Old-time Music

I own only one polka music CD, a signed copy. But whenever I hear polka music I will stop to listen and that includes Lawrence Welk. I honestly don’t know what I like about it. It may be the memories it triggers, the simple beat, or the happy, light-hearted feeling it creates in me.

There are three times when polka music seems very fitting. One is on Sunday. My folks used to take the five of us out for a Sunday drive, while listening to polka music. It typically happened during the three weeks of warm weather we get here in Minnesota. We would drive around the country listening to Mom and Dad talk about who married who from where, where they were building and what they were doing now. So now when I am driving on Sunday I will turn on KCHK and listen to “old-time music.” Sometimes, I even get the urge to roll-down the window and gossip.

I also like polka music at a wedding dance, which is becoming a rare sound as the population ages. The third place is at summer festivals. Polka music just seems right at home with the sights and sounds of a fair.

Rhonda and I were walking around the Scott County Fair one year (maybe last year, maybe the year before – I don’t know) when we were drawn into the beer garden by the sound of old-time music. Playing in the back of the tent was a three-piece band: drums, tuba and a concertina.

I immediately recognized the concertina player, the leader of the band - Ernie Stumpf. I used to hang around his house waiting for his daughter, Sue, to get ready before I took her to a movie. She introduced me to Led Zeppelin, and I’m pretty sure she still has one of their albums I had bought, which I then lent to her.

It was 1976 or 1977; I was 17. Ernie was a husband and father, worked a full-time job, farmed, and then somehow found time to learn how to play the concertina, a complicated musical instrument.

A concertina has dozens of buttons or keys that are alternately pressed and released by the fingers on each hand while the squeeze box is pushed and pulled. He had a little set-up in the basement: a couple chairs, a drum and his concertina. Here was where his musical career began.

After the band finished playing the song I walked up and introduced myself. A smile that said “I remember you” lit up his face.

“I never would have recognized you,” he said.

He hadn’t changed – although, I was quite sure I had. I was no longer a teenager; in fact I am older now than he was in 1977. His age was hidden within him. He still had his full head of hair and the same genuine smile.

During the next break he came over and sat at our table, which was only fitting as I had sat at his table many times. He and I talked over a beer, something that would have been frowned upon in 1977. He spoke about the band and how most of the time he plays to Wisconsin crowds. Some of his former band members have passed away – but he keeps playing.

Then his break was over, and he got back to his music. During the next break I bought one of his CD’s – even had him sign it. I think I made a good trade – a Led Zeppelin album for one of his CDs. It’s even signed by the leader of the band.