever, was he gonna, was he gonna be, you know, shame? Was this young man that I married from the East Coast, was he gonna be able to dance? Was he gonna be able to be in the polka hall there with every and and not embarrass the family? Um, and and don't, you know, this is just between you and I and the radio, so don't tell Corey, but you know, Corey loves to dance, and so we have polkaed and polkaed and polkaed, but he never really quite got it. I'm just saying, he's got a great heart, and he he has polkaed a million miles with me, but you know, when you compare him to the the Rangers, the Iron Rangers, he's just a teeny bit off. But it's the effort that comes, right? It's the thought that comes. Michael, my grandmother danced at my wedding and she was 80. She was 80 years old, and she danced at my wedding, and she sat in that chair, and people would kind of joke with her about dancing, and she'd kind of wave them off and grumble a little bit in Polish. And and the guy that got her up was a kid to her, one of my elders, she's one of my father's buddies from the neighborhood, and yes, come on, come, come on, yes, uh, and he grabbed my grandma's hand and pulled her on the dance floor, and my grandmother danced at my wedding. Uh polkas. Let's be clear. When when those gents asked a woman to dance, by golly, it was um it was well done. It was respectful and it was fun, and it didn't matter. Here's the other thing with those old timers that I spent a lifetime dancing with. Those old timers, it didn't matter how much they had to drink. They could drink and drink and drink and get out on that dance floor and not miss a beat and still be as graceful and as fluid as as you could imagine. It was just that dancing was like a religion for those people. And they passed that on. I was lucky to hang out with those old timers.

Michael Goldberg 6:16

Doris Kalodji on Minnesota's Iron Range. Annie Humphrey of the Leech Lake Nation. She's best known nationally as a singer-songwriter, but lately has come to be more and more known locally for her work as a community builder. She told me this story on Veterans Day last year.

Annie Humphrey 6:53

After I finished my training, my first duty station was in Okinawa. So after Desert Shield turned into Desert Storm, we just did a lot of training. So we're we were out a lot practicing, you know. We were up in the mountains, and you know, it gets kind of old after a while. But um one morning they brought these five-ton trucks were coming up and we could hear them, and they had they had two things. They had hot chow and mail. And um I was really excited for the breakfast, and um, so they were calling people's names out for mail, and I didn't even I'm like, well, whoever it is, they can wait, you know. And I just I was just enjoying my hot, warm syrup on pancakes and bacon, and this kid walked by and he dropped this package at my feet. He went and got my mail. He must have noticed I was enjoying my breakfast so much. And um it had rained so hard, and everything was wet, and even my little box was wet. Remember, it was a cardboard box, and I looked at the address and it was from my dad. And in the past, I've said my dad never wrote to me, and so getting this box was really a treat. But you know, I found a bag full of papers and things from my time in in in the Marine Corps, and I actually found a lot of letters from my dad. So I'm not sure why. Maybe it was just I didn't even get packages off all the way from the United States to Japan. So I remember I I kind of did stop eating it. I put my breakfast on the ground and and um I opened the box and it was a Ziploc bag of wild rice. And I already knew how it would smell, you know, and I remember I got up and I kind of walked away where I'd be alone. And I remember I spun my cover backwards and I I swinged my rifle. I was getting all ready to smell this, and I opened it up and sure, I and I took a whiff and deep in hell, and I could smell it. I could smell everything about wild rice, and everything that I remembered was like just alive. It was like this, like just like this explosion of home, and I could see it and I could smell it and I could taste it. And I actually I enlisted and when I when I left the recruiter came and we drove away that night, I remember thinking, I'm never coming back here. There's nothing for me here now, and I'm never gonna come back to the reservation. And um, but I remember that day when I got that package of rice in the mail and I remember thinking I I couldn't live anywhere else. When I go home, I I want to go back home. Because I had these dreams of moving to Canada or moving to um California or somewhere else, anywhere but here. And I just I knew that rice doesn't grow anywhere else, and I I couldn't live anywhere else, and I didn't know where to find the things that we harvested. I just wouldn't know where to find a walleye, and I wouldn't know where to find a patch of blueberries in California, you know. So I I came back home and um that wild rice was the moment I I realized I I would come back. And another thing I just want to say briefly about veterans is it's a really big thing that we have in common. And and I when I see veterans out in town at at LM or you know, I see the hat with you know a Vietnam veteran in any kind of conflict. I I always make it a point to thank them for their service. And I don't say I'm a Marine too or anything like that. I just thank them because that's not really that doesn't really matter right then. But I'm really thankful for veterans. And I think one of the most honorable moments in my military my connection to the Marine Corps and in the military was over 4,000 veterans self-deployed to Standing Rock. And uh there were so many that showed up at one time. They had these big GP tents set up at the camp, but there were too many. There were too many uh veterans, so we had to go to a warehouse at Fort Yates. And I just remember seeing so many men and women from different eras and uh young youngsters and oldsters, and uh it it was thousands in this warehouse. And I saw some Leech Lakers from IRES and me and my uncle, my uncle was uh a captain in the Marine Corps in um Korea, and him and I kind of gravitated toward the Leech Lakers, and the sergeant major who was speaking that night to give us our orders. And I know on Facebook it said, bring your gas mask, bring Kevlar if you have it, bring this and that. But the orders that we were given that night, all of us were just to uh uh pray. We were there to pray and to help. And there was nothing about uh puffing up our chests about anything. You know, it was really, it was really cool. I just felt so I felt so full standing in that warehouse with everybody.

Michael Goldberg 12:17

My thanks to Annie Humphrey and to Doris Kalodji and to Sam Miltich for the music. I'm Michael Goldberg on North Star Lane, sponsored by the Northern Civil Defense Network, NCDN Radio. You can find out more about the network and more stories at ncdn.work.