Snowing and Windy

22 March 1986

Dear ones,

It almost looks like an Iowa winter day – it is snowing and windy. I haven’t been out yet, but the thermometer says 2 degrees C (35-36 F) so it isn’t real cold.

Vince and I went to a concert at a church downtown on Thursday night – it was a large orchestra, a chorus and 3 soloists. It was snowing big wet flakes when we left here and by the time we got off the trikk downtown it was barely sprinkling. Good thing! – we had a 5 or 6 block walk to the church. The music critic (Vince) said it was good – the music was quite modern considering the composer (and conductor) looked to be a man of 60 or 65 years. The orchestra was quite loud – could have been from the acoustics of the church. I fight the temptation of not listening because I don’t understand the words. For instance: when we got off the trikk downtown, I told Vince I was going to the “damer rom” – I knew there was one in the station. When I got there, it had pay toilets (toilette) and not just a measly Crown (krone) like one of the dept. stores but 5 crowns. Luckily I had one, so I inserted it in the door, went in. When I came out, and headed towards the sink, I didn’t think about closing the door behind me so it would be locked for the next one. I started washing my hands when I heard some Norwegian – I paid no attention, couldn’t understand it anyway. The lady washing her hands next to me, after just a bit, went out and closed that door. As I was drying my hands, I glanced around and there behind a window sat a couple of people – caretakers I assume. I decided they had told me to close the door. Oh, well. So I’m deaf. We have decided we must look like Norwegians. Yesterday we were stopped by a lady and asked something. The only thing we understood was Steen and Strom, the name of a dept. store. So we pointed the direction it was. Wonder if she found it?

Jene has Easter break this week and so does the Univ. I asked at the Post Office – they are closed Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. The grocery store is too, except they are open Sat. morning. Guess half of Oslo goes to the mountains for the week. We are talking about, but haven’t decided yet, going over to Stockholm for 2-3 days.

Monday night I got a phone call while Vince was at choir practice. He said it was Ottar; he may have asked for Vince – I told him he was at church. Then he said, "Onsdag," so I said, "Onsdag, ja." Then he said, "Klokken fem," so I said, "Klokken fem, ja." Then he said, "Kaff," and I said, "Kaffe, ja." We repeated that whole thing and then he said OK (or some such) and hung up. When Vince got home, I told him I thought we had been invited to Ottar’s for coffee on Wednesday at 5.

On Wednesday Vince went in to the U. in the morning but came home early afternoon. We allowed 1 ½ hours to drive to Ottar’s that time of day and we needed it. Vince wanted to know what I was going to do if I was wrong and I said just be embarrassed, apologize and leave. We rang the doorbell, and sure enough they welcomed us in. Vince asked if this was the right day, they said ja ja. The coffee table was set – for 5. Jene had agreed to babysit for the people (Americans) downstairs so she didn’t go along. I really believed they would have someone else there who could speak English – neither Ottar or Signi do. But Vince’ Norwegian carried us through. We had 2 kinds of cake and cinnamon rolls with our coffee. After we had second, and some candy or sugar lumps, Ottar shoved the cups aside, and went to the hallway and got my books. (I almost didn’t bring them). Then he tried to find the pages his family was on – he gave me names of his brothers’ families and of his aunts and uncles, some birth dates and death dates, addresses, etc. When I got down all he knew, then he said, (Na, vi ha mer kaffe”. So the cakes and rolls were passed again. It was nine o’clock before we left. They were leaving on Friday for their summer hytte at Rendal. But they will be back in April some, and go again in May. Think they spend most of the summer there. He will be 72 soon; she is 69. They are a neat couple. She gave us 3 jars of jam, one tyttebear, the other 2 currant (rype) jelly.

I left Holmenkollen Sunday for this letter, didn’t I? We took a couple of trikks to get there – it was easier than using the car. We just followed along with the crowd, and reading the signs and arrows to find the section where our seats were. When we got to the place where we would start the downward climb – we were in row 48 of about 80 rows – it was roped off and wehad to stand aside. It didn’t take us too long to figure out that it was time for the King to arrive. Sure enough, in a few minutes he came walking slowing in – he is 83 – followed by his son and daughter-in-law, 2 grandchildren and their friends. Both Vince and Jene got good pictures – so for once we were in the right place at the right time. Jene has been wanted(?) to see him and was afraid it wasn’t going to be. Think she was disappointed he didn’t look more kingly. He went to this heated box while we climber down to our snow covered cement bleacher seats. Luckily, we had bought 3 pieces of plastic foam to sit on! It was snowing, a little breezy, and very foggy. We had seats directly across from where most of the jumpers were landing. Next time (ha) we will get from across from where they leave the jump. We couldn’t see them until they were soaring thru the air and then we had to look up behind us. Suppose the mountain side was used to its best advantage to build the seats, but for the spectator, there could have been a better design. In spite of freezing, we were still glad we had seen it. There were 80 jumpers – the top 50 jumped twice. Think it was an Italian who was followed by a Finn. You wouldn’t believe the halftime entertainment.

There was a good sized plane flying around overhead during the first half – the fog covered him half the time – I don’t know how the pilot could see anything. The fellow in front of us told us that sometimes the Airlines offered flyovers of the Jump as part of a tour and he thought that might be what is was. But then later he told us they just announced over the loud speakers that there would be sky jumpers during the half. Sure enough – we heard the pilot’s voice over the intercom say he was approaching – then we saw him break thru the fog and at least 12 parachutists jump out. They all steered their chutes so they landed on or close to the X at the bottom of the ski jump. As the last one landed, the big airplane took one last low pass over the arena, tipped his wings and disappeared into the clouds. Dumb Norwegians – our airports would have been closed in such a fog! We were so cold we didn’t wait for the presentation of the medals; but began the climb up the steep, high steps to the 80th row again. We got warmed up, however by the time we got to the trikk. The one down downtowned (?) was mobbed with people, but there was a sign pointing to a walkway to the second line we had to take to get back to Osteras. We decided we would do that – it would probably be easier than waiting in line taking the other trikk downtown, transferring, etc. Wrong! We walked down a sidewalk that was snow covered, ice covered, almost straight down, and it must have been more than a mile. Actually, I didn’t walk – I slid, and held onto Vince. But after asking 2 or 3 times we finally found it, and rode the rest of the way home. And we did get warmed up! Monday and Tuesday we were all so stiff in our meg muscles, we could hardly move. We think it was the climb up the steps though and not the slide down the mountain side!

Guess I’ll mail this and see what the weather is like.

Love, Verla and Vince