WEBVTT

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Lakeland PBSpbs presents Common
Ground, brought to you by the
Minnesota Arts and Cultural
Heritage Fund

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and the citizens of Minnesota.
Production funding of Common
Ground is made possible in part
by First

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National Bank Bemidji,
continuing their second century
of service to the community.
Member FDIC.

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Welcome to Common Ground. I'm
Pproducer/Director Scott
Knudson.

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In this 2- segment episode made
by the two newest additions to
Lakeland's Legacy production
team,

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we visit the Butter and Dairy
Museum in Vergas, Minnesota, and
the Crow Wing Viking Fest in
Brainerd.

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Welcome to the Crow Wing Viking
Festival. It's August 21st, and
the festival

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opened at 10 a.m this morning
and it goes to 4 30 this
afternoon. This is our 2nd
annual

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festival. We weren't, of course,
able to do it last year. There
are a ton of fun things to do
here.

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Viking Fest is a celebration
of all things Viking.

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There's so much misinformation,
and the first one is that
Vikings had horns. The

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horns came about from an 1800's
Wagner Opera. The costume
designer thought that horns on
helmets

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would be cool, and they are, but
that wasn't what the real
Vikings were about. There's a
lot of

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misconceptions about the
Vikings, my ancestors, and so
this celebrates all things
legitimately,

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real Viking. We came up with
that slogan "Real Vikings, No
Horns," There's a lot to learn,
they're

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very interesting people, very
sophisticated, very structural
society, women were held in high
esteem

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and there's a lot to know about
the Viking culture. I'm Julie
Guth, and I'm the coordinator
for the

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Crow Wing Viking festival, and
one of a group of 7 people who
do the planning for this.

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I just, I love Vikings, and so I
wanted to share actual Viking
culture, "Real Vikings, No
Horns"

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with people in the area and from
all over. I'm dan Hegstad, and I
am a volunteer with the Crow

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Wing Viking Festival. I do a lot
of the PR and Marketing, and
we're a small group so I do kind

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of whatever needs doing. One of
the reasons there's so many
people at the Crow Wing Viking
Festival is

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because there's just so much to
see and do here. If you look
around, you see so many families
and

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who wouldn't want to come to
Brainerd, Minnesota for a nice
weekend in the summer and enjoy
this?

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The kids are having a great
time, there's a whole building
of kids crafts, and things for
kids

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to do. Jacob, here, my new
friend, was showing me the craft
that he made, its a flying
dragon. "Nobody else

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made it with the flame, because
I thought it would be cool, so
it's breathing fire, this is my
shoe, the

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middle is supposed to be like an
eyeball." There's also "rune
writing," kids can write their
names in

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in runes, and it's in
self-hardening clay and there
are few other crafts in the
building as

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well. It's been a really popular
area. We have lots of food for
the whole family, and then
behind me

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the Viking encampment. It's,
what if these Vikings were
traveling and they stopped for a
few days.

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I'm here at the potters, we have
almost everything here; we have
pottery, we have wood supplies,
we have

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jewelry, we have drinking horns.
There's someone working on a
warp-weighted loom

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over there, which is what they
used to create the sails for the
ships, among other things.

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There's so many things here, all
the crafts, there's a
blacksmith, people doing
open-fire cooking.

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We also have somebody who wrote
an epic poem that he has
illustrated in a book that's
going

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to be around here, too, and he's
going to be doing readings.
"some lumpish rings, a gilded
aurochs horn

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crusted with gems, a sentry
shrieked, the devils thronged,
and all but 30 of my men were
torn

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to shrimp." We have the mock
battles, the people are really
enjoying that, it's family
friendly

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but still very realistic. They
do a great job of balancing
that, keeping it family
friendly.

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The Vikings have always
fascinated me, and of course,
you know I'm a Norwegian
American, at

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least partly, and so it's part
of my cultural heritage. I've
always wanted to know more

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and I was absolutely delighted
to find out that the Vikings did
more than just raiding,

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there was a whole really complex
culture that was highly
artistic, for one thing, and the

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ships that they built were state
of the art. I love this event
because it's real, "Real
Vikings, No Horns."

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It's fun, but the organizers
were serious that it's not going
to be silly. This isn't a
costume party,

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this is about the real Vikings,
my heritage. When I did the the
genetic test, it showed

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a very small part of Norway and
a little bit of Sweden. That's
where my people are is right
there.

