INSTALLMENT
#17
[Day 23 & 24, Sunday & Monday, July 16 & 17, 2000]
Peg & Keith
Wheeler's Norway trip report, Summer 2000
Leaving Jørpeland & 2nd Visit to Stavanger -
Archaeological
museum, Emigration Center, Printing Museum, around the City
-- (Keith's
birthday -- "When . . he's . . sixty-four . .")
At
the very nice relaxing Sunday morning breakfast, we were savoring our
last moments with Kristian and Aud Marit.
They would be returning to normal living without houseguests -- Aud Marit
was to return to her kindergarten teaching job the next day and Kristian was
called back to the platform a day early and would have to leave the next day as
well.
< Kristian enjoys
Sunday morning on his deck.
Helping
us with our luggage, they both drove us to Tau. The ferry left at 11:00 from Tau, and it was
a gorgeously sunny day. This was the
larger car ferry -- the only one that ran from here on Sundays. We said our good-byes and boarded the
ferry. We had a very pleasant ferry
trip south west to Stavanger.
Arriving
at Stavanger we had to hail our own taxi this time, but memories of
Hanne flooded the event -- same town, same taxi stand, same hotel. Having been here before, it was a little
like coming home and it was nice to be in such a special town on such a fine
day. Not wasting any time, we headed
for the Archaeological Museum being a little surprised that it was open
on Sunday and feeling a little urgency since it was NOT open on Monday. We were here at Rotraud's
recommendation. She thought we would be
able to find out some information about the Slogvik farm and archaeological
finds that had been recorded.
Not
only did we find what we were looking for, we found a different kind of
treasure in the person of a staff member.
She was referred to us when we inquired about the records -- probably
because she spoke English -- or because we were obviously so American. She was particularly interested in the
Tysvær area because of its Quaker history.
She had done her thesis on Quakers in Norway. Additionally, she had been born in Montana and spent the first
half of her life there. The last half
(25 years) she had lived in Norway, having married a Norwegian. She was not the least surprised that Keith's
Jacob had not stayed in one place long, nor that he did not even stay a
Quaker. She also did not find it
unusual that at least one of his descendants had done such a radical thing as
"dropping out" of a professional career in the 70's to become
back-to-the-land homesteader for 15 years.
This
lively conversation jumped in many diverse directions after we went down into
the basement where the archives were kept.
After initially finding the file on the Slogvik farm and explaining the
type and age of records kept here, she shared some of her views on religion in
Norway, past and present. It turned out
she was also a friend of Martin Nag.
She said he stayed at her house when he was in Stavanger and her perceptions
of Martin were interesting. She told us
of the history of Quakers in Stavanger to the present day, of all the phases
and stages it went through, of the persecution in the early days, and that
today they have a meeting place on the quay.
She spoke of a part of town that was a "hot bed" of
radicalism. She discussed being a Buddhist
and an ex-pate in this Lutheran country.
Of particular interest to us because of Keith's professional background
in the addiction field, she also talked about such things as the current drug
alcohol problem in Norway, treatment programs, the schism between medical
professionals and the AA/12 Step people.
At
some point we asked her about the apparent lack of poverty we have been
noticing during our travels here. She
reminded us that this was a socialistic system so that poverty as we know it in
the States does not exist. But further,
she indicated that if one knew the areas where the government was spending
extra amounts of money, this could indicate "poverty areas." We are not sure we fully understood her on
this point and might not have accurately represented here what she was
saying. Another observation she made
was particularly interesting to us. In
responding to our curiosity regarding poverty in Norway, she said that the only
way one could tell social class differences was by how one chose to use leisure
time here. Needless to say, we lost all
awareness of time and 2 hours passed quickly; it was time for the museum to
close. Someone came to get her and she
quickly disappeared. We waited a moment
thinking so much had been left unsaid and that she would surely return. She didn't. The lights were being turned off
as we went out the door. We had failed
to get her name (If
someone knows this person, we would love to make contact with her again). Then we realized we had
totally forgotten to get the copies of the archaeological records for the
Slogvik farm. The Museum would not open
again until after we scheduled to leave on Tuesday.
We
walked around quite a bit of the town.
It was getting late and most of the stores were closed because it was
Sunday.
Silent Sunday summer street scene in Stavanger.
>
We
had stopped by our hotel briefly and while there Keith asked the receptionist
if there was an Internet "cyber café" in town. He was given directions to one across
town. This was a "quest" that
Peg was not too excited about. Our
friends Ted and Susan who travel a great deal internationally are always
talking about finding cyber cafes wherever they travel. Keith, never having been in one, wanted to
find what it would be like. The hotel
clerk's directions led us into some interesting parts of the city, but we never
found the place. Keith chose a nice
restaurant for a good fish dinner. We
were letting ourselves enjoy Norwegian beer by now too, but in strict moderation
due to the very high price of beer here.
We were learning to stay away from the coffee at night. Norway does not do decaf, nor does it do
weak coffee.
Day
24 -
Monday, July 17, 2000
The
next morning, we decided our quest would be to find the Quaker meeting
place. First we stopped by the Emigration
Center to make some copies about Skiftun from a bygdebok. Here we met an interesting couple from
Oregon doing research in the Slooper book.
The woman of this couple had distant ancestral connections to Lars
Helland who was captain of the sloop Restoration from his first marriage. Lars' second marriage was to Rachel Madland
who was an older sister of Keith's Serene.
Again, small world!
