- [Announcer] This episode of Wish you Were Here with the Eliza Blue, brought to you in part by Strengthen North Dakota and South Dakota Public Broadcasting.

Thanks for watching.

(guitar music) ♪ Back roads and by-ways ♪ ♪ Campfires we'll lay wake ♪ ♪ Sweet grass and summer sage ♪ ♪ Come on baby come and take my hand ♪ ♪ Take my hand ♪ ♪ Take my hand ♪ ♪ We're Dakota bound ♪ (guitar music) - [Announcer] Join us as we traveled to share stories and songs from the Prairie.

Eight miles south of Mandarn, North Dakota sits a little white clapboard building bearing the letters, ZCBJ and WFLA.

This denotes the building as a lodge for the Western Bohemian Fraternal Association.

Established in 1904 and dedicated in 1907.

The lodge was created after the coal mining area around Flasher and Little Heart attracted a wave of Bohemian immigrants in the first decade of the 20th century.

The lodge remained extremely active for decades as a center of rural community hosting political, civic, but perhaps most importantly, social gatherings.

dances and other social gatherings are now held there infrequently.

But the building and its history are still a source of pride to those who remember the music laughter and neighborly affection that echoed out across the Prairie, whenever folks gathered here.

- Hey I'm Eliza Blue and I'm here at the Bohemian Hall.

We are in for such a treat, one of my favorite musicians and human beings, Chuck Suchy is gonna play us some songs today and I wish you were here.

So let's head in and check it out.

- I remember waiting in, what's really the coat room, for our grade school Christmas programs that were held here at the hall.

The coat room was sort of the green room where all we just huddled in and are on all our little costumes and tried to get ready.

And we're nervous wondering if we were gonna remember our lines and I being in one of the only musicians at Little Heart School, number two, which was just up the road here.

I had a featured spot so in second grade, I believe it was, I was actually on the same floorboards here, which is pretty wild now that I'm 73, and I'm have come full circle so to speak, I guess, I hope not terminally, but in transition.

But anyway, so I remember being, and there were of course just white sheets for curtains here and we were getting ready and we were peeking out to see which relatives were here, and all that nervous energy of elementary kids and hearts and souls was at play.

And then came my time to come out and perform for the very first time, for a public audience and that was right here, right in this very same spot.

And it went pretty well.

And I'm gonna play you the piece that I played.

it was a piece called the accordion waltz.

And it was a learning piece because it was probably the first time I incorporated both the right hand, the left hand, and the bellows all in one complete piece of music so, try to imagine this, how many years ago, 65 years ago, perhaps.

(somber accordion music) And then came the tears and running off the stage, and out into the audience and finding my mother's healing lap.

At least I think it was my mom's, but it wouldn't have mattered if it was not because it was such a forgiving whole community, that any of the matronly laps would have been healing and forgiving.

And after that initial first performance, I continued coming here because there were dancers here every other Saturday, or almost sometimes it seemed like every Saturday.

Anniversary wedding dances, open dances.

And that's where I really got to see music being performed live for the first time.

And got to see the joy of the musicians, actually making music and doing the work of making music sweating and having to take breaks because maybe they were a little tired and on this very stage, right in the front here often myself and other young kids would just sit.

And it gave us a chance to just feel the beat of the drum and the accordion players feet on these very boards.

And that was very inspirational to me and I wanted to be part of that.

And so when I continued my lessons, I wanted to sort of get into the sound of the music that was played here.

And I had a very, very wonderful accordion teacher in Mandarn by the name of Wally Mackey, who was a professional musician and, the wonderful thing about Wally was he taught and played not only just polkas and waltzes, but he taught all sorts of other ethnic tunes, Suso marches, some Scandinavian stuff, some middle Eastern music.

And so it really gave me an eclectic sense at least.

But the roots of the music I heard here was the primary motivator.

And when I finally, Wally taught me this waltz called the Saturday Night Waltz.

And when I finally got that piece somewhat playable, that's the first time I really, that really cemented my accordion-ship abilities, because it so well emulated the music played here.

Now I'll try and play it for you now (upbeat accordion music) And I think the reason that has that it's got kind of that lilt and push.

And that was just sort of a style of the darncing that was done here too.

And they would just literally get the floor bouncing.

