FÆRDER GLIMT
wsletter Title
FÆRDER LODGE #109 SONS of NORWAY
March
Established Jan. 6, 1911
Meets at 3 PM on the
2nd Sunday of the month
(except July and August) at
the Danish Athletic Club
735 - 65th St. Brooklyn, NY
President/Editor
Frank Bolstad
732-302-0955
fbolstad@comcast.net
Vice President
Barbara Kristiansen
718-680-4684
bkristiansen@earthlink.net
Counselor
Else Liebermann
718-748-9287
Corresponding Secretary
Sylvia Kristiansen
718-633-0721
Social Director
Carol Silva
718-7454658
Rec. Secretary/Musician
Sonja Nerjes
718-836-4640
Fin. Secretary
Sonja Larsen
732-797-0873
Treasurer
Per Sagaard
718-836-7965
Marshalls
Reidunn Arntsen
718-748-7314
Astrid Andersen
718-745-8512
Greeter
Finn Larsen
732-797-0783
Sunshine Committee
Sonja Nerjes
718-836-4640
Astrid Mathisen
718-745-7297
Sports Director
John Petersen
718-494-2080
Trustees
Thorvald Tonnesen
Gerd Bolstad
Astrid Mathisen
Auditors
Berit Petersen
Edith Rasmussen
Stamp Chairman
Kjell Kittilsen
718-680-4684
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY
1911 100 Years 2011
Fra Presidenten,
We are almost there, less
than a month to our centennial
celebration. It is crunch-time for
the committee with a lot of hard
work the next three weeks. Getting
the table assignments and the right
table partners together is no easy
feat. Please let us know, if you
have not already done so, if
you have a specific seating request.
We are bound to have some slip-ups so
I ask your forgiveness now. That does
not mean we are not doing the best we
can - we will!
Reservations are pouring in and we
will have a lot of dignitaries, some
politicians, the Norwegian Consul
General to New York and of course,
Bjøro Håland. It's shaping up to be a
great event so please don't wait to the
last minute to make your reservation.
Again we had to park our cars in the
snow in Brooklyn for the last meeting,
but we had good attendance
nevertheless. Thanks to Carol and
Barbara the tables were decorated
beautifully for our Valentine's
celebration and several of the ladies
were dressed in red. The President was
rebuked for not getting with the
program with the right colors. Several
of our members won scratch-off tickets
as door prizes so maybe we have a
millionaire in our membership.
See you at our next meeting!
Frank
2011 Issue 3
***************
Countdown to the
100th Celebration
30 Days
Saturday, March 26, 2011
*****************
Around the Lodge
This time I like to get something 'fra arkivet'.
I spent several years working for Nordisk
Tidende (not as a writer) and got to know
Sigurd Daasvand well. What follows is a
reprint of an Editorial by him in Nordisk
Tidende dated Thursday, May 6 1982. I am
sure that a lot of us can relate to some of the
vernacular below.
Eksempler på Brooklyn - norsk
Vi har tidligere på denne plassen gitt noen
eksempler på hvordan nordmenn i Brooklyn
har tatt i bruk engelske uttrykk og vendinger
når de snakker norsk. Det er blitt en slik vane
at de legger ikke merke til det selv, og det er
såvidt alminnelig at det merkes heller ikke av
de fleste de snakker med. Sist vi skrev om
dette, pekte vi på hvor vanlig det er å si at
man skal gå til Norge og stå der for noen
uker. Samtidig siterte vi flere samtaler
mellom noen av dem som ikke lenger
snakker rent norsk. Siden har vi fått flere
henvendelser både pr. brev, i telefonen og
ved besøk i avisen, om vi ikke kunne
komme med flere slike eksempler.
I min familie hadd vi great fun av your
article, skrev en. Kona mi enjoyde den, og
hun sa til meg at next time du ser Mr.
Daasvand, så ask him å komme med more of
that, sa en annen. - That's it sa en tredje, vi må ha mere
fun i papiret. Det brighter opp dagen. - I warn you, sa den
fjerde, ikke quote meg igjen.
