| Midsommars i Swensson Park | Jun 21, ‘08 8:11 PM for everyone |
Photos from the day are to be found here.
I was up very early. Briefly checked my email but that was it. I put on my folkdräkt & it looked horrid. I opted for a black skirt, white blouse, & the folkdräkt apron. Much nicer. Willie, the great communicator, decided — as it was time for me to leave — the he needed a ride to a field 10 miles out of my way. Could he not have mentioned this last nite? Or early, early this morning? I told him no. Sorry. I was in charge of my group & I had to be there.
My swedish club met in the park at 9am, with the high school swedish dancers, Alf Brorson (from Sweden) & the bishop & his wife from Sweden. We had a grand procession marching through the park to wonderful swedish folk music played on violins & nyckelharpa. When the American & Swedish flags were in place we sang our national anthem & Sweden’s. Du gamla, du fria. And our group did great!!!! I was proud. Then off to our booth.
We truly were mislead about our booth. It was going to be a small living room where one could enter to learn a few swedish phrases over a cup of coffee. It was not. It was HUGE!!! Like an entire swedish stuga!!! There were 5 large tables, assorted other chairs. Lots of room. We served kaffe (coffee) & skopor (rusks) at no charge. Swedes love coffee. And they loved our booth. We were overwhelmed with people. We sure tried to speak a little swedish & many answered us back in even better swedish. But there was no sitting down to have a conversation with anyone. Within an hour — 1HOUR — we were completely out of coffe & we had a huge container. We did not even have a number to call for more. We got help very soon & coffee was on the way, but there was a wait. Not one person got upset with us. They stood & waited & laughed with us!! We ended up going through 3 huge pots of coffee. Must have held 100 cups or more. And we were surprised how many people wanted to donate money. The booth was sponsered by the Midsommars committee & they outsourced the running of it to my swedish group.
This year there were no large bleachers for people to vegetate on. Only small ones. And no crafts to buy. They always cheap crap anyway so good riddance. We had people demonstrating how to carve wood, cook swedish foods, looking up your name day, showing you on a map where your ancestors were from, how to weave.
For lunch I had my favourite lunch —Viking on a stick, tea ring, & coke. Mums!!! Viking on a stick is swedish meatballs & chunks of swedish rye bread put alternately on a skewer then dipped in swedish pancake batter & deep fried. Manna from heaven, or at least Sweden.
The afternoon was much quieter. Still busy but not swamped. We had time to actually visit & find out where people were from, etc. And speak a little swedish.
I worked most of the morning but just hung around in the afternoon. It was perfect weather. No gale force winds, no 100F temps. A little breeze would have been nice, but we survived. We were right next to where the dancers performed so all day we had swedish folk music or The Real Group music to listen to. It was wonderful.
For those who speak swedish, here is something new I learned that made me smile. I asked my cousin ‘Hur mår du?’ to which he replied ‘Fin som snus!’ The entire day was ‘fin som snus’!!! But I am exhausted. Tonite they raise the majstang (may pole) & there is a campfire sing after. I am home. I took a cool shower & now have my feet up.
Back on the homefront, harvest has started. Not for us yet, but all our neighbours. Our combines are in the field so we are close. Will be different this year. Both our helpers work. So there may be times Willie is here alone trying to keep up. But we do what we can with the hand we are dealt. I am clueless why things are as they are but I am NOT getting in the middle of one who everyone knows does not & will not communicate & one who gets pissed over so then he refuses to communicate. And here I sit in the middle. If it gets bad enough & I get fed up with the bs, I may go to Sweden after all for an extended stay.
