The Naughty Norwegian

I’d like to share a little of what I know about Cecil Arneson, my great grandfather. I don’t know why I’m so concerned with him, it could be because no one else seems to be. My mother and her mother hated him. My great grandmother divorced him, But she also married him, so he must have had some redeeming qualities.

Here is an excerpt from something I wrote for a local history book:

After he married Viola they moved to Powers where Cecil went to work for the Smith-Powers Logging Company. This may have been the longest time he worked for any one company. In Powers Pete, Claude, Ella and Vera were born. Vic Stevens tells a story about Cecil in his book “THE POWERS STORY”  it goes like this;

 “There was an amusing incident which happened during one ball game which I was attending.
There was a large crowd of men congregated in the street between the depot and the tavern across the street.  This was the same place that Mr. Link was having his shin-dig.  This time it was one of our local boys putting on a show.  I was attracted to the place by the crowd of people.  What I saw, when I got where I could see, was John Darling chasing his brother-in-law around and around inside the circle.  Evidently John had caught up with his victim several times for the poor fellow’s face was smeared all over with blood, and his nose was bleeding.  He probably looked worse than he was.
I couldn’t understand why the little fellow didn’t break out of the ring and make a run for it, but he never did.  He only kept running around the ring, which was formed by the amused audience, hollering for help.
The crowd soon dispersed and I suppose the one-sided fight was stopped for lack of an audience.  Since it was a family affair, no one seemed very concerned about it.  Well almost no one.
There was one person, who, when he heard about the pseudo fight, reacted in a peculiar manner.  The way he heard the story, it sounded like a mutt and jeff deal and he meant to do something about it.  By this time, the ball game was on, and Cecil Arneson, who was a native of Myrtle Point, began his search for John Darling and found him lying on the ground watching the game.”
Cecil approached Darling and said, “On your feet, Darling.”
Darling looked up at Cecil and seeing the serious look on Arneson’s face, he immediately arose to his feet and as he did so, Arneson slammed him a good hard punch and John went down, but not out.

Angry now, and humiliated besides, he sprang to his feet to put Cecil in his place, for Cecil was even smaller than his victim of an hour or two before.  As he made his rush for Cecil, he was met by another haymaker and down went John’s meathouse again.  John still wasn’t satisfied that it wasn’t just a lucky punch so he “upped and at him” another time, going down for the third time.  As John sat there on the ground, he looked up at Cecil and asked, “What’s the big beef anyway?”
And Cecil replied, “I just wanted you to see how it goes.”

I can't help it, it makes me smile.

In the photo L to R are Erik and Mary Arneson (Cecil's parents) Viola, baby Roy and Cecil Arneson

More about Cecil to come.