To gamle venner møttes på Fifth avenue for noen uker
siden, og vi "quoter" her litt av samtalen mellom
dem: - Jeg har ikke sett deg på avenuen for a long time.
Jeg har gått opp og ned på sidewalken, hoping to see
you. Du look pretty good, men åssen føler Du?
- Det har vært ganske bad, sa den andre. Jeg var ute i den
blizzarden vi hadde, uten coat, for jeg skulle bare ut og
pick up something hos cleaneren. Men det var nok til at
jeg catcha en bad cold som jeg ikke kunne get rid av.
Men på drugstora cross the street recommenda de en ny
medisin for cold, og den var terrific. In a couple of days
var jeg god igjen.
En tidligere journalist i vår avis skulle en gang ha noen
opplysninger fra presten i en av kirkene i Brooklyn. Da
journalisten kom til kirken og spurte etter presten, fikk
han følgende svar:- Han er i basementet og stiller med et
leak. - Jeg beklager, sa journalisten, men jeg visste ikke at
noen her var død.
En som var på jakt etter leilighet i Bay Ridge fortalte meg
at "det er no fun no more, for landlorden raise renta for
hver ny leieboer, så snart kan ingen afford to live
deasant. Nothing er som før. Du kan ikke move hvor du
vil any more om det er aldri så bad hvor du er".
Apropos leilighet er det blitt meg fortalt at eieren av et
hus en gang sa om en av etasjene at "fronten er tatt, men
bagen er fri".
Det er jo forresten et ganske alminnelig uttrykk blant
nordmenn at den og den bor i bagen.
Jeg kom i snakk med en og fortalte at jeg ingen garasje
hadde, og derfor måtte parkere langs fortaukanten
utenfor der jeg bor og må flytte bilen for rengjøring av
gaten. - Det er så mange empty lotter omkring, sa han,
prøv om du kan get hold of one, så slipper du å trouble
med movinga.
Så traff jeg en av de nordmenn som vil flytte tilbake til
Norge etter et langt liv i Brooklyn. - Tror du du vil finne
deg til rette i Norge nå da, spurte jeg. - Del er verd et try,
svarte han. I know der er en lot jeg vil miste, men der er
en ting jeg ikke vil miste, og det er heathen og
humidityen i New York om sommeren. Den kan jeg ikke
ta, selv etter all these years.
Utenfor Sjømannsklrken traff jeg en gang en frue som
kom alene, og jeg spurte hvor mannen var blitt av. - Han
har kjørt rundt blocka over og over igjen for å finne en
parkingspot for caren, men det synes ikke å være en space
left, svarte hun.
En annen gang var det en som spurte om det var mulig å
få en ride home med meg fra Sjømannskirken. Jeg pekte
på de passasjerene jeg allerede hadde. Nei, da går det
ikke å squeese inn one more, sa vedkornmende.
For noen år siden spurte jeg en mann hvor han gikk for å
høre Guds ord, hvilken kirke han tilhørte. - Jeg ser ikke
just det så important, sa han. The main thing er at presten
holder seg til truthen!
En som gjerne ville delta på en større fest i en av
kirkene, ble litt forbauset da det var $2.50 i
inngangspenger. - Å er det entrancefee her i kveld. Jeg
trodde det var kollekt, så jeg la pocketboka igjen
hjemme.
Dette er ridicules, sa en mann som kom ut fra posthuset
på 5. Ave. - Nå har jeg stått lined up for half an hour for
et stakkars stamp. Og on top of that har jeg paid for caren
på parkingmeteren. En kan bli crazy av mindre!
Den måten å samtale på som det ovenfor er gitt noen få
eksempler på, er verd et studium. Og det er svært
alminnelig å hørc blant folk som er født i Norge, og som
har bodd i Brooklyn i en lang rekke år. Det kan kalles
mangel på selvdisiplin og stringent tenkning, men det
stikker sikkert dypere.