(chuckles) And so, as a young kid on the periphery of all of that magic of dance and seeing those bodies, just all doing the best they can with what they had, some more than others, but nevertheless, everybody was doing the best they can dance to the same music.

And that kind of lilt was sort of cemented into me somehow.

And so with that piece, that's when I really felt that I was an accordion player.

- Well, Chuck I'm so excited to be here with you and playing music.

And for this next song, I've asked you to play one of my favorites of your newer songs.

And I also love the story behind it.

So could you tell us the story of writing this song.

- About a year and a half ago, probably more than that, now I was approached by the North Dakota council on the arts, to participate in a program they have ongoing called Art for Life.

And the idea is to incorporate art into the lives of especially elders and people in care centers and retirement communities.

And to just share not only the artist perspective and interests, but to sort of incorporate that, or incorporate those elders wisdom and life experience into bring it forth into the artists realm as well.

So it's kind of this exchange of life encounters.

And my calling was to go in and write songs with people.

And the idea was we were gonna do it big and small groups, maybe half a dozen people.

Just talk and see what was in their hearts and in their heads and then start finding the poetry and the imagery and all of that.

And come out with songs.

Before we could even get started, COVID hit.

And so I ended up doing telephone interviews and in that process, I interviewed I don't know 20, couple dozen, maybe 25 people.

But four women in particular were very interesting to me there were four women all in their mid to late 90's in the heritage center, retirement community, near Jamestown.

And the idea then was, since COVID was affecting the world to find out how it was affecting these people in these retirement communities.

And so these four women in particular were so inspiring to me because they had this history that of having already gone through several encounters with hard times, whatever that might be.

Loss of husbands, depression in the 30's, financial depression, just hard drought in their farms, they were all farm women.

If you want to call it that.

They had all been farmers.

And, I was just struck by their...

They were not down about this at all.

They were just like, okay, we'll get through it, but we're not so sure about the young folk, (laughs) but we worry about them more than ourselves.

And so out of that, I just wrote down notes on my yellow legal pad while I was visiting with them.

And later went through these notes trying to sort of distill the poetry and look for a catchy lines or maybe some commonalities that all four experienced.

Two of the things I actually was that they talked about, in their younger days, especially, and being with their husbands, going to dances.

And they still, even though they were poor, she said, one woman said, you know, "We just didn't know we were poor.

We still went to dances and it wasn't a matter of money.

It was a matter of joy and life."

And they also talked about, they had worked with the animals, some dairied.

But they all talked about horses in one way or another.

Just having that connection with nature, I guess you would call it.

And so, this came out of that.

(guitar music) Two, three, four.

♪ Donna was a small town girl ♪ ♪ Met the man who changed her world ♪ ♪ A farmer with a wheat filled lawn ♪ ♪ 30 years they worked at home ♪ ♪ When he passed she carried on ♪ ♪ Farmed alone ♪ ♪ A quarter century ♪ ♪ When asked about the days to come ♪ ♪ To be afraid she ain't the one ♪ ♪ Never bored ♪ ♪ Never have been ♪ ♪ Ooh we worked with horses ♪ ♪ Every Saturday danced stack hays away ♪ ♪ Ooh we worked with horses ♪ ♪ Never knew we were ♪ ♪ Among the common poor ♪ (guitar music) ♪ Gladys grew up farm girl strong ♪ ♪ Met a man she loved right on ♪ ♪ They married ♪ ♪ And dairied ♪ ♪ In the evening kilts were sown ♪ ♪ To warm souls of those unknown ♪ ♪ For her loved to ride on ♪ ♪ Lauretta had the marriage best ♪ ♪ Until he met eternal rest ♪ ♪ He was who he was ♪ ♪ A happy fella ♪ ♪ She looks upon her working hands ♪ ♪ No longer strong, young or tanned ♪ ♪ They built a life now good for nothing ♪ ♪ Ooh we worked with horses ♪ ♪ Every Saturday danced stack hays away ♪ ♪ Ooh we worked with horses ♪ ♪ Never knew we were ♪ ♪ Among the common poor ♪ (guitar music) ♪ When they talk of what's to come ♪ ♪ It will be toughest on the young ♪ ♪ You don't know joy can get you through ♪ ♪ You never knew what we had to ♪ ♪ Francis filled with fortitude ♪ ♪ She's gotta gift good attitude ♪ ♪ Young at heart, most important part ♪ ♪ It was a pretty good darn life ♪ ♪ I was a pretty darn good wife ♪ ♪ To a pretty good man ♪ ♪ You do the best you can ♪ ♪ Ooh we worked with horses ♪ ♪ Every Saturday danced stack hays away ♪ ♪ Ooh we worked with horses ♪ ♪ Never knew we were ♪ ♪ Among the common poor ♪ ♪ Ooh we worked with horses ♪ ♪ Every Saturday danced stack hays away ♪ ♪ Ooh we worked with horses ♪ ♪ Never knew we were ♪ ♪ Among the common poor ♪ ♪ Never knew we were ♪ ♪ Among the common poor ♪ (guitar music) (laughs) - Well, thank you so much for joining us here at the Bohemian Hall.

