October 12, 2020 Thank you, Barbara Schock, for sharing your extraordinary gift of these vignettes of Galesburg & 19th century American history.
Sweet Music By Barbara Schock
Helga Sandburg was the youngest of Carl and Lilian
Sandburg’s three daughters. In 1963 she wrote a book, Sweet Music: A Book of
Family Reminiscence and Song. In it she writes that her father gave her a copy of The
American Songbag when she was nine years old. He had completed the collection of
American folksongs just a year or so earlier. Helga grew up with music, the guitar and her father’s
clacking typewriter in the attic. She learned early songs like “John Brown’s
Body,” “Solidarity Forever,” “Joe Hill,” “Jesus Loves Me,” and “Away in the
Manger.” She also learned Swedish folk songs like “Old Man Noah,” She learned to
play the guitar and the accordion. Both pairs of grandparents had been born overseas and come
to the United States for a better life. They spoke Luxembourg, French, German
and Swedish. They enriched the lives of their granddaughters in a variety of
ways. Carl Sandburg told stories to his young daughters which were
full of imaginative detail, had quirky characters and they were amusing too. The
tales were later published as Rootabaga Stories and are still enjoyed by
children and adults today. Lilian Sandburg raised pedigreed goats and Helga
participated in their feeding and care. She had her own horse to ride on the
sand dunes near the family home in Michigan. Horse and rider often swam together
in Lake Michigan. Helga was a true daughter of her parents. She was stubborn,
rebellious and determined to outdo her parents. She wrote seventeen books
including novels, memoirs and poetry. She lived to be ninety-five years old. This quotation from Sweet Music expresses Helga Sandburg’s
thoughts
about music and its effect on people: “Songs run like patchwork threads through
life. Some stamp a moment so thereafter they can’t be freed from it, and return
the essence of it whenever the song is heard. Nostalgia is wound and fastened
about songs; the songs of the lost past of childhood or of an old love remains,
stubborn, with the tune that belongs to it.” She also wrote in the Forward: “The songs that come from
people grow slowly as they are handed from mouth to mouth, and unless there’s a
quality about that the people like, they’re bound to die. Almost everyone who
handles a song changes it slightly it suits his taste; this is correct; it is
the tradition.” If we think about it, each one of us carries songs in our
hearts and minds associated with individuals, memories and experiences. The
styles and themes may change over the years as each generation proceeds through
life, but the notes of enjoyment are still there.
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