The Icelandic connection - 01.12.2020, Blaðsíða 9

Vol. 7® #8
ICELANDIC CONNECTION
151
Konrad (Konnie) johannesson
Memoirs and Diary, 1910-1919
by Brian Johannesson
Introduction
My father, Konnie, the fourth of eight
children, was born in Glenboro,
Manitoba on August 10th, 1896, shortly
after that his family moved to Winnipeg.
His father Jonas, from Reykjalid, was a
successful house and apartment builder
and could afford a very good education
for his family.
His mother Rosa Einarsdottir, from
Husavik, was a pillar of the First Lutheran
Church for many years. Somewhere along
the way Konnie learned to play the violin
rather well.
“Frank” Fredrickson and “Davey”
Davidson were childhood friends of
Konnie, they had all grown up together
in Winnipeg and enlisted together. ‘Freda’
(my mother) was his (unofficial) fiancee,
they were married in May 1921.
I inherited the diaries, letters and
a negative book after the death of my
mother in 1969. The book contained
over 100 negatives, most of them still
in excellent condition, from which most
of the pictures were printable. These
negatives were given to the National
Archives in Ottawa in 1974. I still have
the diaries and the rest of his papers.
Dad wrote these memoirs in the
late 1950s, using his old Underwood
typewriter. I still remember the sound of
his two-finger keyboard-bashing.
* * *
Konnie’s story from his memoirs
and diaries:
My interest in flying machines began
one afternoon in July back in the year 1910,
when I was 14 years old. The afternoon was
warm and sunny, and I walked from our old
family home at 675 Me Dermot Street to
the Fair Grounds on Dufferin Ave. west
of Arlington St. in Winnipeg. On that
afternoon I saw my first flying machine. I
never did figure out how I managed to get
close enough to that machine to actually
touch it. I guess I must have been prodded
by a boy’s natural curiosity. I didn’t realize
I was in forbidden territory until I heard
a loud voice yelling to someone to get the
H— out of there. That someone turned out
to be me.
Well, before my presence was noticed I
had had a few minutes to have a good look
at the first flying machine to be assembled
in Winnipeg. In those days, the aircraft
used in these exhibition tours were always
dismantled and shipped by rail from point
to point. This time, along with several years
following, belonged to the fix and fly era,
and to fly an aircraft was definitely a circus
or exhibition stunt. That afternoon turned
out to be perfect flying weather, with a
gentle westerly wind, right up and down
the long way of the inner grass area of the
race track.
Flights were always advertised or
announced as “weather permitting”. I
figured that this afternoon the weather was