Scene: Wheeler, Wisconsin:  Fortney Farm.

Narrator, Anita jr. – I’m Anita junior.  You won’t learn much about me if you read a fictionbook by brother Steve called, The Reunion. Since there were some “stretchers” in it, we’ll focus on the factual parts, as we will Thomas A. Fortney’s account and some of my memories, because I’m a part of the branch of Grandpa Hans’s brood, which is the Albin Fortney family.
            So…let us imagine that it is night, and we’re under the canopy of stars.  Crickets are singing relentlessly, and fireflies are blinking on and off, on and off.  It’s the Fortney family farm of Wheeler, Wisconsin.  That’s easy to imagine now, isn’t it?
What’s a little hard to imagine is the way it used to be.   

 Karn – The farmhouse housed Christine and me in a slightly larger bedroom upstairs than my late brother, Tommy’s room, which was narrower and smaller, it’s roof sloping a bit like a bungalow.  Most everything else, if you look around, is pretty much as it was.

Anita jr.-Since this is readers’ theater; you’ll have to imagine a lot of other things, too.
I’m setting up my pillow and comforter on the dewy, wet, cool grass, and Karn and Laurel are coming too.
We hung out together at night on a sleepover when we were teens, so here we are…much later.
(Addressing them)  Remember when we did this before?

Karn - Yeah, who would have known that even the youngest, like my brother, Tommy, and your brother, Kendall, during the Viet Nam War era, would be gone by now.

Laurel - I cried the morning of the last reunion, because all our parents were gone then, too.

Anita jr. – (aside) Imagine that we mature women are getting settled in our spaces looking up at the stars
Boy, Listen to those crickets.  Hey, guys, do you ever think when you’re looking up at the stars… it’s like you’re looking up at them, sort of like in The Lion King?

Karn - They don’t have to be up anywhere, like in a cloud.

Anita jr. – Yeah, you’re right.  I think sometimes we could be walking right through them.

Karn - Or maybe they could even come back…at least after a long while.

Laurel – You two are too “New Agey”. You should get to a regular Lutheran church and get straightened out.

(Anita jr. and Karn laugh – pause)

Anita jr. – Man, those crickets are not only getting louder, but even closer sounding.

Karn – Remember when all of us kids played baseball in the field?

Anita jr. – Yeah, you’re right.  I remember when Laurel said on our last sleepover that when we got to be (emphasis) twenty, we wouldn’t be able to do those things anymore, because we wouldn’t be teenagers anymore.  How sad!  (All giggle)

Karn –“ If you build it, they will come.” *

Laurel – (pause) The crickets are getting louder.  They seem closer.

Anita jr. – You mean build a baseball field like Field of Dreams? *

Laurel – No, more like “Hee Haw”.  (All giggle)

Karn – The field where we played is still there.

Laurel – I hear the sound of a bat and ball.

Karn – I think I see lights from the field past the corn stalks.

Anita jr. – Yeah, I can hardly see the stars anymore.  (Pause)  Let’s see what’s going on.  (Comment on imagining; we make our way through imaginary cornstalks.)

Hey!  That’s Kendall pitching a ball to Tommy.

Karn - And look!  Those people on the bases and in the outfield; they’re our parents. 

Laurel – Well, there were enough of them to make a baseball team.

Anita jr. – Only they all look younger, except for Tommy and Kendall, of course.

Karn – They seemed to have stopped like statues.

Anita jr.- Let’s go talk to them.

Laurel - Oh no!  This is getting weird.  You won’t get me to talk to ghosts.

Karn - Come on, Laurel; expand your horizons.

Anita jr. – Yeah, I went to talk to my ancestors a couple of times, guided by a Southern Arapaho Native American.

 Laurel – Just because your brother, Alan, once brought his tepee, doesn’t mean I’m going to talk to ghosts.

Anita jr.- Okay, we will. Karn, you go first.  The catcher looks a lot like Uncle Henry.

Karn –I’ll let you interview him.

Anita jr. – Uncle Henry?

Henry –(Aside: Anita comments that:) We see Uncle Hank as he turns and smiles broadly.

Anita jr. – I hear tell you were a conservationist who made alfalfa grow, and also, one of the only Democrats in the family.

Henry – That’s right.  I ran for assembly and got beat in the primary.

Anita jr. – Yeah, I remember your picture postcard for Dunn County.  I know you and Dad argued, and all the other republicans.  I remember Aunt Myrtle said, it seemed like, every family get together, “Now, there’ll be no political discussion.”

