Lars Attacks

It seems like Facebook and forums have diverted my attention from this blog — if anyone’s out there, sorry!

Lots of new project details coming soon, but in the meantime I’d like to announce a new wiki I’ve started on the subject of modular drum machine project resources.

The Modular Drum Machine Database

One of the most beautiful games I’ve ever seen.  Kudos to Audrey for sharing the vid.

This bit of personal history concerning my Great Great Grandfather was written by my Grandmother, Dottie Larsen, who passed away a few years ago.  It is based on his own writings.  My grandmother was an extremely organized and creative person, and I will spend the rest of my life aspiring to the level of detail and care she put into chronicling and documenting her life and my family history.  I’ll occasionally make posts like these for documentary purposes. -Lars

Peter Clemens Larsen’s father, Martin, emigrated from Schleswig, Germany to the United States in the fall of 1879.  They were Danes as were most of the inhabitants of northern Schleswig .  Peter was born in 1873 and was 7; his sister was 5 and his little brother was 1-1/2 when they came to this country.  In the spring of 1880, his father sent money to his mother, Karen, so the family could join him in St. Paul, Minnesota where he was living.  They arrived at Castle Garden, NY, where emigrants landed at that time, and his mother became very sick with the measles.  They were sent to a two-story house and a German woman took care of them.  His mother could speak German as well as Danish and she gave the German woman money to send a telegram to her husband.  He never got the telegram and knew nothing of the predicament they were in.  In the morning their mother was dying.  She said, “Children, that woman who took care of me gave me poison this morning.  I can feel it burning inside.  When you meet your father, tell him that your mother died at the foot of the Cross.”  Then she prayed.  Imagine the scene – the two little broken-hearted, lonesome, terrified children standing by the bedside of their dying mother, weeping and praying silently with their mother.

Following are his own words:

“If ever I prayed in my life, I did it then.  We could not speak English.  We were alone in this awful country.  That awful woman had tried to kill mother.  Perhaps we would all be killed.  Father was far away.  How to get to him or get him to us, we did not know.

“The woman had left immediately after giving mother the poison.  Presumably, she had given mother the wrong medicine, and, discovering her mistake, had left. But we were not alone.  God was there.  While praying, mother broke out with a cold perspiration all over.  After a few moments she said, “I feel better.”  She told me to go out on the sidewalk and bring someone in.  Providentially, a ‘Good Samaritan’ came along.  He understood mother, got in touch with the proper party, and soon a covered ambulance wagon came.  Mother and little brother were wrapped up, and we were taken along.  Mother and little brother were taken to a Catholic hospital and sister and I were taken temporarily to parochial schools.  We did not stay there long, as we both got measles and were soon with mother in the hospital.  And how glad we were that mother and brother were recovering – mother was not dead, and we could look at her to our heart’s content.  It was the only time in my life that I was glad that I became sick.  A German Lutheran minister, who visited a patient in the ward, talked to mother and sent word to father, telling him that we were getting along well and would soon be out.  Arriving at St. Paul, father, an earnest Christian man, was amazed and thankful when he heard the story.

“A few months after, mother became suddenly ill and father sent for a Dr. Schmidt, a competent physician.  He did not know anything of the experience mother has passed through.  After an examination, he said, “You have had a very strong poison in your system, and it is a miracle that you are alive.”  Mother lived eight years after that and died of other causes.  To this day, I am firmly convinced that the doctor spoke the truth.”

Peter grew up in St. Paul where he attended school; he was an avid reader.  Books were precious to him; he read and reread them often.  He kept a journal for many years and wrote glowing descriptions of the places he went and things he saw, as well as places he would like to go, and dreams he had.  He was most impressed with the Ice Palace that was built every year in St. Paul and also the Dime Museum.  The family attended the Presbyterian Sunday School almost every Sunday; occasionally they went to a Danish Church also.   They enjoyed sleds, toboggans, curling, skating, fishing, parades.  Actually growing up in St. Paul offered a lot.  His father worked nights as a baker;  later they started a bakery of their own.  Peter got a job as an errand boy for a printing shop in 1886 at age 13.  He earned $2.50 a week and got to keep .10 for himself.  Later he drove the family bakery delivery wagon.   His mother was very dear to him.  She worked hard and bore four children.  She died in 1888 of pneumonia and later that year the family moved to Council Bluffs, Iowa.  His father moved there to sell real estate with his brother.  While living in Council Bluffs, Peter began studying theology and attended Northern Baptist Seminary in preparation for becoming a minister.  Peter never forgave his father for marrying Christine Jorgensen (who was about the same age as Peter) and having another family of eight children.  At the same time, his father could not resolve the fact that Peter left the Lutheran Church to become a Baptist.  The relationship remained strained until his father, Martin, died in 1929.

Peter married Sanna Sandersen in 1893 and they had nine children.  The second child born was Victor David Larsen, born in 1896, the father of Verle  (who died), Jerry, Ron and Gaylord.  Sanna lived to be 74 years old and died in 1943 when Peter was 70.  He later married Meta Deyn and she was a wonderful companion to him.  Peter died in 1964 at the age of 91.