A Quiet Week

Sunday evening, 16 February 1986

Dear ones,

I started this an hour ago, but then Jene came home from her weekend at Kongsvinger, so we’ve been listening to her. Sounds like she had a good time. We’ve practically had a blow-by-blow account.

This has been a quiet week – Wednesday I felt lousy – achey, chilled, figured it was 24-hr. bug. And I did feel better on Thursday. But Friday I came down with a head cold. It was in my eyes yesterday . Did go to church this morning, but that’s about it for today. It was poor attendance today – the fellow handing out the hymnbooks said it was because this week is a vacation from school. So suppose everybody headed to the mountains to ski.

We went to the English lecture again last Monday – it was on history this time. He said he was going to cover from 8,000 B.C. to 1800 A.D. in an hour and half. He explained where the First Norwegian was from – Remind me to tell you. He also said the Viking Age was their shining hour, their national pride, the only time they were top dog!

Well, I had another sneezing spell so I gave up and took myself to bed. Now maybe I can finish this while I’m waiting for the rest to get up.

Last Sunday, the 9th, we had planned to go back to Kråkstad with our cameras if the day was bright and shiny. Oddvar had called us midweek and we decided to meet him at the church at 1 p.m. The sun wasn’t shining but the sky looked lighter in the south so we thought it might clear or even be clear down there. Oddvar had also said we would go to coffee at his cousins after we took pictures – so you hate to back out at the last minute. We went to church here, and left after the sermon so we could get on the road. We took pictures, or Vince did, of the church, the minister’s house, the view from there. Then we went to a farm where on of the greats grandmother had lived and took pictures. The house was built in the early 1900’s but the old stabbur was old. The people who own it now are not in the family but that doesn’t seem to matter.

We took pictures of several more places before coming to the farm where Vince’s grandfather Williams was born. The fellow who lives on it now is a grandson of the fellow who bought it from Vince’s great grandfather. (He left the area in 1854, went about an hour N. of Oslo and then in 1864 came to the states). The house was (is) very old like 200 years, but it sounds like it had been moved on to the place. That could have been when Grandpa Webjornsen moved off, or before or after – I don’t know. The old blacksmith still stood, and an old pig house. Every farmer was his own blacksmith – each farm was self sufficient and once or twice a year they would travel to Oslo or maybe another town to get what they needed. Think the fellow who lives there now only plants crops – but the old barn was there, and had some old equipment – like an old ditch digger for laying tile – a long narrow shovel. That was used after a trench was dug – by hand. And in a nearby building stood a hugh tractor. How times have changed!

We were invited in for coffee. The house had not been modernized – it had lights – and guess the people are going to tear it down and rebuild. It would cost more to repair than to build new. It was a log house, but covered both inside and out with siding or something. We saw there the old corner fireplace in the kitchen was – like the houses in the Decorah Museum. There was an old kitchen range there now, fired with wood. She also had a small electric stove. The 9th was a traditionally celebrated day in Norway and evidently celebrated or observed still in the country – the Sunday before Lent. It was a feasting day before the 40 days of fasting. The traditional food is buns, of various kinds and fillings. This couple had made 5 doz. the day before – she put some in a freezer. One kind was raisin, the other was filled with wh. Cream and sprinkled with powdered sugar. Needless to say, we spent a little more time there than planned and were running late on getting to the cousins. We were also running out of daylight so we only took a couple more pictures. Oddvar said we would just have to come back again.

So we went to the cousin’s farm. He was milking cows so before we went to the house, we visited the barn – Jene was overwhelmed, mostly by the smell but watching cows doing their think in the gutter didn’t thrill her either. So we went to the house. There we saw the lady of the house and her 2 little boys – we had met them at the church the first time we were there, and of course, Oddvar’s wife and 2 girls were there. And also 3 other couples: the parents of the farmer, who live in another house on the farm; and his (the farmer’s) brother and wife; and sister and husband, we think. They had gone ahead with their coffee – but we were served coffee, the traditional buns. These were filled with berries and wh. cream. And also 2 other fancy desserts, or was it 3? We visited, were shown old family pictures, a beautiful old heating stove – we saw one at the previous farm, too – indescribable, you’ll have to wait for the pictures. Then we were served supper – rice, meat casserole, jello salad, a tossed salad. I wondered if it was a customary meal, or if she had tried to Americanize it.

Decided to wash bedding and towels on Friday: Jene has a single bed – they are not as big as a twin. The foam pad mattress is about 28 inches wide – about as wide as a crib. Our double bed is 2 single frames together. We each have our 4-in. foam mattress, 28 inches wide. On top of that is a 2-in foam pad rippled on one side. We put the ripple side down – maybe that should be up. Anway, then there is a double size bottom sheet. Our covering is a feather tick – dyne. The mattresses are each in a ‘case’ and so are the dyner. Vince has one and I have another. Jene has hers, too. They are not as wide as the bed – each wide enough to cover one person and tuck in a little on each side. Are they ever warm! The first time I did the bedding, I did the cases for the dyner, the pillow cases, and the sheets. That is a job and almost too much to dry in one day. So I decided then and there, we are not dirty people and that bedding doesn’t need washing very often. Friday I did just the sheets and pillow cases.

Found a typewriter the other day and it wasn’t locked, so figure Prof. Gjonnes doesn’t care if we use it. I may try that next time, I don’t know. We burned out the toaster the other day. Don’t know if it was old an due to die or if it was something we did. We could let them take it out of our Apt. deposit, but will probably buy one. We want toast while we are here. One of the things we didn’t do was empty out the crumbs – the bread is really crumbly. We looked for a skillet or frying pan but could see none anywhere. I fried our hamburgers in a kettle. But we did find an electric fry pan, so decided to use it. When we brought it out of the cupboard, it looked as if it had been used a million times and never been washed. We scraped off the first layers, but no way was it clean enough to use. We soaked it overnight – that didn’t help much. I heated it withvinegar in water. That had helped the coffee pot. But still our fingers got black when we rubbed them across the bottom (the inside). So for about a week, it sat in the cupboard and I stopped to scrape every time I went by. I used a metal spatula, and a chore boy. Guess we finally got it clean enough to use. In the meantime we found a small 7-inch crepe pan. It is a small frying pan but the sides are only ¾ in. high- I’ve used that both for Norwegian pancakes and for hamburgers. Now I’m wondering if Mrs. Gjonnes had that electric fry pan well seasoned for her rosettes and fattigman, and we’ve ruined it for her?

Love, Verla and Vince