"Pokey Pete" heads back to Nordic Fest

Nordic Fest fixture "Pokey Pete"

Cedar Falls resident Ernest Petersen entertained children for 21 years as "Pokey Pete," giving them rides in his homemade train.  He visited hundreds of communities during that time.  But when he decided to retire in 1989, there was only one community he thought of to give away the train--Decorah.

"They were the most honorable festival," Petersen tells decorahnews.com about Nordic Fest and Decorah.  So he gave his "train"--bright red cars made from plywood and powered by a Massey Ferguson 12-horse garden tractor motor--to the Nordic Fest Board, which handed them to the Decorah LIons Club.

That was in 1989.  But Petersen returned to Decorah 25 years later on Thursday to meet with Lions Club members and to be interviewed for an upcoming book about the 50th anniversary of Nordic Fest.

Petersen got to sit again in his original "Pokey Pete Train" and to try out the new "train" created by the Lions Club.  When he was looking to give away the original train, he said it had to go to someone who would continue operating it on a non-profit basis, donating all proceeds to charity.  He's glad he picked Nordic Fest.  "They've been very stable," he tells decorahnews.com.

Shown at a previous Nordic Fest

Back in a familiar position on Thursday