tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19557188.post4170501366684054280..comments2024-02-13T09:36:47.163-05:00Comments on Keweenaw Now: "Two Songs for Labor Day" film clip pays homage to U. P. workersKeweenaw Nowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17419210736799146935noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19557188.post-58773765125733817482007-09-01T11:24:00.000-04:002007-09-01T11:24:00.000-04:00In the 1970s, when I was about 19, I was listening...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.Lilahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08244349872937947116noreply@blogger.com