På den annen side opplever vi å møte norskfødte kvinner
og menn som har bodd i Amcrika fra 20-50 år, og som
fremdeles kan slå over til rent og feilfritt norsk, uten å
blande inn engelske ord eller fornorskede engelske
uttrykk. Det samme kan sies om norsk-ættede
amerikanere som har lært norsk av sine foreldre fra de var
barn. - Det er quite remarkable, vil noen si, mens andre
kanskje vil kalle det et språklig og eksemplarisk
sporskiftc som det står respekt av.
Until next time - let me know of any news
happening in your lives, we will cry, pray and laugh
with you. Whatever is happening we are in it
together to support each other until Dovre falls.
Stay well and see you all at our next meeting.
GB
Initiation of new members
After a short time, a smile came to her face and she
answered proudly explaining that she first married a
banker when she was in her early 20’s, then a circus
ringmaster when she was in her 40’s later on a
preacher when in her 60’s, and now, a funeral
director.
The interviewer looked at her, quite astonished, and
asked why she had married four men with such
diverse careers.
―Easy son,‖ she smiled.
―I married one for the money …two for the
show…three to get ready…and four to go.‖
Lisa Martensson, Sylvia Odegard Reich,
Frank Bolstad and Lois Hedlund
****************************
A LOOK INTO SOUTH BROOKLYN'S
NORWEGIAN PAST
Exploring an oft-forgotten
neighborhood's history.
By Peter Justice
chapter
in
the
On the Light Side
The old Norwegian Seamen's Church on Clinton Street, now
apartments. Credit Georgia Kral
The 84-year-old bride
The local news station was interviewing an 84-yearold lady because she had just gotten married for the
fourth time.
Pepe Montero remembers when Atlantic Avenue
was full of Scandinavians.
The interviewer asked her questions about her life,
about what it felt like to be marrying at age 84, and
then about her new husband’s occupation.
―He’s a funeral director,‖ she answered.
Interesting the newsman thought, and then he asked
her if she wouldn’t mind telling him a little about
her first three husbands and what they did for a
living.
She paused for a few moments, needing time to
reflect on all those years.
―It was endless Danes and Norwegians,‖ he said.
The Brooklyn waterfront was ―like a U.N.‖
―Every country in the world docked down here, he
said. "Bringing products in and out.‖
Standing with a glass of red wine at the bar at
Montero's, the saloon at Atlantic Avenue and Hicks
Street that his family has owned since the 1940s,
Pepe recalls the crowds of seamen from the days
when the port was still thriving. Montero’s was
especially popular with Danes. One day in the
1950s, the King of Denmark stopped in on his way
to the United Nations. It was 12-year-old Pepe who
took his order.
Like other Brooklyn seamen’s bars, Montero’s saw
its fair share of Norwegians, too. Large numbers of
Norwegian seamen and longshoremen first began
showing up in this part of Brooklyn in the mid-tolate 19th century. The original center of their
community was Hamilton Avenue, which was lined
with shops selling food, books and newspapers from
their home country. There were also boarding
houses, many of which — according to Lars Nilsen,
co-chair of the Norwegian Immigration Association
and a Norwegian-American who grew up in Bay
Ridge — were brothels.
Talks with historians like Nilsen and neighborhood
residents like Montero help reveal a time when the
culture of Brooklyn's waterfront was heavily
Norwegian. The
Norwegian
Immigration
Association's museum-style Heritage Hall exhibit in
the lobby of the Norwegian Christian Home and
Health Center, a Bay Ridge nursing home, also
contains valuable information on the subject.
Neighborhood bars also catered to Norwegians.
Nilsen said that the watering hole at the corner of
Court Street and Fourth Place, now P.J. Hanley’s,
was originally a Norwegian saloon built in the
1870s.
