Swedish American Society of Tidewater                             May 2003 Edition                President: Barbara Carlson Storaasli 423-6711                     https://members.tripod.com/~SweAmer

WHEN WE NEXT MEET:                            Sunday, May 18, 2003                         Ruritan Club, Witchduck Rd                                      .                                  VÄLKOMMEN 3:00 PM  SMÖRGÅSBORD SETUP  Doors open and setup begins.  Sue Airth  will setup for the meeting and meal (note Sue is retiring in June).  Sandy MacGregor will set up the beverage table.  4:00 PM   Den Lyckliga Timmen (the happy hour): Club provides the soft drinks, beer & wine, but depends on the membership for the hors d'oeuvres (cheese, crackers, nuts, etc). 4:40 PM    Sing-along with Ted Johnson in Swedish and English. 5:00 PM    Välkommen to members and guests by President Barbara Carlson Storaasli, followed by Du Gamla Du Fria, My Country Tis of thee, and I Jesu Namn Til Bords Vi Gå, after which, we can get in the buffet line. DINING:  The menu for May, as agreed to by the overwhelming desire of the membership is potluck. Try to bring portions large enough so several members can try your delicacies. GUESTS:  a $5.00 contribution for each adult sixteen or older.  If bringing guests, please include in your food contribution enough for yourselves and your guests. 5:45 PM    May Program.  Is the club birthday celebration, so try to bring any memorabilia from dom goda gamla tiderna when both you and the club were younger, and be prepared to discuss it for the group.  Also we hope some of the folks who have been with the club for a long time will share some reminiscences about all the fun they used to have at these get togethers and maybe we can use some of those ideas for future meetings. The Gerdins (that means my sweetie, I hope) will take care of obtaining the birthday cake. 6:35 PM   The raffle will be held.  The prizes are provided by the members. Note, it's fun when the kids win, so we need more prizes for children. 6:45 PM   Hälsä Dem Där Hemma and the clearing of tables and stacking of chairs.                                       When Last We Met            The Swedish American Society met on April 12, 2003 at the Ruritan Club, Witchduck Road, Virginia Beach.  Sue Airth set up for the meeting and meal, and Sandy MacGregor set up the beverage table.  We greatly appreciate their fine service. The fellowship hour or den lyckliga timmen began at 4:00 P.M. with soft drinks, beer, wine and hors d'oeuvres provided by the members.  Attendance was good, totaling about 38 persons.       Because he had to leave early, Ted Johnson at 4:50 P.M., led us in singing En gång jag seglar i hamn; Gubben Noah; Helan går; Kostervalsen; Hälsä dem där hemma; Du gamla du fria; and America.  He then lead us in saying  the Swedish table grace: I Jesu namn.       Just after 5:00 P.M. we partook of a meal of tasty salmon with many complementary side dishes and several desserts.       President Barbara Carlson Storaasli called the meeting to order at 6:00 P.M.  Guests were introduced including Mary Moberg, the Melendy's daughter Sarah Smits and her daughters  Ingrid and Maira, and two Swedish visitors: Marianthi Koukouvinou (of ODU's Lady Monarch basketball team) and Eva Virginius.  Since Ted Johnson, in the future, will not be present after 5:00 P.M., we discussed ways to hear his music during our meetings.  Larry Leonardson suggested that Ted's music be included as part of the social hour.  The consensus of the society was to start the music portion of the meeting at 4:40 or 4:45 P.M.       We then discussed nominees for the "notable Swedes" listing. Those nominated are as follows:             Charles Lindbergh             Dag Hammersköld             Carl Larsson             Jon Ericsson             William Rehnquist             Raoul Wallenberg             Björn Borg             Ingrid Bergman             Birger Sandzen       Leland Peterson then conducted a quiz in which most did poorly (he said it was like a quiz he used to give in class to his ODU students), but Leland generously passed everyone (possibly unlike the results of a quiz given to his poor ODU students?).       Bob Olson conducted the raffle for the many prizes contributed by the members.  Raffle receipts totaled $74.00. (Hip, Hip, Hurray!) The meeting then adjourned and the tables and chairs were stacked.                                     Respectfully submitted,                                     Ed Unser, Secretary

