‘Dancing definitely keeps me on my toes’
By Carol Stender
The best place to find Lawrence Weinrich on his 100th birthday on May 30 might be on the dance floor.
Weinrich, of Ottertail, dances at least five times a month throughout the winter and even more in summer, he said. His favorite of all the “old time dances” is the polka.
He doesn’t shuffle as he dances. Video of Weinrich’s moves shows him easily lifting his feet as he guides his dance partners to the music.
“I do a lot of swinging and twisting,” he said. “Most of the women love it.”
He attributes his agility to exercise, especially walking, which he did a lot as a Wienrich avid hunter. He has several antlers from successful deer hunts on display in his farmhouse’s porch. And he can tell you where he got each one.
Weinrich shows a buffalo skull he found in the Orwell Dam area near Fergus Falls.
“When I walk, I usually look at the ground,” he said. “You never know what you will find.”
He trapped pocket gophers and chopped wood until he was 98. He gave the traps to his step-son who wanted to keep busy in retirement.
And he isn’t in need of firewood right now. During his wood chopping years, he was able to amass enough for his wood stove to last a few years.
“I have always been on the go,” he said. “Exercise doesn’t hurt. That’s one thing that I think keeps me going. Dancing definitely keeps me on my toes.”
Weinrich is originally from Fergus Falls where, for the first seven years of his life, he attended seven different country schools.
“That was back in the ‘30s with the drought,” he said. “Money was hard to come by.”
Although his parents didn’t own a farm, they were farmers until the day his father got a job as an electrician in Fergus Falls. The family, all eight children and his parents, moved to town. He was the second oldest.
He attended school through the 10th grade when, during World War II, he left school to help an uncle on his 360-acre farm. All the work was done with horses. Another uncle who managed the farm was a soldier fighting in Europe.
Weinrich got a job in Fergus Falls when World War II ended, but then came the Korean War. Weinrich was one of the first drafted.
“I was lucky to be in the artillery,” he said.
There weren’t many airplanes in Korea at the time and the artillery was able to hold the line, he said.
While the soldiers were told they would be deployed for nine months, they served 13 in Korea.
Weinrich and others who loaded the artillery guns punched the ammunition into it using their fists. Due to that physical action, Weinrich has all of his fingers which he flexed while telling the story.
Once he was discharged, he returned to Fergus Falls and unloaded lumber at Northwest Sash and Door. They liked his work so much, the company hired him.
He moved up to working the saw and then became a moulder before taking a position as supervisor. After several years, the company folded and he was hired by Orland Peterson Company.
The new company built cabinets. Through his work, Weinrich was able to identify different types of wood.
“I pretty much know my wood,” he said.
Weinrich enjoyed going to dances in his spare time.
“My mom and dad didn’t once or really listen to music,” he said. “They were busy raising a family and working. Those were poor times.”
Weinrich learned to dance by doing.
“I just went out and danced,” he said. “Some people take lessons, but me, I just went out there and did it.”
Weinrich has been married three times and met each of his wives on the dance floor.
He married his first wife shortly after he returned from Korea. Weinrich and Joyce, or Jo as she preferred to be called, had three children - two boys and one girl. Jo died in 1970 while dancing with her father. Apparently she pulled too hard and her father wasn’t able to catch her, Weinrich said. She hit her head on the floor. Jo was only 37.
Weinrich was 45 at the time and their youngest son was only seven, he said. The two older children were old enough to care for him as Weinrich worked.
About three years later he met his second wife, Teresa, in Fergus Falls. They were married for 25 years. “That was the longest marriage for me,” he said. She died in a car accident.
He met his third wife, Helen, at the Blue Horizon at a dance. When the two married, they moved to a farm place Helen owned north of Ottertail. The two enjoyed living in the country. She walked with Weinrich as he set out pocket gopher traps. Helen would dig a hole and he would set and place the trap.
She passed away years ago from heart disease.
He has experienced the heartbreak of loss. Besides his three wives, Weinrich’s two sons have also died. Weinrich cherishes the memories of them all recalling fox and deer hunting trips with his sons and the dances and family time with them all.
Weinrich keeps engaged with family including his daughter who lives in Washington state, his five step-children and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Weinrich lives on the farm where he has plans to plant a large garden. It’s something he’s always done, Weinrich said.
A step-son owns the sheep in the nearby pasture, but Weinrich enjoys keeping an eye on the flock. And he watches for wild turkeys and deer that pass through the farmyard often as well as caring for the farm’s three barn cats.
His neighbors give him a ride to area dances.
“They always make sure I go along with them,” he said of the couple. No matter if the dances are in Motley, Park Rapids, Wadena or Perham, Weinrich has transportation to and from the outings. In the summer they also enjoy attending dances in Frazee and to Ottertail’s Polka Dance.
“I always liked the polka,” he said. “That’s the fastest dance, but I dance them all except for the schottische. Then I do more of a two-step.”
But on his birthday, Weinrich will most likely opt for a polka.
A special thank you to our friends at Staples World newspaper for sharing the front page photo of Lawrence.
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