We
then walked down the quay, past Gamle Stavanger (old town) and the terminal for
the ferry to England. Going a little
farther we found where the Quakers met in the International Culture Center,
but it was closed that day. Of course,
they meet on Sunday. However, we
stumbled on to a watercolor painting class put on by a visiting teacher from
(guess where . . .) Calistoga, California.
Once
outside, we looked around and saw a museum!
There are no shortages of museums in Norway and there are all
kinds. This one was a printing
museum, and
it was FASCINATING! We got a personal
guided tour in English by the director of the museum and it lasted nearly an
hour and a half. The guide clearly was
a skilled graphic artist and loved his subject. The display began with Gutenberg and the development of early
printing presses. When we got to the
displays of more modern presses and the linotype machine, Keith was flooded
with memories from his youth when he was a paperboy with the Corning
Observer. Much of this equipment was
very similar to what was used in the pressroom in those days and in the other
small printing company in his hometown next to the old Wheeler Plumbing
Shop. The lithographic process using
stone was extremely interesting (and useful) for Peg as she prepares to teach
printmaking in her Arts and Cultures class at Southern Trinity High
School.
The
printing machinery and processes were historically important to Stavanger's
sardine industry because when sardine labels could be printed cheaply,
marketing of this product was greatly enhanced. As the printing technology advanced, a great variety of custom
labels could be produced enabling small, obscure companies to sell sardines
with their own labels. Eventually, the
labels themselves became collectors' items and the 4-color designs, a focus of
attention. Several thousand different
designs were made during the heyday of the industry. Interestingly, when the sardine label business started to fade,
the printing of comic books became an important source of business.
The skilled printing
processes demonstrated at the museum had obviously been eclipsed dramatically
with the advent of the computer.
However, the old skills will not be forgotten, thanks to the people who
support the Norsk Grafisk Museum.
Peg came away with a gift of some very useful demonstration materials to
use in her art classes -- and, yes, another book to pack in the big
suitcase. The folks at the printing
museum still take special orders for jobs from people who want small quantities
the old fashioned way. They also do
custom bookbinding and repair.
< The Grafisk Museum director points to a
label for "Peggy Sardines"
Of
course, before we could leave the Museum we had to be seated in their little
cafeteria where the Director quickly changed roles and served us coffee and cake.
Retracing
our steps back down the quay towards the fish market and the center of town,
our next quest was to buy Keith a birthday (day late) cap and belt. This was quickly and easily done in one of
the nice men's stores located near the old Stavanger Cathedral. We would have liked to have gone to some of
the other of Stavanger's interesting museums, but they all seemed to be closed
on Mondays. So, we decided to continue
to explore the streets and shops of Stavanger.
Peg found some interesting glass plates and bought two despite Keith's
warnings regarding breakage. (Well, at
least one could be glued back together upon returning home.)
Keith was still obsessing on
finding the cyber café, so back to that part of town we went. Again, it was an interesting walk but the
closest we came was finding a State liquor store. Giving up on the cyber café idea, Keith then turned his attention
to all of the statues scattered around this older commercial part of
Stavanger. He was particularly
interested in taking photos of the many life size bronze statues of people and
animals that were placed along walkways throughout the city.
Keith with bronze friends. >
He
was curious about one figure that appeared in several parts of the town. This was a statue of a uniformed man from
some earlier time. Wearing big boots
and a floppy eared hat, he was carrying a staff that ended with a ball of spikes. Leading the parade on the 4th of
July were two men dressed like this in long red coats and carrying such a
staff. Keith started asking anyone who
spoke English, and a few who didn't, about this statue and what was this
person's role. No one we asked seemed
to know. One girl who spoke excellent
English and worked in a shop right next to one of these statues indicated that
she had no idea what the statue was about.
One person thought it was a fireman, another thought it had something to
do with an insurance company. Our best
guess was that these were guards, patrolmen or something like early police and
are now used as a logo for an insurance company. (I am sure we will eventually find out the answer to this mystery
from our Norwegian friends and we will update you when we find out for sure.)***
< One of the mystery statues - this one in front of a building that also seemed
to have this image as a logo - maybe the insurance company…?***
Peg
had gotten a recommendation for a good sea food restaurant. Walking up and down several streets, we just
couldn't seem to locate it. In desperation
we settled for one called Phileas Fogg.
The décor and menu was definitely "Around the World in 80
Days" theme. Not only that, but
our tab came in a passport. Peg had a
shell fish soup and grilled vegetables from some place in the world. Keith ended up with a spicy Bengal Bay fish
that was delicious once he covered the staring fish eye with a piece of
parsley. This really was a good and
unique meal --- it just wasn't very Norwegian for our last evening meal in
Rogaland county. We were also enjoying
the window seat, sipping one last shared beer, watching the tourists walk by,
when Keith noticed across the bay a large white building with very large
signing which was the restaurant we had been looking for. Oh, well….
Now it was time for a leisurely stroll back to the hotel. Keith had been able to contact cousin Ernst Torkelson earlier. He would be able to stop by the hotel that evening for one last visit before we left. We were able to exchange more family information. We said our good-byes agreeing to keep in contact. Now all that was left was for the last minute packing for an early departure from Stavanger by train the next day.
***
Mystery solved thanks to our friends on the Slogvik farm who wrote and said:
"I just phoned the tourist information in Stavanger for explanation of the statue you are wondering about. It is called a
'vekter.' There is no translation in my dictionary, but translated it means
'weighter.' Today it is a symbol for peace and order in the town. In former times a
'vekter' patrolled the town in the night, looking for fire, people disturbing the night and sat the lamps
on." We have also been told that it is used as a logo for an insurance
company.