Henry - Your dad and I would hunker down for a while, but then, we couldn’t resist getting into it.

Anita jr -. I hated that.

Henry- Yes, but I always respected Albin.

Anita jr. - Didn’t we all.

Henry – By the way, he’s the umpire behind me.

Anita jr. – Yes, he was always good at judging. Why are you together?

Henry – Same looks, same voice.

Anita jr. – Yeah, you kind of “spooked” Steve when you called to him after Dad made his transition.  We all remember Aunt Caroline fondly too, who knew how to hand sign, because of her hearing-impaired parents. Thanks, Uncle Henry.  (To the others)  Who’s on first base?

Laurel – That’s the legend.

Anita jr. – You mean Uncle Tom?  (Aside - Comment that:) We see him as he tips his hat
I understand you were a three-year wrestling champ at the University of Wisconsin. 

Tom - Yes, I was the first to go to college, and if I’d lived two years more, I could have been Detroit Mayor on the Democratic ticket in the 30’s.  Clarence was a Democrat too, since he was a factory worker there.  He’s the right fielder behind me in the outfield.  We kind of looked alike.

Anita jr. – My dad said there wasn’t a “gooder” guy than Uncle Clarence.  We remember his wife, Aunt Anna, too, whose family said she was sweet, level headed, and always had an answer for everything.

Clarence - I collected things and treasured a charcoal sketching Kendall did of me, smoking a pipe.  I did a lot of mischief making, as Uncle Tom did, too, who started arguments in the yard.

Anita jr. –  Thanks, Uncle Clarence.  Uncle Tom,I’d heard you and Dad were in a Model T or A, rounded a corner, and you both leaned on little Aunt Elsie, your wife, and broke a couple of her ribs.

Tom – Once in my car, I got caught in the 4th of July Parade, so I tipped my derby hat at the spectators as if I was one of the VIP’s.  I also was a milk tester and stole cats from farms and sold them to the school of “ag” for dissections.
                                                                                                                                               
Karn - Yeah, there are lots of stories about you, like being head of homeless men and running a rescue mission.

Laurel - I’d heard you were an agnostic, but said the Lord’s Prayer in Norwegian when you died of a heart problem at 37, a heart murmur from rheumatic fever.

Tom – Interesting that you mention my heart.  You see, it’s not up here you can figure it all out (Aside:  He points to his head) but at a heart level, we all know.

Laurel – About God?

Tom – Yes, I told Albin, once he got done with college, to forget he’d ever been there.

Anita jr. – Yes, I’d heard that and always wondered about what you meant.

Selma – (speaks up) Well, Tom, I never forgot I’d graduated from the eighth grade.  I proudly displayed my diploma on the wall.

Karn - Oh, that must be Aunt Selma on second base.

Anita jr. – I remember everybody arguing with you, Aunt Selma, about butter versus margarine, and how you’d read about some rats dying from eating the margarine.

Selma – I learned to read, because I graduated from the eighth grade, pushed Myrtle to go to Normal to become a teacher.  And I married Nelmer who was a good, smart farmer.  We were Republicans.

Anita jr. – Yes, I remember Dad, that is Albin, saying you got into it with him about all of his kids going to college, though he didn’t think everybody had to. It depended on the person.

Selma – Still, everybody should see if they could get a good education.  Nettie’s, that is Tonetta’s, behind me, out in the center field.

Karn - So you’re together, because you have the same voice?  I’d heard Stanley got “spooked” by Aunt Nettie calling after you crossed over; it sounded just like you.
                                                                                                                                                                                            Nettie – Yes, I wanted to go to high school so badly, like Henry did, but since our parents couldn’t afford it, I didn’t say anything.
 
Selma- Well, we should have.

Nettie- Well, I knew how hard things were for our mother, when they came by train.  Their first plan was to raise potatoes.  She had six kids with measles.  I was only fourteen.  She wanted everything ready, but things were never ready until Henry, who was the first to graduate from high school, got it all ready.  By the way I’m very happy here now, because I have many of my descendents already here with me.
 
Laurel -  (gasps) – The shortstop:  It’s my mother!

Karn –(to Laurel) Aunt Myrtle?

Anita jr. – That’s sure a misnomer.   Laurel, Remember when you called her and my mother, “Mutt and Jeff”?  Aunt Myrtle was tall, big and beautiful.  My mother said she had a beautiful speaking voice too.

Karn - That voice enhanced her teaching, too.  She worked hard to help support her five children, a good mother.  Aunt Myrtle, did you ever think you’d have all those kids?