The waterfront culture of drinking and vice created
an opening for an abundance of religious and civic
groups, which Victoria Hofmo, president of the
Scandinavian East Coast Museum in Bay Ridge,
credits partly to an ingrained Norwegian sense of
service. An article on the Norwegian embassy
website describes how a group in Bergen, Norway
called the Seamen’s Mission sent a pastor to South
Brooklyn, Ole Bugge Asperheim, who founded the
Norwegian Seamen’s Church in 1878. The
congregation used a church on William Street (now
Pioneer Street) in Red Hook until 1928, when it
moved into a large Romanesque church that still
stands at the corner of Clinton Street and First
Place.
The Bethelship Norwegian Methodist Episcopal
Church began in the mid-19th century as a floating
church that ministered to sailors while docked in the
harbor. In later years it moved onshore, first to a
spot right on the waterfront at the corner of
President and Van Brunt streets, then further inland
to Carroll Street between Smith and Hoyt streets,
according to the American Guild of Organists,
which compiles information on the history of New
York churches. A walk through the neighborhood
today reveals that both those church buildings are
now gone.
Editions of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle Almanac from
the 1890s list numerous Norwegian societies in the
neighborhood, including a Norwegian-American
Seamen’s Association at Court and Union and a
Norwegian Women’s Association at Carroll and
Columbia.
A striking Greek Revival-style mansion at the
corner of Clinton and Carroll streets housed the
Scandinavian Sailor’s Home, which provided
sailors with food, lodging and help finding work,
said Nilsen. The building is now the site of the
Guido Funeral Home.
Elizabeth Fedde, a Lutheran deaconess from
Flekkefjord, Norway, established a small relief
society in 1883 on William Street in Red Hook that
continues today as the Lutheran Medical Center, a
hospital in Sunset Park.
―They kept adapting their mission for what was
necessary,‖ said Hofmo of the Scandinavian East
Coast Museum.
Norwegian churches and charitable groups shifted
their focus over time, from ministering to wayward
sailors to aiding the poor and sick among the
community in the South Brooklyn/Red Hook area.
During the Depression years of the 1930s, the
Norwegian Seamen’s Church at Clinton Street and
First Place provided food and English lessons and
organized a chorus for unemployed sailors, the
Heritage Hall exhibit noted. During that time, a
local ―Hooverville,‖ or shantytown, included
several hundred Norwegian seamen living in
makeshift dwellings. The homes were later
demolished to make way for the Red Hook ball
fields, Nilsen said.
Norwegians began moving out of the neighborhood
in the early decades of the 20th Century, as they
became successful enough to leave the crowded
waterfront for the comparatively open spaces of
Bay Ridge and present-day Sunset Park. In 1949,
the Bethelship Church at Carroll and Hoyt moved to
56th Street and Fourth Avenue in Sunset Park. The
Norwegian Seamen’s Church remained, drawing in
congregants from Bay Ridge and what remained of
the neighborhood’s sailor population, until moving
in 1983 to a Manhattan brownstone at 49th Street
and 2nd Avenue, according to the Norwegian
Embassy. (It later moved into a pair of brownstones
on 52nd Street.) The Clinton Street church building
has since been converted into apartments.
In the 1950s and 60s, as the harbor remained active,
Norwegian sailors continued to be a presence in the
neighborhood, drinking at waterfront saloons like
Montero’s and the many other Spanish bars that
lined Atlantic Avenue in those days. Another
popular destination, Nilsen mentioned, was the
now-closed Otto’s Scandinavian Bar at Kane and
Columbia streets, which was used as a location in
the film version of The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot
Straight.
But the sailors’ numbers dwindled as the switch to
container ships decreased crew sizes, and over time
the transfer of the shipping industry to New Jersey
all but ended the South Brooklyn waterfront’s use
as an active port.
Today, there is almost no physical evidence of the
neighborhood that was once referred to as Little
Norway. One of the few visible signs is the building
across Court Street from Carroll Park that houses
the Eileen Dugan Senior Citizens Center, which
long ago contained the headquarters of a charitable
group. Carved into the building near the roof is
―Frelsesarmeen,‖ the Norwegian word for Salvation
Army.
Even among the small Norwegian-American
community remaining in Bay Ridge and Sunset
Park, Nilsen said, there is little memory of the
Norwegian presence in South Brooklyn back in the
19th and early 20th Centuries.