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I'm all Scandinavian, and this
celebrates my ancestors, and
they were some really

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interesting people. They did
some pretty nasty stuff, there's
no question about that,

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but the culture was something to
be celebrated, and I'm really
glad to be involved in that. It
started

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because I attended a Viking
festival in Moorhead, Hjemkomst,
and I thought it was so
interesting and

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I started talking to the
re-enactors and I thought "Wow,"
"wouldn't that be a great event
to bring to the

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Brainerd community?" It's
totally different from anything
else that we have here. When we
did

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the first Viking Festival 2
years ago in Nisswa, we had no
idea how many people were going
to come

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200, 300? We had almost 950
people at that first one. We
knew we were doing the right
thing.

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Nisswa was great, but just not
enough room to even host the
1000 people that came, but here
we are

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at the Crow Wing County
Fairgrounds, which is such a
great venue for us because we
have plenty of room to do

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the mock battles, a nice
location here for the viking
encampment, tons of free
parking, all the

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food vendors, we have all that
infrastructure power and so
forth that they need. Animals,
you

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can have animals at the
fairgrounds, so we've got the
horses and the sheep and we can
expand that.

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I hope even bigger and better
than this, we'd like to add
re-enactors every year, we'd
certainly like

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even more vendors who are doing
Viking-related things to come
in, but this could be a huge
event

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for years to come. We could have
thousands of people coming to
the Crow Wing Viking Festival.

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I really think it's a regional
event, there's a lot of
Norwegians in North Dakota,
Wisconsin, all

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over Minnesota. I think people
can come here to Brainerd and
enjoy this for years to come.

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We're in Gordon's Butter and
Dairy Museum, which is located
in the lower level of the bank
in Vergas.

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Gordon owned the bank, and he
was President and Chairman of
the Board here at the bank.

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Gordon loved this sign that's
behind me that says, "What they
have created, let us preserve."

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If you do not know where you
came from, or if you do not know
what the beginning and

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the history of it was, it's
really hard to understand where
you're at. Gordon

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truly believed that, so he's
like, "Okay, I loved farming."

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He was 11 years old when he was
milking cows, once before he
went to school, and after
school.

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It was hard work, they did a lot
of the stuff themselves, even
built the barns and all the
sheds.

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they built em themselves, of
course with neighbors help. It
was an interesting time and

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this is back in the 30's. He was
very proud of his heritage,
growing up on a farm, even at
the bank

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here, he loved it when the
farmers would come in and visit.
Farming was always in his heart,
and

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stayed there. He loved the the
simplicity of it, he loved the
genuine honest hard work of it.

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as he became older and went into
a different profession,
obviously,

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he still kept that passion. Back
in the day, through the bank
here, we also clerked auction
sales

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and so I think a lot of the
stuff in the museum here, he
picked up at those auction
sales, too, by

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clerking them, and so he was
always the first one to bid on
that stuff that came up on the
auction sale.

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When he got that first piece at
an auction sale, and then the
next piece, and then people
started

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hearing about it, and I think
that's what happened in the
community, too. People started
hearing there

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was a place to put some of their
items that they had the same
passion about, that they wanted
people

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to remember. You collect one
thing, and it turned into 600
items, so you know how that
goes.

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He really loved collecting, we
rode around with him, so we
didn't miss an antique store.

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I mean, I was probably "that
high," and we hit every one
between here and Minneapolis and
Arizona, so it

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was kind of fun. Us siblings
would take turns driving him
back and forth to Scottsdale,
Arizona,

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where he wintered. You never
took the interstate, you always
took back roads, because that's

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where all the antique shops
were. There's always one churn
that he's been looking for,
forever, even

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until the day he died, was a no.
10 Daisy Churn. We've stopped at
every antique store between

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Scottsdale, Arizona and Vergas,
Minnesota looking for that no.
10 Daisy Churn and we never
found it.

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Here you had Gordon's
vision of being able to

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display not only the churns, but
then he was able to have enough
space that he could

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expand it. All that you're going
to see that's curated, that's
Gordon, he displayed it.

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This is where it all started,
this is the very first butter
churn that Gordon purchased at
an

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auction sale, and then he bought
another one and then he bought
another one, and then all

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of a sudden, it turned into...
like you're going to see over
600 items here. In this area
here, are

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just a lot of the different
churns that he had. We've got
some of the cream separators
over here,

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when you stop and think of this,
this is how milk was delivered,
this is an actual liquid
container

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that the milk was delivered in.
I think the thing that always
intrigues me, too, is when you
look at

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these butter churns, nothing's
electric. There was a lot of
work that was put into all of
this, and so

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whether I think you were shaking
the jar, or turning it, or
whatever, there

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is just ...It wasn't electric,
it was, to get to that point it

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took some some muscle, maybe
that's why everybody was so in
shape back then.

