We enlarged our family today.
Cousins from Norway we never knew before spent the day with us, sharing stories, answering questions, looking at our pictures and reading from the trove of Rolfsrud memorabilia in our Shakopee basement. We talked and laughed a lot and by the end of the day we knew we had gained much.
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| They don't call it Bisquick in Norway. Gunnar asked for Katie's waffle recipe. |
Our "new" cousins, Gunnar and Knut Rolfsrud, are on a 10-day tour of the U.S.A. Earlier they spent a couple of exciting days in western North Dakota at the Rolfsrud Ranch. (See post)
Today it was our turn. Stan picked them up in Roseville this morning, drove them over the rebuilt I-35 bridge they'd read about in Norway, stopped at the Minneapolis Mill District, plugged a meter with quarters from Knut's pocket, took a walk on the iconic stone arch bridge and stood high over it on the Guthrie Theater's endless bridge as a barge pushed through the lock below, drove past the newly installed metrodome roof, pointed out the Twins ballpark and got back to Shakopee in time for coffee and Kathleen's brunch.
Today it was our turn. Stan picked them up in Roseville this morning, drove them over the rebuilt I-35 bridge they'd read about in Norway, stopped at the Minneapolis Mill District, plugged a meter with quarters from Knut's pocket, took a walk on the iconic stone arch bridge and stood high over it on the Guthrie Theater's endless bridge as a barge pushed through the lock below, drove past the newly installed metrodome roof, pointed out the Twins ballpark and got back to Shakopee in time for coffee and Kathleen's brunch.
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| There's the Rolfsrud gaard. |
Gunnar speaks excellent English so he quickly picks up nuances and implications, making for a breezy, non-stop conversation, leaping from topic to topic in a fascinating exchange of common interests. Knut, his older brother, patiently participates as well, getting an occasional translation, and offering interesting and humorous input.
Gunnar was drawn to the table load of Rolfsrud memorabilia that Stan's late father had produced, filled with family tree information, photos from his trip to Norway, even train ticket and laundry receipts, neatly pasted into a trip scrapbook. Gunnar chuckled as he read Dad's diary detailing his impressions of the sights and people he saw. Among the folks Dad saw long ago on that trip was a much younger Gunnar, who today found his name referenced in the lengthy journal.
Beautifully penned letters from Dad's immigrant mother, written in Norwegian to her son at Concordia College in Moorhead, were easily translated. The syntax was very formal and proper, Gunnar noted, which would be the style of that 1930s era.
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| Solveig and Bill talked to Gunnar and Knut from their Sunol, CA, backyard |
We broke away from circling the Rolfsrud "gaard" on Norway maps and sorting through sundry family pictures to take a Skype call from Sosie and Bill in California. Years ago, they had briefly met Gunnar in Norway at a sort of outdoor family reunion in a park, and today Gunnar had the photographs with him to prove it. Sure enough, there were Sosie and Bill, whooping it up with the locals.
Then Virg dropped in to meet his cousins for the first time. Coincidentally, Gunnar's 40-year-old son is employed by a high-tech ocean oil-field mapping firm that Virg has followed financially for years.
Gunnar said he was interested in Native American history, so before they left the county this afternoon we cruised through the sovereign nation of the Mdewakanton Sioux tribe, the proprietors of nearby Mystic Lake Casino. Virg and Kathleen idled the big Buick outside in the sweltering heat while three cousins strode through the massive maze of tables and machines, stopping only to look at the glassed exhibit of a stuffed buffalo, the "supermarket of the prairie." Farmer Knut was impressed by the size of the beast. The casino is often thought of as the new buffalo, providing a living for an entire people, much as the nearly extinct buffalo once did, the guide said.
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| Kathleen found Knut to have a striking resemblance to her late father, Leonard Neilson |
Then on to the Jonathan Padelford through a classic I-494 traffic jam, then a detour-caused wild-goose chase on Shepherd Road before Virg wheeled onto Harriet Island where we bid our cousins farewell. They stepped onto the gangplank in a nick of time, rejoining their tour group for a dinner cruise on the storied Mississippi.
Invitations for future visits were made by the Americans and the Norwegians and it is our sincere hope and belief that these exchanges will continue. Our grandfathers were brothers. These are good people. They are Rolfsruds.
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| Cousins. Knut and Virg, seated; Stan and Gunnar |
