All right! A real American 4th of July picnic! Ed and I were in Oslo Sunday (June 28th) and the ACCN (American Coordinating Council of Norway) put on a really big (several hundred folks) picnic in Frogner Park. I was thrilled to find out about it from a colleague the day before we left.
First up - former VP and Norway's Honorary Consul General in Minneapolis Walter Mondale speaking in front of the bust of Abraham Lincoln. Mondale's ancestry is Norwegian. There's a great town named Mundal, which is also called Book Town, in which every building has books for sale. The bust of Abe came from North Dakota, given to Norway in 1914 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Norwegian constitution. Every year the ACCN has speakers from the embassy and the US speak there to celebrate the US' independence day. This year there was a group of North Dakotans, including the twin grandsons of the sculptor, helping celebrate.
Everyone adjourned to the other part of the park for food and fun you just don't see here. There were BBQ ribs, Cajun food (not spicy enough), cupcakes and even "Tollhouse" chocolate chip cookies bake by the Oslo Women's Club. There were booths of companies and volunteer organizations, and raffles for prizes, where the raffle earnings were given to the volunteer organizations. There were lots of kids' games like throw the beanbag at the cans and bounce on the giant inflated thingy. They even had a batting cage, believe it or not! There were "American games" - lacrosse, American football, softball and baseball, for the kids. They had a gospel group sing, and a Bluegrass band, and line dance lessons. There was a group of Norwegians who like American cars showing off their prides and joys.
They even had cheerleaders, and darn good ones, doing routines.
It was hot and humid, in the mid-80's, and the Red Cross was on hand for heat-related problems, but they had no business, hooray. (I know, we're wimps, but mid-80's around here is HOT!) What a great event thanks to massive volunteer hours, and great organizations based on US-Norwegian friendship.Happy Birthday, America! Gratulerer med dagen!
How long does it take to get to Oslo?
ReplyDeleteThe bus from our house to the airport is 45 minutes or so. The airplane flight is 40 minutes and the train ride from the airport to Oslo center is 50 minutes. Or you could take the 7-1/2 hour train ride. Or you could drive, which takes all day. No one does that. We flew, since the point of the trip was for me to get to Oslo for work. The class went well at work Monday and Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteLooked like it was a great party. I expected to see cvow in the photo with his fellow North Dakotans. Wait....no....never mind. He's not a Mondale fan.
ReplyDeleteMondale is from Minnesota, the state that also elected Jesse "the Body" Ventura. Need I say more? However, just to throw y'all a bone, I actually did vote for Hubert Humphrey.
ReplyDeleteWe did have a large Norwegian population in ND (along with a few of us Finns and Swedes). Hence Ole and Lena jokes are considered a high form of humor, and white and bland are the height of culinary delight.
Glad you had a good time! We went to friends in Marysville and contributed to Bowling Joe's angst about Boom City!
BowlingJoe and cvow, if you want to know all about what it's like in Norway, you have to watch "This is Norway" on YouTube. It is oh, so true!
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