Friday, August 31, 2007
"Two Songs for Labor Day" film clip pays homage to U. P. workers
CALUMET -- The 1913 Massacre Film Project by the Center for Independent Documentary has posted "Two Songs for Labor Day," a clip from the film in progress, on YouTube.com. The clip features songs by Calumet musician Oren Tikkanen and friends as well as Arlo Guthrie. The film project is named for the song "1913 Massacre" by Arlo's father, the late Woodie Guthrie, and includes interviews with local Calumet residents, former miners and their descendants. Visit YouTube for the film clip and read more about the project and how you can support it on the 1913 Massacre Web site.
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In the 1970s, when I was about 19, I was listening to my new Arlo Guthrie album when I heard him singing about a massacre in Calumet. It sent chills up my spine when I realized that he was singing the same story my grandmother had told me when I was about 10 years old. My grandmother, Elizabeth Rautio, grew up on a farm in Osceola, just outside of Calumet. She used to tell me stories about her younger days. On one warm summer day in the 1960s, the two of us were sitting on the bench in front of her home in Painesdale. Lizzy told me about a party she was suppose to go to, but for some reason, didn’t. During the party someone held the door shut and then yelled Fire!. There was no fire. Many people were trampled to death, most of them children. There was a labor dispute between the miners and their bosses. Lizzy, who was in her early 20s at the time, lost two of her best friends that evening. About a year later, Lizzy married August Saastamoinen, my grandfather, who worked in the Painesdale copper mines.
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