Myrtle - Oh no, I thought I was too big to ever get married, but I never stopped laughing through the many years with Andy.

Laurel – It sure is wonderful to see you, again, and so young.

Myrtle – Yes, dear, I was the only one who wasn’t born in Viroqua.  This was always my home.

Anita jr. - You had a melodious laugh too. (Transition)  You know, I don’t think I know those two.

Karn - That’s Uncle Albert on third base, and behind him in the outfield is the left fielder, his younger brother, Oliver.

Anita jr. – I’d heard from your dad, Uncle Henry, that Albert was handsome; Uncle Hank joked, he was more handsome than he himself was.

Karn – Yes, but they looked alike.  Uncle Albert what were your goals?

Albert – I was in the auto industry, but I went to seminary in Redwing, Minnesota. However, I got sick, because of heart problems, and passed at 44.  I also sang.

Anita jr. –I’d heard he married Aunt Viola. So, instead of Albert getting to be a minister, my dad Albin, did.  Note the similar names.  Aunt Nettie married one, though, Uncle Fred. 
And Uncle Oliver, what about him?

Karn – Uncle Oliver?

Oliver – Yes? 

Karn – Tell us about yourself.

Oliver – Mike was born from my first marriage.  I was sorry to have been the one and only divorced

Karn- Now, you wouldn’t be so unusual.

Oliver- However, I married Lil.

Laurel- What a terrific lady she was!

Oliver – I passed over after being in a construction accident.

Anita jr.  My mom, your Aunt Anita, said Aunt Lil was looking down at her desk afterwards, and she saw a tear plop down on a page on her desk.  Alan said they were very much in love, and she took over Mike as her own son, even though my dad offered to take him in.  She said, “Certainly not!  He’s my son.”

Oliver – I had a good wife in Lil.

Anita jr.  Now, you can interview my dad, Karn.

Karn – Uncle Albin?  We remember you doing hypnosis and interpreting people’s tree drawings.

Albin- I used it in counseling as a minister.

Karn – How’d you get there?

Albin – Got a scholarship and went to Concordia College, sang in the choir, became a high school teacher, coached basketball, became a principal.

Karn – So, you didn’t set out for the ministry?

Albin – No, I stayed with a nice couple, the Rostads, and they were such fine Christians, I decided to become a minister, so borrowed money from Fred, Nettie’s husband, and was ordained in 1935.  I joined the army, became Chief Chaplain of the Liberation Army of Norway and was given the Norwegian Medal of Honor by King Haakon of Norway.  I also received the Valley Forge Medal for preaching.

Anita jr. – He was a spellbinding teacher and minister.  I’d learned later he was raised in Norwegian, but mastered the English language.  He told me he made a point to use his vowels.

Laurel- He was also stern and no-nonsense.

Anita jr. – Yeah, he said you were so quiet, you never talked during the ride all the way from Tomahawk to Menomonie.    But he married nonsense, my mom, your Aunt Anita, who used Malapropisms and who told the Fortneys the reason their plants grew when they talked to them was because they breathed “carbohydrates” on them, mirroring Grandpa Hans’ marriage to beautiful Maria Svangstu, size-wise too.  Our grandparents are on the bleachers with a long-forgotten Aunt.

Karn – Aunt Susanna.

Laurel – Grandpa, we hear you were stern.

Maria – And I have to talk for him, because he was a man of few words.  He used to thump his large hands on the table three times, and the boys started up to bed, one at a time.  And if he was disciplining, he’d just stare right through them.

Laurel – Why did you do that, Grandpa Hans? 

Hans – With those large, strong boys, I didn’t dare to let up.

Karn – And there’s the greatest mystery of all…

Anita jr. – Aunt Susanna.
                                                                                                           
Maria – I’m glad to be with her now.  I missed her so when I was on the earth plane. 

Anita jr. – I could see your look of sadness in your later picture.   She was set apart in the first picture, though.

Karn– That’s a mystery, too.

Susanna – I departed at 18, because I was nursing all the younger ones back to health when they had small pox.  Then, I got it and crossed over.

Anita jr. –.  Probably many of them were unhealthy for life after that.  We have a lot of questions about you, Aunt Susanna.  We know about your transition, but not much about you.  I always say that if Dad hadn’t survived Pearl Harbor, I wouldn’t be here, for example, to have written, and to present this play.  But we extend a heartfelt thanks to you, Aunt Susanna.  For if it hadn’t been for you, they and we might not be here either.

Karn - .So, where did Hans come from?

Laurel – Viroqua.

