HISTORICAL EVENTS DEFINE OUR OWN LIVES

On May 1, 1915 a German U-boat sunk the Lusitania. It was an event that that helped draw the United States into WW1. At the time, my grandfather Otto Peterson and his young bride Tekla were living in Detroit, Michigan. News of the sinking of the Lusitania must have been a shock to them as it was the ship they had just sailed on when returning home from their honeymoon in Denmark.

When the news of the sinking hit the stands Otto and Tekla were living just two blocks from the Detroit River and Electric Park, which was one of the cities main attractions. Across the river from Electric Park they could see Windsor, Canada.

Electric Park was an amusement park in Detroit, Michigan that was in operation from 1906 to 1928. Owned by Arthur Gaulker and his family, the park was also known by Riverview Park, Luna Park, and Granada Park in its 22-year existence, with several unofficial nicknames like "Pike's Peak", "Riverside", and "Granada". The park was sited on East Jefferson Drive adjacent to the approach to the bridge to Belle Isle. Wikapedia

When Otto died in 1956 he was still living in Detroit and was a successful businessman. His wife Tekla died in 1920, one year after giving birth to my mother. She died of tuberculosis. I wrote this poem years ago to help my children understand who they were.

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Lusitania Shines as a City

At Electric Park tungsten burns white.
Clear Edison bulbs, numbered by thousands,
ponder the soft edge of space.

Tekla is breathless, holds Otto’s hand,
her Swedish hair pinned with a tortoise shell comb,
her Gibson dress shifting in blue

as they pass the Big Dipper. Its spine,
a sea serpent tail, rumbles and rolls with steel
coaster wheels. Screams overhead

that wander in currents down to the river
where Miss Nellie Turnbull, soprano, sings
with the band at the Palais de Danse.

Tekla and Otto do Santley Tangos
and Whirlwind Waltzes, then walk lamp to lamp
on the creosote boards of the Belle Island bridge.

Lost in the lights they reason the distance to Windsor, adrift like a sea going liner.

credits