[0:17] I was interviewing some folks in care centers for a program called Art for Life, sponsored

[0:27] by the North Dakota Council on the Arts, and it happened that COVID happened at the same

[0:33] time, so I was doing a phone interview with these four lovely women all in their 90s from

[0:40] the heritage home near Jamestown, North Dakota, and we were talking about isolation and how they were

[0:49] going to handle this COVID thing and they all said, oh, this is nothing. You know, we know how to

[0:57] take care of ourselves and each other. And so I just took notes on my yellow legal pad while they were

[1:05] speaking on the phone and and then later I tried to find the poetry and in their lovely

[1:11] words and their hearts and they all talked about even growing up how fortunate they were

[1:19] to have had a chance to work with horses and how that carried through into all of their

[1:24] lives and also that they said you know we never knew we were poor. We always had time to

[1:32] go out on Saturday night even after a hard work week of work and so there was a lot of

[1:41] wisdom there I thought and so I call this the four wise, Donna

[1:57] was a small tanger, made

[2:01] a man who changed her work, a farmer with a weak heeled lawn,

[2:12] several years they worked

[2:14] the long and when he passed she carried on she farmed along quarter century she

[2:29] talked about the days to come to be afraid she ain't that one ever board

[2:46] forces have a Saturday answer cares away

[2:54] forces never knew we were among the

[2:59] Common grew

[3:11] up,

[3:15] she loved right on,

[3:27] the evening quilts were sown, to warm souls of those unknown, her love to

[3:45] its best, until he met, he'd heard all rest,

[3:50] Can

[4:02] hang her strong fist

[4:47] on

[4:54] every new tattoo

[4:59] Filled with

[5:03] forgiveness, good attitude

[5:09] Most people

[5:20] pretty darn good wife

[5:35] Every Saturday, heck

[5:55] here's a way

[6:17] Donna was a small town girl

[6:21] Met a man who changed her word

[6:30] Wheatfield

[6:31] Well

[6:46] it's June,

[6:49] last day of June

[6:50] And

[6:54] a beautiful moon

[6:55] A June moon,

[7:01] last chance to get out, find a hayfield, smell some sweet clover, alfalfa,

[7:10] fresh green grass, especially now we had a little rain.

[7:20] June fields, a good night to be out and hang your heart on the moon field.

[7:27] This is written on open swathor, watching the hay tumble out into a windrow behind which

[7:36] would be cured by the sun and then gathered up to be bailed or maybe chopped.

[7:43] You're

[8:04] lucky and you hear the words rising up, if you're lucky,

[8:14] you'll have a screwdriver

[8:15] Or a rusty nail scratch down the lyrics you're being given

[8:24] Into the rusts on the control panel

[8:27] To

[8:38] the morning light

[8:43] shadows shallow live fall

[8:47] Night will like

[8:53] the haze standing tall

[8:55] To the reas

[9:02] they gather the tape

[9:06] It's a legion of winter

[9:12] and stern Wheeler wake and feel

[11:10] while the moon glazes

[11:33] in sweet grass.

[12:28] Tonight's the night gang, tonight's the night.

[12:31] Well I had the privilege of going to a one room school for eight years, little heart school

[12:36] number two south of Mandan about eight miles and I'll never forget that exciting day.

[12:43] I think I was probably in, I don't know, fourth or fifth grade, and the book

[12:50] mobile arrived. The citizens of Morton County had voted to raise their taxes

[12:57] a little, tiny bit, so us farm kids could have equal access to all kinds of

[13:04] books, all kinds of books. And we got to go into the book mobile when it first

[13:09] derived that first day, and I'll never forget. It was crowded in there because there was

[13:15] just a narrow pathway between the racks of books and the smell of the books and the ink

[13:22] and the glue was something that I'll never forget and the excitement. And somehow, not

[13:30] knowing what book to choose, a book chose me. And it was in my hands. I don't know how

[13:41] it got there. But it was a book called Ferdinand the Bull about Ferdinand the Bull who lived

[13:49] just outside of Madrid, Spain. And he had been recruited to go to the bullfight in Madrid

[13:58] to a fight, but Ferdinand was quite happy where he was out on the hills around Madrid

[14:10] under his cork tree where he loved to just sit and smell the flowers.

[14:15] But he got recruited to go fight, but when he got into the bullring he smelled the flowers

[14:23] that were in the lady's hair and in their fancy bonnets and the flowers that they had thrown

[14:29] out for the Matador. And he just sat down and smelled the flowers. And everyone was quite

[14:38] upset, especially the Matador. But Ferdinand was taken back to his pasture. And he didn't

[14:47] fight because he was afraid or a coward. He didn't fight because he was courageous and brave.

[14:58] brave enough to

[15:00] To be who he truly had been created to be, long before he was born, brave enough to know his

[15:09] peaceful heart and to live his peaceful heart. And I think about Ferdinand a lot, especially

[15:16] these days. And I think he's still there. I know he is, I know he is, because he lives

[15:25] in my heart now, and now he can live in yours or whoever hears this story. And I know he's under his

[15:35] cork tree smelling the flowers cool in the shade.

[19:47] I don't know how many outdoor pools are in small towns around the area anymore but

[19:54] in the town that I grew up near Mandan. The outdoor pool was the sort of the center of

[20:02] well, I'll say cultural activity which is a pretty broad umbrella. And it was the place

[20:09] to be, I guess. I didn't get to go in a lot because I was mostly working on the farm.

