The Johnson Journals, Chapter 3

Editor’s note:
Each Monday, The Daily Journal will be featuring excerpts from the life journals of the late Don Johnson. Johnson and wife Layna made their home and living, year ’round, on three islands within a range of a mile and a half on Rainy Lake.They were the parents of Don (“Buck”) Johnson, Byrne Johnson (who presents the journals), Beryl (“Babe” or“Sally”) Jernberg and Karen Gustafson.
Part 4 will be published July 7.

Don Johnson Journals and Letters
1936 - Camp Koochiching

A note about Don’s spelling. In 1934 the Chicago Tribune had made a strong attempt to move the American public to simplified spelling. Don was an instant convert and so ‘tho’ replaces ‘though’, ‘thot’ replaces ‘thought’, etc.

Jan. 25 Max –18 Min –5 NW wind.
Partly cloudy. Light snow. The kids were sniffling and snuffling around here in the morning so I thot it foolish to take them down to the shop. I decided to stay home until Layna came. Read a lot to Byrne and finished Halliburton for myself. He certainly is the world’s champion hot air shooter but really does it in a very charming manner. I will go along way with someone with a sense of humor and he really comes in that category. I wonder if everyone reads him with their eyes open (as I kid myself, I do) or if he is taken literally by most people. I imagine the ladies are in the later class. Layna got home only an hour behind schedule. Not bad. No reason for a squawk. She had bought a lot of stuff in town and Ben Haskell was good enough to haul it home with his dogs. He stayed for coffee. We got the impression that he was lonely. Well, no doubt he is. That living alone must be one hell of an existence.

Jan. 26 Max –15, Min –2 Light NW wind.
Partly cloudy. Ben came over again in the afternoon. He had a vest that he wanted Layna to alter. It fit him like a sack. It was a Xmas present. That explains everything. He stayed all day so I couldn’t get back to my boat. Read from the Reader’s Digest in the evening. The editors of that magazine have hit on something.

Jan. 27 Max –15 Min –5 light NW wind.
Partly cloudy. Didn’t do much today, but what I did do, did well. The shop has been a mess ever since we started on the boat. It has been bothering me all along but so has the boat. Now that I felt that the major problems were solved for some time, I could afford to call time out and organize things somewhat. For one thing, the band saw was set up in the most hay wire manner imaginable. I took it down and now it is up where it doesn’t weave all over the place when you try to cut a board. The screws, bolts, nails, etc. have been sitting around on the bench, floor, boat and where not in paper bags, cardboard boxes, tin pans and what not. I made a series of bins and have everything stowed away in ship shape. All of the odds and ends of boards were filed away for future reference. What I felt couldn’t be used was cut up into kindling. I also threw a bunch of junk outside and moved a bunch of almost junk up to the next building. I’m quite proud of my layout now. The colds are still hanging tough on Layna and the kids. When Layna coughs it sounds to me like she just has to bring something up but to date she gets no results. I am sure that if I could do it for her that the results would be different! My typing sure is horrible. About half the errors can be charged to me but this machine sure can stand the blame for the rest. The letter “s” is acting up something scandalous, see!

February 2 Max –15 Min –2. Moderate SW wind.
Partly cloudy. This being Sunday I think it best that I continue from where I left off last Tuesday or drop the matter entirely. Writing in a diary is the same as performing any other task. If done each day it is a pleasurable past time. If allowed to build up, it grows to such proportions as to appear really formidable. To take each day by itself would require a memory far superior to the one I have to depend on. I will try to make a summary of the five days. The clamps, blocks, the plank, to say nothing of the two hands that are trying to do the work of six, all seem to mutiny at the same time. That cedar is as temperamental as any prima donna. Even a few harsh words will burst it not into tears but into splinters. Well the harsh words are not lacking.
All the Christian Science I could muster failed to keep me from getting a cold like the rest around here. I suppose the trouble was in putting my faith in myself rather than in Christ. I would just as soon blame the whole thing on me as to blame it on him while saying “The Lord knows best!”
Byrne displays a knowledge of mathematics at times that makes him appear to the biased eyes of his parents as a child prodigy. At the table the other day I remarked that so far we had spoiled five boards and that they were worth $1.10 apiece. Shortly after Byrne came thru with this remark, “Well, that would be $5.50.”
Layna agreed with Clara that Buck wasn’t to be sent home if it was colder than zero. Last Friday the thermometer showed exactly that at 4 o’clock. The wind was pretty hard making it feel a lot colder but as there was some chance of him coming, I went down to Jespersons to meet him. He wasn’t there. Coming home, I ran about a mile just to see how far I had slipped from the shape of a few years ago. The running didn’t seen to bother me much, in fact didn’t seem to be any worse than it was when I started training in the spring while at school. Speaking of exercise, Layna is making a determined effort to cut down on her waist and hips. She has been going at it every night for about two weeks now. I do believe that I can see a reduction. I know that the imagination is a deceiver but I’ll take a chance on that statement.
Almost stopped without mentioning the recovery of the letter “s.” All that was wrong with it was that it was sticking in one of the guides. A drop of 3-in-1 oil and it functions as well as the rest. See? On several occasions this winter, the same type of situation arose. The kitchen stove pipe was dripping creosote all over the place. It got so that we would freeze in the morning rather than be warm but at the same time be subjected to that filth. One morning I stopped for a moment before starting on the boat and tried to reason the thing out. The result was that I shoved the pipe up tightly into the roof jack and the creosote dropped no more. Our phonograph had been on the bum almost a year. We thought the spring was broken but due to the fact that we had the radio, we let it go. The radio went on the Fritz about three weeks ago and since then we mourned over our phonograph. Yesterday we took it apart and found that the spring had merely slipped a bit. In a few minutes we had music again. I hope I can learn to profit by such experiences. In each case we thot we were being confronted by a problem of major importance. At various times we had considered getting a new typewriter, a better stove and a spring for the phonograph. Had we been able to afford it, I believe we would have made all three changes. A little thot and a bit of work and all that became unnecessary. I can’t, for the life of me, make up my mind to be proud over the fact that I reasoned the problems out or feel like a damned fool for not thinking of it sooner.

Feb. 3 Max –32 Min –15. Light NW wind.
Clear. It looks as tho we are in for another cold snap or I guess it would be nearer the truth to say that our present cold snap seems to be getting worse again. It is 32 below again (10 p.m.) which means that it will be forty or more before morning. We can take it tho, so won’t complain too much. Tomorrow is Sally’s birthday. We haven’t been to town for some time so bought her no present. George Ray gave her a dandy story book for Xmas. The story of the three bears was beautifully illustrated therein. That gave us an idea. Layna made a pattern of each of the bears and I cut them out on the band saw. They are now mounted on a small block of wood and look like they were work of a couple of professionals. Slim Johnson stopped in on us this evening. He said that the Olsons had just got back from a trip to Kenora on the new highway. They are still driving their car on the ice but the going is getting pretty tough.