Yust A Minute, Ma
by John Eidsvoog

On July 6th, 2003, the Eidsvoog family had a reunion in Minneapolis, larger than any other that I can remember. The occasion was the 50th wedding anniversary of Helen and Bart Trombley. Helen is the youngest of the five children of Martin and Aasta Eidsvoog, and all five children and their spouses have celebrated their 50th anniversaries and were present at the reunion.

Sadly, as I write this on December 23, 2003, Norm Eidsvoog, the fourth child, has passed away at the age of 76. As unfortunate as his passing was, it has made the reunion more special in that everyone was able to gather together for a celebration.

In order to provide a special offering for the reunion and honor the memory of Martin and Aasta, I wrote and recorded a song called "Yust A Minute, Ma". It is a parody of the way they used to tell stories. Neither one of them could get very far before the other would interrupt and try to set the record straight. With their heavy Norwegian accents, it was always quite a spectacle. After listening to the song, you may wonder how I came up with Aasta's voice. It's my voice after running it through a digital audio processor called spectral effects, where the pitch has been shifted up a little but the "formants" are shifted down. I think the end result is that Aasta's voice sounds more realistic than Martin's. Enjoy!


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