―The Norwegians played a big part in that particular
area for this period,‖ he said. ―That was what
helped build the city of New York, this part of New
York.‖
"Courtesy of CarrollGardens.Patch.com."
The article above was forwarded to the editor by Lois
Hedlund.
Third District Today
Fra Presidenten:
Hei alle sammen!
Well based on my bi-weekly conversations with
my North Dakota based brother I want to thank the
US Navy for moving me to a warmer climate and
then based on my daily conversations with our New
Jersey based daughters I want to thank Maersk Line
Limited for moving us South to a warmer climate.
All this coming from a guy who used to think it had
to be below -20 F before you started to worry about
the temperature.
I made a mistake in the last newsletter regarding our
goal to reduce the number of members leaving
voluntarily. When you count in the 999 and 000
groups correctly we reduced the number of dues
paying members leaving voluntarily by almost 14%
and that exceeded our goal. We still lost members
overall but we are slowing down the loss and hope
to move into the plus side in the near future.
2011 District 3 Goals
 Reduce dues paying members leaving
voluntarily by 10 %
 One member from each local lodge
designated to be the District web site
contributor
 Gain 75 new benefit members
 All lodges to make a contribution to the
Charitable Trust
All gas drilling in the Delaware River Basin (LOV
is in this area) has been put on hold until new
regulations have been published and approved. As
a result Hess who holds the gas lease on our
property declared ―Force Majeure‖ on 1 December
2010 because they could not continue to explore or
drill on the property. Hopefully this will be cleared
up by June 2011. This does not affect any money
because we got paid up front but it does extend the
closing date of our lease. The time that passes from
12/1/2010 until the drilling ban is lifted will be
added to our 7 year lease.
Our
District
web
site
http://www.3dsofn.org/home.html experienced a
great month in January. We had over 220 visitors a
day. We now have two local lodge newsletter
posted on the site http://3dsofn.org/blog/?cat=20
and encourage all the editors to post their
newsletters there as well. The Maine Nordmenn
letter had some interesting info about the
Norwegian Biathlon team who recently competed in
Maine.
Our rosemaling and wood carving course to be held
at LOV with Vesterheim instructors is in the final
stages of planning and we expect to announce the
particulars when known. The classes should start
12 September but there may be some slippage to
accommodate the instructor’s schedules.
The Hurtigruten raffle tickets will be mailed to
Lodge Presidents 19 March 2011. If you haven’t
read the last winner’s story you need to do so.
http://3dsofn.org/blog/?p=268
We are working with a travel agent in North Dakota
to get hotel rooms for the 2011 Høst Fest. We will
have 22 rooms available for D3 members. You will
have to book the room arriving Tuesday 27
September and departing Sunday morning 2
October. When everything is firm we will post the
particulars on our web site ion the 3D news section.
You will not be dealing with D3 but directly with
the Travel Agent. It is virtually impossible to get a
hotel room in Minot, ND anytime but really tough
during this time period and that is why the District
searched for a travel agent who could accommodate
some of you.
Fraternally,
Ralph Peterson, President
Third District Sons of Norway
****************************
Gratulerer med dagen
March
2 Casandra Colucci
2 Jan G. Henriksen
2 Helene Jarvis
3 Steve Olsen
6 Doris Svennevik
9 Jorgen G. Karlsen
18 Amalia Tonnesen
April
14 Bertram O Liljegren
15 Lisa K Martensson
17 John Nersten Jr
24 Carolyn L Asplund
24 Synneva Moller
28 Per P Hauge
29 Alice J Inzel
29 Leif N Meloy
30 Nora Bolstad
Færder Lodge 100th Anniversary
Saturday March 26, 2011 at 7 pm.
