Chuck Roots
19 February 2018
www.chuckroots.com
The Ripon Bulletin
Norway in My Heart
I have been deliberating with myself
as to what topic I should address in this week’s article. There is the tragedy
of yet another school shooting, this time in Florida, where a lone gun-toting
teenager entered his former high school intent on mayhem and bloodshed. Believe
me, this is a topic I could spend countless articles expounding, but my heart
just isn’t in it right now.
There is the ever-pernicious Russian
Collusion, raising its ugly head yet again with a report from the State
Department indicting thirteen Russians and three Russian companies, charging
them with attempting to influence the outcome of the 2016 Presidential
election. Interestingly, the point was made that no Americans were involved in
any collusion effort. This story was scrapped because it has become tiresome,
with a media that is boorish in their frantic attempts to pin something, anything
on this president in a strained effort to tear President Trump down.
Rather, the highlight of the week
for me has been the Winter Olympics, held this year in Pyeongchang, South
Korea. I am always fascinated by the dedication and toughness Olympic athletes
demonstrate, whether in the Winter or Summer Games, spending countless hours
training just for the opportunity to compete against others in your chosen
discipline. I will say that I’m glad the two games have been rotated so that
one of the games is held every two years instead of the old format where the
Summer Olympics were quickly followed a few months later by the Winter
Olympics. Then you had a four-year wait for this pattern to repeat itself.
Admittedly, I enjoy the Summer games
to the Winter, but both are great to watch. Having spent two years in Norway in
my early teens, I learned to appreciate some different sports than what was
offered back in the U.S. The games that we played in Norway were primarily of
the winter sport variety, such as cross-country skiing, ice hockey, slalom
skiing, downhill racing, and speed skating. Many more winter sports have been
added since the early ‘60s. Snow-boarding in a variety of forms is a big one.
So, I’m turning on the TV early in
the week and already Norway has launched into a massive lead in the medals
count. As of this writing, Norway has amassed 26 medals. In second place is
Germany with 18 medals, followed by Canada with 16. The U.S. is presently in 6th
place with 10 medals. Even South Korea has 6 medals, three of which are gold.
That’s very exciting for the host country.
I am a member of the Overseas Brats
which consists of kids of military families who at one point attended a
Department of Defense school somewhere around the globe. For the past thirty
years or so, many of the Brats have been gathering each year somewhere in the
U.S. to have a reunion. Last fall it was in Huntsville, Alabama, which I wrote
about in an article entitled, “Vikings Rule!” (www.chuckroots.com, September
25, 2017).
The school I attended in Norway was
called the Oslo American School (OAS). Though one of the smallest schools in
number, the kids from OAS always seem to outnumber the kids from schools
elsewhere. We genuinely enjoy each other’s company at these reunions. And we
keep in touch throughout the year, mostly by Internet.
So, when the Norwegians began to
rack up the medals, we OASers began group texting each other, excited to cheer
on our adopted country, Norway. It’s rather stunning to see Norway cleaning up
in these winter games when they have a population of just over five million. Especially
when you compare them to the United States, Russia, China, and Canada. But
skiing and skating are more than winter games in Norway. It is a part of
everyday life. I used to ski about a half-mile to the bus stop for school. I’d
strap the skis to the side of the bus and ride the hour-and-a-half to school. I
would pack my ice skates in my backpack so we could play ice hockey during
lunch (I still have scars to prove it!). Parents would glide along on their
skis with their toddler standing on the parent’s skis while being held up by
the hand by the parent. Kids sometimes learned the balance of skiing before
they learned the balance of walking.
The two most exciting events for me
this week was watching the women’s cross-country relay ski race and the men’s
as well. Both had the Norwegians lagging well behind the Russians, or the
dreaded Swedes. In each race, the Norwegian athlete overcame the gap and raced
to the finish line earning the gold medal.
I know it probably doesn’t mean
anything to you. But to Brats who lived in this northern country for a time, it
is special. We were lamenting in out texts that we wished we still had our
wooden skis, or wooden ice hockey stick. OASer Steve Robinson reminded us that
he took ski lessons from the 1960 Norwegian Olympic slalom champion, Tom
Murstad. A lesson cost about $1.40!
Of course, we all want to see the
United States do well in the Olympics, and there’s another week still to go.
But there’s a soft spot in our hearts for the athletes of Norway. And there
always will be.
OASer Maryl Ball Sellman summed it
up best: “We have so many wonderful memories from Norway. I think that’s why we
all get together every year, just to hold onto them.”
Amen, Maryl, amen!
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