We've had a lot of fun and we are gonna play one more song for you.

What can you tell us about this one Chuck?

- The Saturday Night at the Hall song is about Saturday night at the hall where we are and how the hall is kind of the center of the community here.

And the idea of just coming together every once in a while, and families, families coming.

So young people getting to be integrated into community life in maybe an adult way, maybe getting to see their parents behave in a different way, maybe misbehave in a different way, than they saw at home often.

And there was misbehavior here as well.

Let's be Frank about that.

But it was the idea of dance that was the center of it and people dancing together.

And I think we need to remember that this...

It didn't start with the Bohemian Hall and it didn't start with the people settled here.

There has been dancing upon this very land for centuries, thousands of years.

And so this is just a small part of that huge idea of dancing on the land and dancing with the land.

And so I think we have to keep that in mind too.

Yes, there's a rich heritage here centered around the hall, but there was not always a hall here, but there was dance always here.

- And we need to continue that, I think.

- Very good.

So that's the, - So more dancing.

- More dancing - You can dance along at home if you want.

(accordion music) ♪ Where the highway runs down ♪ ♪ Just south of our town ♪ ♪ With the grass all around it now tall ♪ ♪ Build by the good of an old good brother ♪ ♪ Who, stands the Bohemian hall ♪ ♪ The scene of romance ♪ ♪ A neighborhood dance ♪ ♪ Spring, summer, winter or fall ♪ ♪ No matter the Season we sure find a reason ♪ ♪ For Saturday night at the hall ♪ ♪ Saturday night underneath the prairie moonlight ♪ ♪ You could here the accordion cord ♪ ♪ Over and over I here it again ♪ ♪ Its Saturday night at the hall ♪ (accordion music) (upbeat accordion music) ♪ As a kid I would stand ♪ ♪ By the two piece band ♪ ♪ Feeling the rhythm the beat ♪ ♪ And the floor was a world ♪ ♪ Of kaleidoscope swirl ♪ ♪ Of skirt's, hair, high stepping feet ♪ ♪ You could foxtrot, bunny hop ♪ ♪ Two step or two ♪ ♪ Above any debutante ball ♪ ♪ If you can't do the polka ♪ ♪ Then do a fast waltz ♪ ♪ On Saturday at the hall ♪ ♪ Saturday night underneath the prairie moonlight ♪ ♪ You could here the accordion cord ♪ ♪ Over and over I here it again ♪ ♪ Its Saturday night at the hall ♪ (upbeat accordion music) ♪ Then midnight come round ♪ ♪ We line up and go down ♪ ♪ To the basement for colachoos and buns ♪ ♪ And some lingered on ♪ ♪ Till the beer was all gone ♪ ♪ Not wanting to part with the fun ♪ ♪ With kilt tied heads ♪ ♪ And blankets for beds ♪ ♪ In the backs of our mom's and dad's cars ♪ ♪ We'd head home in sleeves ♪ ♪ A foggy filled dream ♪ ♪ As loves would head for the stars ♪ ♪ Saturday night underneath the prairie moonlight ♪ ♪ You could here the accordion cord ♪ ♪ Over and over I here it again ♪ ♪ Its Saturday night at the hall ♪ ♪ Saturday night ♪ ♪ Oh what a night ♪ ♪ Saturday night at the hall ♪ (accordion music) ♪ Back roads and by-ways ♪ ♪ Campfires we'll lay wake ♪ ♪ Sweet grass and summer sage ♪ ♪ Come on baby come and take my hand ♪ ♪ Take my hand, take my hand ♪ ♪ We're Dakota bound ♪ (guitar music)