Karn – We know that, and we know that he had a dispute with his brother, John, about a $2,000 imported English horse called Tellus, which turned out to be sterile instead of a breeder.  I think Grandpa Hans ended up with the horse.

Anita jr. – Grandpa Hans came from the others in the bleachers, the Thomas Ole Fortney, Originally Forthun, family.

Karn - Thomas Ole and his wife, another Susanna.

Laurel – Only two sisters:  Kristin and Kate.

Anita jr. – And many brothers:  Thomas, John, Arne, Ole, and Christian.  Hello to you all!  I hear all you Norwegians were born in America…So, Arne, I hear you had big eyes that stared
like knives, and I understand that was a lot like our Grandpa Hans, who stared right through people.  Can you tell us what your father did?

Arne – He ran a tobacco and stock farm, which included dairy beef.

Anita jr. – And, John, I understand you married Maria’s sister.  You were the one who had it out with our Grandpa Hans. Do you have anything to share?

John - We went to Franklin Lutheran Church, which had a picture of Jesus in Gethsemane.

Laurel – Yes.  It’s the state religion of Norway.  So, your father proudly carried his faith with him and taught it to you.
                                                                                                 
 Anita jr. – Sorry we can’t interview all of you, but we’d like to see if the audience could group up into major groups.        

(Pause for groups and any brief discussion)

Karn – Later in Wheeler, the kids went to a small country school over the highway, and Aunt Viola taught them. So, now we know Thomas Ole came from Norway.  Tell us about that.

Thomas Ole – I was a blacksmith and a schoolteacher and immigrated here in the mid-19th century.  I left Forthun district after April 29th, 1853 to Laustrafjiord, then from the beautiful Sognefjiord.
            I traveled to South Bergen, then sailed to Quebec on the North Atlantic.  I took the great circle route.  It was brutal; there were diseases.  500 were packed onto small ships, and manyships disappeared, because of storms.  I got to the Great Lakes through the St. Lawrence.  There were dreadful conditions at Grosse Isle, a Quebec port where there was a cholera outbreak.  I took the Great West Boxcar to Windsor, Ontario, where there were derailments and more cholera, then, I finally took the lake transport to Milwaukee

Karn – You must have wanted to come here to America a lot.

Thomas Ole- To join my brothers, and we were looking for a better life.   Maybe that’s why we immigrants argue politics.

Karn – Well, politics better turn out better than it’s been lately.

Anita jr. – Spoken like one of Uncle Henry’s daughters.

Susanna Ottum Forthun - There’s a story that my husband here used to work on our farm, the Ottum farm, and rock me in a cradle.  We were married in Mr. Horeb, Wisconsin.  I was 24, and he was 38.  Then, we moved to Franklin Township in Viroqua in Vernon County.   Most of the Fortuns became Fortneys.  My husband later joined his brothers in the Fortney Tobacco and Stock Farms.  The brothers’ names were Torger, Knute, Ole Knutson, and Ole Olson.  He also had sisters, Christin and Kari.

Anita jr. – So, that’s how all that happened. Yes, I’d heard the name was changed, so the Kickapoo Irish could pronounce it.  I don’t know where that name, Kickapoo, comes from, but I found out there was a Kickapoo Corners Restaurant.   This clears up some things for me.  I was just told as a little child, “This is Sue Fortney.  She’s your second cousin.  And here are Fred and Ruby.  You’re related to them, too.”  It never occurred to me to ask how all that came about. Ole Thomas was her grandfather, Hans’ brother.

Kendall – Let’s get back to the game!

Karn – (points) Look, Kendall’s pitching the ball to Tommy and laughing.  The players aren’t still, like statues, anymore.  Tommy batted it out in left field, way past Uncle Albert and Uncle Oliver. He was always good at sports.  Tommy’s flying from base to base.  He’s got a Home Run!

Tommy – I’m home.  It’s soon.

Laurel – What do you mean by that, Tommy?

Tommy – Won’t be long for you to come home.

Karn – The players and the people on the bleachers are becoming still like statues again.

Anita jr. – The field lights are fading, the spectator benches are disappearing.
                                                                                                               
Laurel – The field is empty. 

Anita jr. –“But I have promises to keep…and miles to go before I sleep.”*

Karn- But not as many promises.

Laurel – And not as many miles.

Anita jr. – So, now we bed down, look up at the canopy of the stars, as the crickets sing quietly in the distance.  Our eyes close, as we fall asleep.

*Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”.

Steven and Thomas A.                                  Reunions Magazine
                                     Fortney, contributors.