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Gordon liked to display things.
One of Gordon's other passions
was woodworking and

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so he built a lot of these
display cases. He built all the
little items that

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would hold, what we've got
here is the butter molds.

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these butter molds are so
intriguing because they are so
intricate in what they have, as
far as like a pineapple, or a

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and then that would kind of be
your signature thing, when you
would take butter to maybe a

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family gathering or whatever.
You would put the butter in
there, and you would put it down
on a plate,

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and that mold would go on top
and then the top of your butter
would just have that
beautiful ..

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whatever your symbol was, and so
theres a lot of the different
butter molds.

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Then these were the paddles,
obviously these are smaller ones
but

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I think one of the things that
Gordon..Well, he loved De Laval,
as you can see. He

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collected the different signs
and anything De Laval, he would
end up buying. This right here
is a

14:31.303 --> 14:37.977 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
Franklin cream cooler, and Ed
Franklin, who started Franklin
Fence here in Vergas, he
invented this,

14:37.977 --> 14:45.184 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
so this was a pretty big deal.
There was a new cream-grading
law thing that came out through

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the dairy states, and it
improved the quality of
everything, and he invented this
and there were

14:50.456 --> 14:54.960 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
testimonials and there were.. it
got to be a big deal. Gordon
ended up with one of those

14:57.496 --> 15:01.634 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
Franklin cream coolers, and he
was always pretty proud of the
fact that a guy from Vergas is

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who invented that. As you can
see back here, he kind of got
into some of the De Laval,

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just the little intricate type
things, they had letter openers,
just some kind

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of those things that would come
out at Christmas time. Then up
above, and you'll see this

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throughout the whole museum, are
the different cheese boxes and
so anytime, if you couldn't find

15:25.057 --> 15:31.530 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
that No. 10 Daisy Churn, you had
to buy a cheese box. There's a
cheese box from just about

15:31.530 --> 15:36.168 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
every creamery that you can
find, from Arizona to Minnesota,
so that's what those are for,
too,

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All right, what we've got here
is just a beautiful case that
Gordon loved to display probably
some

15:48.213 --> 15:52.484 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
of the more breakable things,
and because he was always hoping
that kids would come down here,
and

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so he'd have some of those
little butter dishes down there
that definitely are antiques,
and

15:58.257 --> 16:04.263 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
some of the little items came
from the creamery here, the
different things that they would
use to

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test the different cream and
different things that would make
sure that everything was working

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good. That's where he kind of
put his books and everything.
That cow he got from Germany,

16:14.540 --> 16:21.613 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
this is a hand-carved cow that a
neighbor of his went to Germany
and then they were talking

16:21.613 --> 16:27.186 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
about the butter museum, and so
they came, this came in the
mail. I remember when that
happened.

16:27.186 --> 16:30.389 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
We keep in a prominent place
here - the picture, this is the
first picture of Gordon,

16:33.125 --> 16:37.930 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
milking cows back when he was a
young kid. You don't see a lot
of machines there, I think it

16:37.930 --> 16:44.236 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
was pretty much done by hand. I
think one of the things here,
too, that I always think about,
are

16:44.236 --> 16:48.607 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
these watch fobs. You see the De
Laval, you see the cow, and I
think of this only because

16:52.277 --> 16:56.615 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
you get to a point where you've
probably collected everything
that you can as far as

16:56.615 --> 17:02.087 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
molds and separators and churns
and things like that. This was
one of the last things that he
was

17:02.087 --> 17:06.625 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
working on collecting before his
death, and I know that he was
looking for those watch fobs

17:08.994 --> 17:12.264 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
in a lot of different places,
and was trying to grow his
collection

17:12.264 --> 17:17.536 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
a little bit in that. He became
very fond of having the watch
fobs. These little milk

17:17.536 --> 17:24.476 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
covers here, again, just like
the butter boxes and just like
the cheese boxes, these were

17:24.476 --> 17:31.817 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
what identified you as a dairy,
or as a farm that would deliver
milk. This would have

17:31.817 --> 17:38.857 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
your name, "Shady Lane" or
"Catski Farm", or whatever it
was on it, and so these little
milk caps that

17:38.857 --> 17:46.732 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
went on top of the milk bottle
like this, which was, you can
see, that identified who your
dairy was.