CLUB OFFICERS: President  -  Barbara Carlson Storaasli (423-6711),  Vice-President  -  Andy Hilton,  Treasurer -  Donald Lundquist,  Secretary  -  Edward Unser,  Asst.Secretary  -  Merrie Jo Milner,  Raffle Master  -  Diane Newlon,  Web Master -  Larry Leonardson,  Beverage Master  -  Sandy MacGregor, and  Concert Master  -  Ted Johnson,  Newsletter Editor - Glenn Gerdin. DIRECTIONS TO OUR MEETINGS If coming from the peninsula, take I-64 across the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel, follow I-64 to I-264 East.  Follow I-264 to the Witchduck Road exit; after exiting, turn left onto Witchduck Road.  About ¼ to ½ mile is Ruritan Drive (fire station light is there).  Turn left on Ruritan, go to the end of the street, the building is on the left. Ole and Lena Department.  [This joke came from Scandinavian Yokes, Edited by Paul F. Anderson, (Eggs Press, Minneapolis, MN, 1979) p. 36. The book was lent to your editor by Leland Peterson.]                                  Team Work       Vun day Ole and Lena vere riding a bicycle-built-for-tU in St. Paul. After wery much effort dey finally got to da top of a long and wery steep hill.  So Ole says to Lena, "I didn't tink ve vas ever gonna make it up here." Den Lena says to Ole, "Me needer."  Den Lena adds, "Ja, and it vas a good ting I vas skveesing on da hand brake, or ve vould haf rolled back down dar for sure."                                Clockwork Engineers       Ole slept too late vun morning, vhen his alarm clock didn't go off. So Ole took da alarm clock apart to see vhat vas wrong vit' it.  And don't ya know, Ole found a dead cockroach inside. So Ole says to Lena, "Vell Lena, no vunder da clock vasn't running, da enyineer vas dead!"                           Contact with the Old Country       Dere vas dis salesman who vas trying to interest Ole in a new short-vave radio.  So he showed Ole how easy it vas to get far-away places like Chicago and New York vit' da radio.       "Dat's nutting," says Ole as he took a can of snuff out of his pocket.  "All I haf to do it turn dis top a little bit, and I get Copenhagen!" Old Norse Mythology Department:       This is the eigth installment of this feature intended to inform the membership about the mythological heritage of the Scandinavian people.  The main source here is my mythology book:  Encyclopedia of World Mythology, A.Cotterell Gen. Ed., Barnes & Noble Books, New York, 2001, ISBN 0-7607-2855-0.                                  The Number Nine       It is not known why, but the number nine is significant in Norse mythology.  Odin hung for nine nights to learn nine spells.  Heimdall1 had nine mothers,  Aegir2 nine daughters.  Hermod3 traveled nine nights to find Balder, Freyr4 waited nine nights for his bride Gerd.  Njord and Skadi5 lived nine nights in each others homes.  Every ninth night, eight more gold rings dropped from Odin's ring Draupnir.6  Thor will retreat nine paces from Jormangand7 before dying.  A great festival was also held for nine years at Uppsala8 in Sweden where nine of every living creature (including humans) were sacrificed. 1.    Heimdall, an enigmatic god who was responsible for creating the social classes of jarls (earls or noblemen), freemen (farmers and craftsmen), and slaves. 2.    Aegir was one of the sea gods and seems to have personified the might of the ocean.  Aegir dwelt far from land and Viking poetry talks of the jaws of Aegir swallowing ships at sea.  Aegir and his wife Ran received the drowned into their palace on the ocean floor. 3.    Hermod was Balder's brother.  He rode Odin's eight legged horse Sleipnir to Hel to try to get his brother (who was considered the wisest, kindest, most beautiful, and most beloved of the gods) released after Balder's death through Loki's treachery. 4.    Freyr, one of the Vanir branch of the Nordic gods and twin-brother of Freya, was the principle fertility god. 5.    Njord, the Vanir god of the sea, and Skadi, daughter of the mountain giant Thjazi were married, but it was a very rocky affair, since neither liked the home of the other. 6.    Built by dwarves, the ring Draupnir dropped eight rings of equal value to Draupnir, every ninth night. 7.    Jormangard, the World Serpent, one of Loki's offspring, and whom Thor went fishing for.  It is one of the principal opponents of the Aesir gods at the final battle of Ragnarok. Uppsala, now a university town, during Viking times had a magnificent temple with huge statues of Thor, Odin, and Freyr.