COOK- If there’s one thing the organizing committee for Cook’s Annual Timber Days celebration prides itself on more than anything else, it would likely be the care and consideration they put into to choosing the grand marshal for Sunday’s parade. Being active in the community is a given, and this’s year’s pick, Cook Fire Department Chief Arnie “Pete” Johnson, even has credentials to prove he’s a worthy choice.
As Johnson talked with the Timberjay on Tuesday, he reached into his wallet and pulled out a card showing the results of his most recent physical exam, one that deemed the 85-year-old fit to continue active duty as a firefighter. Johnson doesn’t go out on all calls these days – rather, he responds when they might be shorthanded for a response or if they might need his expertise.
These days the chief mainly rides herd over the approximately 20 volunteer firefighters the department has and the things they need to be prepared both operationally and financially. It’s a job he’s taken pride in for over 20 years as chief, and it’s not one he plans to give up any time soon.
“I believe in the fire department and I’ve got to have something to do,” he said, noting that it will be time to hang it up, “when they put me in the ground.”
Arnie has been “Pete” for as long as he can remember, a name that came from his grandfather on his father’s side of the family, he said.
The Cook native was born to Laurive and Aili Johnson, one of five sons and a daughter the couple had. His mother passed when he was only 18 months old, and with Laurive working as a mechanic for the county, Johnson’s relatives stepped in to help care for the kids.
“My dad didn’t remarry, but he kept the family together,” Johnson said. “I used to be related to half of the town. They took care of me, everybody took their turn.”
Together, they shepherded Johnson through his graduation from Cook High School in 1957, and at that point Cook might have lost its future fire chief. Not having any specific career direction in mind, his search for a job took him to Alaska. He drove up for the summer with a relative who worked in Anchorage and looked for a job.
“They didn’t have any work in the place I stayed,” Johnson said. “I probably could have stayed up there and worked on a dairy farm, but my brother wanted me to come home.”
So Johnson came back and went to work cutting trees, until some friends suggest that he apply for a job with the Duluth, Winnipeg and Pacific Railway, a subsidiary of Canadian National. That job turned into a career that lasted for about four decades.
Johnson hadn’t been on the job long, however, when he had to take a leave of absence because he was drafted into the Army. He did his basic training at Fort Carson in Colorado, and advanced training at Fort Ord in California before being shipped overseas to Baumholder, Germany. He spent the bulk of his 19-month hitch there, but he did manage to take a week’s leave in 1963 to take care of a little matter at home, one that involved a girl.
Johnson said he knew he wanted Linda Mann, five years his junior, to be his wife before he left for military service.
“Before I went to Colorado for basic training I went to Tower and bought a set of rings,” he said. He popped the question before he left, but he said Linda wasn’t really surprised, as she had a good idea what Johnson was up to.
The couple was married on Jan. 3, 1963, and Johnson said that as a result Linda became eligible to receive spousal benefits for wives of service members.
Johnson’s job at the railroad was waiting for him when he returned, and not long after the fire chief at the time asked him to volunteer for the department. He did, and he also became a charter member of rescue squad. Meanwhile, Linda began a career of 50-plus years working for Farmers and Merchants State Bank of Cook, currently the First National Bank. She also became a faithful volunteer for the Cook Hospital Auxiliary, something she continued up until the time of her passing in 2015.
When he wasn’t progressing up the ladder at the railroad, eventually becoming a track inspector, or putting out fires, Johnson took some time to help out L.D. Gustafson at the Comet Theater.
“They took care of me for a while when I was a youngster,” he said. “I used to run projectors and stuff for him. Because they cared for me for a while I figured I’d take care of them for a while.”
Johnson and his wife also helped out with the youth at Trinity Lutheran Church.
“Anytime they had an overnight deal or something we’d get nominated,” Johnson laughed. “We didn’t really get nominated, we just volunteered our services.”
Johnson’s career at the railroad came to an end in the early 1990s when he suffered an aneurysm.
“Their doctors said I wasn’t fit, but my doctor said there was nothing wrong,” Johnson said.
But the saying that you can’t keep a good man down was true in Johnson’s case – he moved on to work as manager of the Cook VFW for a couple of years. There was a certain bit of justice in that, as Johnson’s military service hadn’t qualified him to join the VFW as a member. While he’d served overseas, he hadn’t been involved in a military conflict there.
There’s much about the Cook of the “old days” that Johnson says he misses, but the community today still has much to offer in the way of good small-town life. It’s a life he enjoys with his son Shane close at hand, as firefighting apparently runs in the family – his son’s a longtime department volunteer, too. And he has a special pair of lights in his life, his granddaughters Chloe and Katie.
And it’s clear that Johnson is ready for the next call he might be needed on. It’s his commitment to the department and the people of Cook and surrounding communities.
“I’ll go because if nobody shows up or maybe one person shows up, we should have three” he said. “I’ve had that in the rules for many years. So, I’ll go on and do what I can do. And the reason I got that there,” he said while pointing to his physical card, “is that if somebody is in the house or whatever, I’ll go in.”
Johnson will be leading the parade on River St. on Sunday, the final day of the three-day Timber Days festival that begins Friday with all of the favorite events in store for participants.