Valentine, Nebraska’s Otto Rosfeld: “Rusty Bits and Pieces” | Fly Over Me

[Editor's note: This story was written for the Fly Over Me project, which "intends to share modern rural American life in Valentine, Neb., and the surrounding areas, through interactive documentary multimedia." Find more stories produced by four young journalists spending their summer in Valentine here.]

“Rusty bits and pieces,
hanging on my garden wall.
Pick me up and hold me,
when I fly too high and fall.”
— lyrics by Otto Rosfeld

“I guess I just have never grown up,” says Otto Rosfeld as he tinkers with one of his handmade toys.

It’s a passion he inherited from his mother, who learned how to craft toys during the Great Depression. So it’s fitting to see a childlike smile break out from beneath his mustache as he calls over his three palm-sized "greenhouse" kittens, that love nothing more than to follow Otto wherever he goes.

I met Otto a few weeks earlier at the Valentine High School reunion outside a bar, where he proceeded to sing songs and recite poetry as I snapped a few photos of the cowboy poet. Driving just north of Valentine to the Rosfeld home, I expect to sit down and film Otto sing some of his favorite cowboy songs, but as I soon found out, the man hones many other passions.

“Junk art” is what an old sculptor friend of Otto’s once called it, but Otto doesn’t know how to refer to it himself. Each miniature sculpture has a meaning; each piece of trash and plastic is specifically chosen to convey a message. Otto shows these tiny pieces of art to children when he’s invited around the Sandhills to teach children about cowboy poetry. A tiny plastic spoon from McDonald’s, which he notes some addicts use to snort cocaine, and a plastic gun are assembled together to represent gun violence and the drug trade of the inner cities. Otto was reprimanded once for telling that story to a group of kids, but it just goes to show that each piece of of collection has a unique significance and message.

As well as handcrafting art, Otto makes toys. He shows off his corncob darts and his stick-and-spoon bow and arrow, both of which soar through the sky with surprising precision. Woodblock cars and cup-and-balls made from scrap scatter his shed, each built meticulously from recycled and reused materials.

“I can’t seem to throw anything away,” Otto says.

And some of his favorite instruments are made from what most people would call junk. Years ago Otto was named Best Entertainer at the Ainsworth Country Music Festival, more than once. Armed with a washboard, a few bells and some thumbtacks, he proves why as he energetically sings an old cowboy classic “Pete Cash” with a voice that's excited but tired from the day’s talk.

Soon after that song is done, he pulls out an ashtray and an old broomstick with a metal spring and strings together a few more verses.

Otto found his inspiration for music from his uncles, who sang opera. Ever since he was a kid, he would sing harmonies with his cousin, a fostered skill that led to his profession as a music teacher. It wasn’t until his wife was pregnant with their first son that he picked up a guitar.

Once Otto finishes one, he can’t stop playing his guitar. “But first I need a beer,” say Otto as he frets about his sore voice. So we sit down on his back patio, Otto on a rusty tractor seat,and we drink a cold beer from a frosty mug. I listen as each song starts with a story, which he slowly blends into a melody.

Every song is more beautiful than the last and his vocal cords become more sore, as he blends original songs and old cowboy classics into the mix.

It’s hard to nail down Otto, as he’s a storyteller, a cowboy poet and a prolific songwriter. For hours, I listen and he plays, as my mind wanders from the hot summer evening to pink lemonade in the shade of Lavinia’s parlor.

Nick Teets is a Hear Nebraska contributor, who's spending his summer in Valentine, Neb. See more stories by the Fly Over Me project here.