Elmer Schlensker (1930-2012) was a fourth generation broom maker from Milltown, Indiana. As a child he helped sew the brooms that his father made. However, Elmer had never made a complete broom, until many years after his father passed. A coordinator at the Lanesville Festival approached Elmer to demonstrate at the event. He went home and took several of his father’s old brooms apart to remind him how they were made. Through trial and error, he taught himself the craft. Throughout his retirement years, he worked year round to make enough broom to sell at the Lanesville Festival.
While he used the same broom making equipment that his father used, he didn't grow own broom corn. Instead, he ordered his materials from large broom making factory. Since his father always placed a label on each of his brooms, Elmer continued the tradition, by cutting rural pictures out of Country Magazines to make labels for his creations.
For years, Elmer worked in the basement of his home make a few brooms each week and looking forward to the Lanesville Festival each September. He taught his daughter how to make brooms, and hoped that she will take it up when she gets old enough to retire. A few years before he passed, Elmer taught his grandson, the sixth generation, to make a broom. With teaching his daughter and grandson to make brooms, Elmer was engaging in the process of generativity, the care and guiding of future generations. This is a natural human process that helps older adults experience fulfillment, and also helps retain important cultural and family knowledge.