Last chance for reservations. Mail a
$90 check made out to Faerder
Building Association, Inc. to:
John Petersen
91 Sheraden Ave
Staten Island, NY 10314
Stavanger Symphony Orchestra at
Carnegie Hall
On March 23rd at 8PM, the internationally lauded
Stavanger Symphony Orchestra of Norway will
make its North American debut at Carnegie Hall’s
Isaac Stern Auditorium. The orchestra will be led
from the First Chair by the acclaimed
conductor/violinist Fabio Biondi. Maestro Biondi
serves as Artistic Director of the Stavanger
Symphony’s early music program.
The program for March 23rd features Vivaldi’s
Concerto for Dresden Orchestra, Bach’s Orchestral
Suite No.4, Haydn’s Violin Concerto No. 2,
Mozart’s Symphony No. 36, and Johan Helmich
Roman’s Music for a Royal Wedding at
Drottningholm. Roman was a student of Handel
and wrote this work for the occasion of the Royal
Wedding between Crown Prince Adolf Frederick of
Sweden and Princess Louisa Ulrika of Prussia in
1744.
For more information, please visit www.sso.no. For
tickets, please visit www.carnegiehall.org or call +1
212 247-7800.
The 56th Annual Miss Norway Contest
On Saturday April 16, 2011, at 2 p.m., Helene Rell
will be passing her crown to the 2011 Miss Norway
of Greater New York. The 56th annual Miss
Norway of Greater New York contest will take
place at the Arthur Nilsen Hall, the Norwegian
Christian Home and Health Center at 1270-67th
Street, Brooklyn, NY.
With musical fanfare, the contestants will be
escorted to the stage by cadets from Kings Point
Military Academy. The Master of Ceremonies
interviews the candidates asking about their
ambitions and their interests. Most importantly, he
will ask how a Norwegian heritage has shaped parts
of their lives.
Girls from 5 to 10 years of age are invited to be part
of the Little Miss Norway Pageant. They will
proceed to the stage and give their names. Each
Little Miss is asked to say a word or phrase in
Norwegian.
Finally the judges state their decisions. The new
Miss Norway of Greater New York is crowned. The
next big event will be the 17th of May Parade along
5th Avenue in Brooklyn and ending in Leif Ericsson
Park. The newly elected Miss Norway and her court
are followed by the Little Miss Norways, who will
ride on a float.
Application forms for Miss Norway and for Little
Miss
Norway
are
available
online:
niahistory.org/missnorway
Remember contestants who register by March 1,
2011 receive a $10 discount. March 25, 2011 is the
deadline for all Miss Norway applications.
Tickets are also available online. Lunch is included.
All event tickets need to be in by April 1, 2011, due
to limited seating.
CALENDAR OF EVENTS 2011
March 13
3 pm Business meeting followed
by ―St. Patrick’s Day Party‖ with dinner.
March 20
2 pm Zone 1 Bowling
Coram Country Lanes, Coram, NY.
March 26
7 pm Centennial Celebration. Rex
Manor 1100-60th St., Brooklyn, NY.
April 10
3 pm Business meeting.
―Sisters’ Night‖. Dinner.
May 1
3 pm Business meeting. ―Kentucky
Derby‖. Dinner.
PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF MEETING
DATE due to Mother's Day falling on our regular
meeting day.
May 1
4 pm Zone1 (Long Island)
Memorial Service.
June 12
3 pm Business meeting followed
by dinner and Bingo.
NO MEETINGS DURING JULY AND AUGUST
September 11 3 pm Business meeting and
―Welcome Back Party‖. Dinner and music.
October 9
3 pm Business meeting. ―Leif
Erikson Party‖ & October Fest. Dinner and music.
November 13 3 pm Faerder Building Association
Annual Meeting followed by lodge business
meeting and election of officers. "Brother's Night."
Dinner.
November 30 6 pm Officer's Meeting.
December 4 2 pm Children's Christmas Party 2
pm to 5 pm. Santa and gifts to children,
grandchildren or great grandchildren 12 years and
younger of Faerder members only. Reservation a
MUST by November 14th
December 17 7 pm Faerder’s Christmas Party at
the Danish Club. Cocktail hour, dinner and music.
January 8, 2012 3 pm Installation of Officers
For 2012 - 2013. Dinner and music.