[20:16] But a few times I did get in there. And I remember being warned by the lifeguards, you not

[20:23] cross over the rope and get sucked into the deep end and I never quite knew what

[20:32] that meant but it sounded it sounded pretty scary and I know that even though

[20:39] the pool was closed during the night it was still used so it's called down in

[20:48] the water, two, three, four.

[21:07] At the big cool summer evening, trying to keep cool,

[21:13] they had stuck in, and the heat flew, when they lay down in the warm

[21:25] night shed,

[21:27] jealous angels shaking their heads, laughing lovers, all the fear fled,

[21:34] When

[21:39] whenever love is true, there ain't nothing,

[21:57] life will pitch you to the shoulder, up the middle, low and over.

[22:05] You don't have to,

[22:14] wonder, watchin' lifelines, growin' shorter, still the light shines, longer shadows of our lifetime,

[22:27] down in the water.

[22:28] Whenever love is true, there ain't nothing others,

[23:01] jealous angels, smile it all still can.

[23:08] Let's all jump in,

[23:18] love is,

[23:46] whenever love is true, there ain't nothing you can do.

[23:51] It ain't always up to you, and you don't have to hit the Homer.

[23:58] I love singing and writing and living where I do and, but it was quite some time before

[24:10] I realized, I really realized that there was life going on here long before my ancestors

[24:17] arrived in the, in the late 1800s and that there was love happening and games happening

[24:23] hunting and hunting happening and life

[24:30] happening and I had the good chance just by chance when

[24:37] I was hauling grain out to the to the elevator and then driving back out to the

[24:43] combine where my dad was waiting with another hopper full of grain and then we

[24:48] dump it in the truck and when the truck was full we drive into the grain

[24:52] elevator in Mandin. And on one of those return trips, it was about the first time I had driven

[24:58] the truck by myself. I was probably 14, 15 years old. And there was a fellow walking along

[25:05] what we called River Road, which is now Highway 1806 on his way out to his wonderful rich standing

[25:13] rock community. And for some reason, I heard a little voice say it's a hot day, hot August,

[25:23] day he could probably use a ride. So I slowed down and opened the, kicked open the

[25:31] passenger door and he climbed in and the story unfolded.

[25:49] In my daddy's old truck, that's chief 55. I was 15 years old just coming alive. He stood

[25:59] But on the shoulder, too proud to ask, I threw her in neutral, slipped off the gas.

[26:12] I slow on the gravely greed, he climbed in the cab, no eye contact me.

[26:22] Six miles of silence, his head held up high, to my question unanswered, I heard his reply.

[26:31] I'm rainbow, Kenny Rainbow, I'm a singer, you know

[26:36] On the highway to heaven, the journey is slow

[26:40] Until I come to my drum, and the big powwow show

[26:45] I'm rainbow, Kenny Rainbow, I'm a singer, you know

[26:50] His

[26:55] voice held conviction, from deep within sight

[26:59] Deeper than ego, far beyond pride

[27:04] 30 years later, it came to be clear he was a keeper of culture, stories to hear.

[27:14] My head in its youth passed over his words, a heart held the truth of all that it heard.

[27:24] We came to his corner I know I was blessed

[27:29] As he called from the gravel Into my past

[27:35] I'm a rainbow, Kenny Rainbow, I'm a singer, you know

[27:40] On the highway to heaven The journey's slow

[27:44] Till I come to my drum At the big powwow shoe

[27:49] I'm a rainbow, Kenny Rainbow, I'm a singer, you know

[27:53] Now

[27:59] I sing the stage lights in clear prairie stars, in holy old churches, in smoke-holdy bars.

[28:09] I'm very, I'm very neighbors with song.

[28:14] I know I'm a singer, and where I belong.

[28:18] Like Rainbow, Kenny Rainbow, I'm a singer, you know.

[28:22] On the highway to heaven, the journey is slow, till it comes to my drum at the big powwow

[28:32] show, like Rainbow, Kenny Rainbow, I'm a singer and go, like Rainbow, Kenny Rainbow,

[28:41] I'm a singer, yeah, I've

[29:07] had the privilege of being with many lovely mama cows at their

[29:14] time of giving birth and quite

[29:29] a special privilege to be out under cold March stars.

[29:34] This is before we started calving in May, which is when we should be calving.

[29:44] But nevertheless, to be with a mama cow at that special time in the dark under clear,

[29:54] Clear, clear, clear, starry sky.

[30:03] In the quiet.

[30:08] And then the magic happens.

[30:20] And after the mama cow has cleaned the calf and

[30:26] taught it to nurse, she lies down.

[30:33] And I may have given her some dried cat tails to lie

[30:38] down and smelling of mint and river and willow. And

[30:48] the calf finds its way over to that

[30:50] warm tummy of the momma and slides down into that cat tail bed.

[31:01] Oh my little dark-eyed one, you who've yet to see the sun, born before chilly dawn,

[31:14] by your mama safe

[31:25] thirty-far from past the moon beyond the star now you raise and

[31:39] lay

[31:39] you down in a cat-to

[31:49] -cat-to

[31:54] -cat-to-in star Venus

[32:01] blown

[32:08] in a cat-to

[32:25] -day

[32:25] long last fall, buildin' cactailed hen and tall, put up dry in yonder shed to make

[32:38] for you.

[32:48] I am not used,

[32:58] my soul,

[33:03] lay me down in a kindness,

[33:26] lay me

[33:34] down.

Front Avenue Sound Sessions Ep. 7 with Chuck Suchy

Transcript