Roland Larson
Roland Larson
Eden Prairie Resident and World War II Veteran
Passion! Remember that word passion. Find your passion. Through all those jobs I did I finally found out that I had to work with people like you. What a blessing it is to wake up and thank God for another day!
Roland Larson
Eden Prairie Resident and World War II Veteran
My name is Roland Larson. I’m 86 years old. My mother and father were both born and raised in Sweden. We learned to speak Swedish when children. My pals talked English. I learned both languages.
When I was a boy, during the Depression, no one had money to speak of. No one had allowances. My mom made most of the clothing. The first house I was born in was what you call the upper flats. There was no electricity. At Christmastime we had real live candles that were burned.
The first job I had was selling magazines door to door. I was ten years old selling Woman’s Home Companion. The company sent us this little thing to say. I would knock on the door. When a woman would come to the door I’d have to speak, “How do you do Madam? I’m a Crown Junior salesman. The magazine is only ten cents a copy. Would you like one?” It was a scary experience.
I worked for two years hoping some day to go to college. I paid my own way. You know what it cost? Twenty-five dollars a quarter. Seventy-five dollars a year tuition. I was able to pay that. I was student at the University of Minnesota and so was Doris, the woman I married later on.
I joined the Navy three months after Pearl Harbor. They kept me in college. I got another year of college while I waited to be called up. I was sent to Notre Dame University in the V-12 program.
The war had just started. We were sent into the war in Okinawa. I was on this little ship one hundred and fifty feet long. The Okinawa battle was the most vicious of the Second World War for the Navy.
Doris and I got married right after the war. We’ve had a wonderful life. All my children went to school here at Cedar Manor. My wife Doris is the love of my life.
Passion, Passion
Honoring Roland Larson
Passion, Passion
My mother and father
Came to this land
From Sweden
Grew up on a farm
Mom went to school
Until the sixth grade
At your age
Had to milk cows
Do all the chores
on the farm
Passion, Passion
Have to have passion
in your life
Over the ocean
On big ocean liners
They came
With little money
Not knowing
What was a head
All that was said
Was in Swedish
Had to learn English
from friends
Passion, Passion
Have to have passion
in your life
Depression came
When I was a boy
Hard to survive
Yet always had food
Always had clothing
Without money to buy
At Christmas time
Had real candles
That burned
on the Christmas tree
Passion, Passion
Have to have passion in your life
The first job I had
Was selling magazines
Door to door
“How do you do?
I’m a Crown Junior Salesman.
Would you like one?”
Ten cents a copy
Two cents profit
I made for each sold
Passion, Passion
Have to have passion in your life
I wanted to go to college
But my father
Disagreed
From selling papers
To finding work
With the railway company
To Washington DC
Where I took courses
At George Washington University
Passion, Passion
Have to have passion in your life
Went off to college
Where I met Doris
The love of my life
Then came Pearl Harbor
Joined the Navy
Before she
became my wife
Doris did write
600 letters to me
And I wrote
584 to her
Passion, Passion
Have to have passion in your life
In Okinawa
Two hundred and fifty
Thousand people died
In eighty-three days
A mass grave
Why, oh why, oh why
At state-side
Doris & I got married
When the war
was through
Passion, Passion
Have to have passion in your life
We have been married
For sixty-one years
With four children we love
Each of them went
To Cedar Manor
Now they have families
It’s not the money
It’s living the life you love
That will
set your spirit free
Passion, Passion
Have to have passion in your life
Words & music by Larry Long with Mr. Ikola and Ms. Robinson’s 6th grade class
of Cedar Manor Elementary School. St. Louis Park, Minnesota.
© Larry Long 2007 / BMI