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Comment by Dave Lynas on March 31, 2021 at 5:59am

Hey Ray. I started drawing very young. I had bad eyesight so sports didn’t work for me. Couldn’t play ball. So I drew. My dad was an artist. Mom was a typist. Any mistake she had to do over. I got the paper to draw on and dad gave me pencils. I drew for recreation and play. It has stuck with me to this day. Drawing is my core activity.

Comment by Dave Lynas on March 31, 2021 at 5:50am

So Uncle. I got my second covid shot on Sunday last. I felt ok Monday and it was worm out. We went to see our garden. It was beautiful but very windy off the ice on the lake. When I got home I got very ill. Reaction to the vaccine. Fever, chills, headache, stomach ache. Yucky. I drew this drawing in that state. I feel fine now and several drawings since. Maybe George had a hand in my experience.
  Another thing. Now Rick Sundberg has the drawing to use in our new collaboration. I did a rhythm track with harp and sent him 6 new drawings to build our video. Now, he’s part of the story. Thanks Unc. for telling the story. 

Comment by Dave Lynas on March 31, 2021 at 5:09am

That’s wonderful to hear Unc. I feel so good that I could draw these two for you. I knew little about them but loved the photo I worked from. I have a story too. Tell you after lunch.

Comment by Uncle John on March 31, 2021 at 2:58am

    I knew those guys.  Brings back some memories.  Makes me happy/sad.   Buster Swenson on guitar and George Johnson on the dobro.  Man, old Buster looked like he would sing low bass but out comes high tenor.   George couldn't sing a lick and he knew better than to try. But he had a way of making everybody else sound good.  And he had a quiet way about him that nobody messed with him and the band ALWAYS got paid.  

   Buster worked with my dad down at the rail yard some and dad would always talk about him and he took me to hear George, Buster and George's wife Annie play at the VFW.  They had a fiddler, but I can't recall his name.   Buster did some great old tunes and so did Annie.  Annie did that one, 'It Wasn't God That Made Honky Tonk Angels.'

   Ah, 'The Swinging Gates'.  That was the name of the band.  I could not think of it before.  Annie would dress up cowgirl style and she was pretty as Dale Evans.  Wow.  She was my first crush, when I was about 12.   Buster sang a lot of Hank Williams and Jimmy Rogers.  He did Blues Eyes Crying In The Rain back before I ever heard of Willie Nelson.  

   I remember that George was something of a war hero in the Pacific.  Bronze star and a couple of purple hearts.   He was a POW to the Japanese..  Came home weighing about 120 pounds.   Never had good health after.   He and Annie never had any kids.   They raised two though.  They were two of George's brother's kids.  His brother got killed in a farming accident.  Corn picker.   My brother played baseball with those Johnson kids.  Good kids and good ball players. 

   George had the worst health, but he outlived Annie and Buster and both those boys they raised.   I remember him sitting out in front of the nursing home with the dobro.  He had the shakes sometimes, but he could still play some.  There was a nurse's aid at the home.  She would sit and sing when George played.   She goes to our church.  Joanne Pedersen.

   George was this town's last surviving WW II vet and the first in town to die of Covid.  Man.  Sad, sad.  They are supposed to have a memorial for him in July and a lot of music.   I am going for sure.

Comment by Southern Ray on March 30, 2021 at 8:46pm

Very nice, Dave. I always wished I could draw like that. As much as I tried, it just didn't work. You have wonderful skills.

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