17:49.368 --> 17:55.107 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
We're back in the area where
the ,,, When the creamery here
in Vergas closed ,

17:55.107 --> 17:59.778 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
Gordon obtained, of course, a
lot of the things that were
there. You've got like your test
tubes, this

17:59.778 --> 18:04.483 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
machine here would test the
different cream content, and
that was for making butter.

18:07.052 --> 18:12.424 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
You would have all of that, you
would have the cream cans which
would bring in the cream.

18:12.424 --> 18:18.630 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
The farmers would actually just
bring in their cream cans and
the scales, obviously this goes

18:18.630 --> 18:23.335 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
back before it would get to the
creamery, these were what were
used on the farm after

18:23.335 --> 18:25.671 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
you got past that point where
you had to do the milking by
hand.

18:28.107 --> 18:34.213 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
Then, what was in this display
case is, you know how at
Christmas everybody, all

18:34.213 --> 18:39.418 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
of the businesses, when they
used to be able to economically
afford it, they would give that

18:39.418 --> 18:43.722 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
Christmas gift away to their
patrons, to their customers; and
these are some of the
different..

18:43.722 --> 18:51.630 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
whether it be the little cream
pitchers, or some years you had
utensils, and so there's

18:51.630 --> 18:57.302 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
a display of that too. We also
have, comes back to the dairy
days, and so it's fun, he kept a
lot of

18:57.302 --> 19:03.041 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
the posters from that era too,
and so you can see the evolution
of that, from how it was such a,
it was a

19:03.041 --> 19:05.777 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
big deal in town. It was a lot
of fun and he had him dressed up
all the way back there to the
60's.

19:11.984 --> 19:17.256 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
Okay, so what you're seeing here
is, obviously all the milk
bottles and stuff,

19:17.256 --> 19:22.528 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
but these are the churns. You
notice the lone spot up here
where the No. 10 Daisy Churn

19:22.528 --> 19:27.933 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
is missing. That spot will stay
there until we get that number
10, but these are the churns

19:27.933 --> 19:32.638 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
that Gordon just, I mean, we
love, we would take these two
when we would go to Dairy Days
and

19:32.638 --> 19:37.976 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
would just take them and put
that cream in and kids would
watch all of the cream turned to

19:37.976 --> 19:43.715 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
butter. What we've got here,
which is really an interesting
machine to me, and couldn't you
just

19:43.715 --> 19:48.387 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
see a kid just loving this you
sit on the seat there this a
farmer oh just outside of
virga's

19:48.387 --> 19:53.759 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
had this you sit on the seat
there, and then you, of course,
attach this to the cow for the
milking.

19:53.759 --> 19:59.464 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
Then, it's got the hand, you
would take your feet like that
and it would go, and it was just
kind

19:59.464 --> 20:05.504 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
of a way that you didn't have to
use your hands. You got to build
up those leg muscles a lot.

20:05.504 --> 20:12.044 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
A lot of people talk about "Okay
Gordon, why do you have a Maytag
washing machine in your butter
museum?"

20:12.044 --> 20:18.016 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
Well, it's not just the mixers
that we get now that have all
the attachments with the pasta.
Back

20:18.016 --> 20:23.455 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
then, they figured that out, you
put an attachment onto the
washing machine, and it'll churn
your butter!

20:23.455 --> 20:29.595 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
So Gordon got one of those
Maytags that had the attachment
to churn the butter, and then,
of

20:29.595 --> 20:34.900 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70%
course, the information
regarding it. That was a lot of
fun for him to obtain that.

20:41.506 --> 20:47.412 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
We are in the overflow room, is
what I would call it, because
this room here was created

20:47.412 --> 20:52.818 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
when Gordon had too many things
in the other room that we were
in. It's just created a

20:52.818 --> 20:56.421 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
nice area to add some extra
things, some of the bigger
things. This cream separator
right here

20:59.291 --> 21:04.563 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
is, actually, there's only 2 of
them in the whole United States
that anybody knows about. When

21:04.563 --> 21:07.266 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
Gordon obtained it, the people
that he got it from said "You
know, it should actually be in a
museum."

