AUGUST 2003
by Jeff Sauve, Associate Archivist
Last month I wrote about a scrapbook that once belonged to 1927 alumna Eldri Dieson. Here’s the second installment of “Eldri’s Scrapbook.”
Football was a very prevalent theme in her scrapbook, and one can understand why. The football team won two championships during the 1920s and boasted the talents of the legendary Cully Swanson, whose passing average of 205½ yards per game brought him national attention and a listing in Ripley’s “Believe It or Not” column. Eldri’s scrapbook includes specific football with black and gold ribbon attached that students would wear at the games. These souvenirs include a round pin that says, “Get their Goat, Oles!” with a picture of a goat and Carleton across its flank (March 7, 1925) and a football-shaped pin that says, “Let’s Lick Luther College” (Nov. 6, 1924). The accompanying Homecoming program states, “Welcome Luther! The twin schools are truly brothers. Vikings both and members of the same church body, they have similar personnel and the same ideals. There exists between them brotherly love and also what is possibly more evident at times, brotherly rivalry. When St. Olaf and Luther teams meet there is a battle royal, for then Vikings clash. St. Olaf teams respect their Luther opponents for their scrappy play and their clean sportsmanship.”
Included with the brochures are songs to be sung at the big game, including this odd little ditty:
Oh, we have got the smallpox,
And quarantined are we;
The doctor comes to vaccinate
And draw from us his fee;
Formaldehyde and vaccine,
And all the rotten stuff,
To scare away the microbes
And all the other toughs.
Chorus:
Small pox, smallpox, tra-la-la.
Oh, we have got the smallpox, tra-la-la-la-la
La-la-la-la-la
Oh, we have got the smallpox,
And quarantined are we;
The doctor comes to vaccinate
And draw from us his fee.
I could spend all day elaborating what is in Eldi’s scrapbook, but instead of doing that, why not stop by the archives and see for yourself! Or better yet, please donate items to the archives for future use.