DAYS
Random Stories And Thoughts
Those were hard days in the early 1900's in Wisconsin. They came on the heels of the tough years of the late 1800's. Many of our Norwegian relatives worked on the railroads...primarily the Soo Line. Laborers called section hands, built and maintained the miles of track that connected Colfax with the world. My father, his father and uncles and his grandfather all worked on the railroad.
William Stockland was my grandfather. He worked hard and he drank hard. He wasn't the easiest man in the world to get along with. These were tough times and he probably dealt out about the same that he himself had been dealt. That's never an excuse but he must have occasionally done something right because his kids turned out to be pretty fine people. Whatever cycle of abuse and violence that existed certainly got interrupted by them.
Years of hard work built Roland into a pretty muscular guy. The story is told that once he came to the aid of his mother while his father was being abusive and knocked the man out with a frying pan.
My father was about 10 when he managed to chop off the end of his middle finger with a hatchet at a family picnic. He took the severed digit to Grandma Olson saying: "Look at this Grandma!" She dutifully fainted.
In Colfax, tavern owners would allow a wife to "blacklist" an errant husband who was spending too much time and money in the watering hole. She could go to the owner and have her husband's name written on the board and he would be denied service. My father said a man would enter the bar after a hard day and would be devastated at seeing his name listed!