21:09.434 --> 21:13.272 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
Then cream carts and the cream
cans and of course, more cheese
boxes, but

21:15.874 --> 21:21.313 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
one fun thing that we have here
is an old Vergas Street Light.
This was

21:21.313 --> 21:25.751 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
the actual street light, there's
a photograph here with it that
shows people would go around at

21:25.751 --> 21:32.057 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
night and they would light those
lights up on the streets, by
hand again, of course, it

21:32.057 --> 21:38.897 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
wasn't an electric thing. I
think I mentioned the Land O'
Lakes Creamery Christmas
ornaments

21:38.897 --> 21:44.736 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
and things too, and so he got
into that with Land O' Lakes and
just really supporting

21:44.736 --> 21:52.811 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
our area dairy people and dairy
production areas. So, all the
milk bottles here, too, so it's

21:52.811 --> 21:54.846 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
a nice spot, and of course, I
think a lot of people understand
what this is, because I think
that

21:57.916 --> 22:00.018 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
a lot of people have in their
homes, it was one of the old
coolers, too so those are kind
of fun.

22:09.328 --> 22:15.033 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
Here we are in Gordon's overflow
room, but what it was able to
create in here was

22:15.033 --> 22:22.140 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
just another nice display case,
a beautiful display case, and
this one here obviously has
always been

22:22.140 --> 22:26.078 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
one of my favorites, because
it's the dome butter dishes.
These are

22:26.078 --> 22:32.084 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
very valuable, very beautiful,
intricate pieces. I don't think
that you would find these on

22:32.084 --> 22:37.689 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
your typical farm table for
lunch every day, but if the
family was coming for a Sunday

22:37.689 --> 22:39.758 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
dinner, or some special event,
you know they would use a butter
dish something like this.

22:42.461 --> 22:48.200 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
Gordon was, like I said earlier,
always very loyal to the Vergas
Creamery and the people that

22:48.200 --> 22:53.939 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
worked at the creamery. This
gentleman right here donated,
his family donated, this because
he

22:53.939 --> 22:56.475 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
was the Creamery Manager for a
number of years. Then what
you've got there is

22:58.877 --> 23:05.350 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
items that were actually used in
the creamery, so he liked to be
able to showcase those items,

23:05.350 --> 23:10.489 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
but he also liked to be able to
showcase the person, who helped
promote dairy, who

23:10.489 --> 23:17.195 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
helped work in the creamery, and
was part of that passion of, let
us preserve what has

23:17.195 --> 23:23.702 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
been created, so if you come
down to Gordon's Dairy and
Butter Museum, you cannot walk
away

23:23.702 --> 23:26.505 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
without one of his books. This
chronicles a lot of different
information, a lot of different
pictures,

23:28.306 --> 23:34.880 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80%
and one of the old Vergas butter
dairy boxes. They're here and

23:34.880 --> 23:40.318 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
you're welcome to take one home
with you, so that when you go
home, you can, when somebody
sees

23:40.318 --> 23:44.389 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
them, they can say "Oh, where's
that?" you can say "Well, it's
located in the Vergas State
Bank, Lower Level,

23:44.389 --> 23:51.096 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
you can go check it out because
it's a piece of history that we
just want to preserve."

24:02.207 --> 24:06.711 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
You come down here, and you just
kind of step back in time, you
just take a little bit of time
and

24:06.711 --> 24:08.914 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
if you do a little bit of
reading, you just understand
that Oh, man, somebody actually

24:12.284 --> 24:17.889 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
60 years ago was handling that
butter dish and were putting
butter on the table for their
family.

24:17.889 --> 24:23.595 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
There's something really cool
about that. The bank is open
every day during the week,
Monday

24:23.595 --> 24:28.667 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
through Friday, 9:00 nine
o'clock until 5:00 o'clock.
There's somebody here that can
let you

24:28.667 --> 24:35.240 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
come down here and let you
wander around and just go back
in time and and enjoy it. I
can't

24:35.240 --> 24:37.609 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80%
believe that his family and his
kids and people who knew him

24:40.345 --> 24:44.516 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80%
walk down here without feeling
the presence. I'm glad that he
did it, I mean, it was
interesting,

24:46.952 --> 24:50.989 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
and he was really proud of it
and I think the whole family's
proud that he did it because

24:50.989 --> 25:01.166 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
it started out with one churn
and turned into 600 items, so,
yeah, we're proud of him.

25:06.805 --> 25:12.344 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
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25:12.344 --> 25:20.018 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80%
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