It’s another beautiful day. Go on outside and look at your phone for a while.
What a whirlwind week!
Linda and I managed to get re-routed home from South Carolina, and the Lund Brother’s family reunion, a day early after receiving news of her mother’s passing. But, of course, it was a lot more complicated than just calling Delta and transferring our tickets from Thursday to Wednesday. That would have cost us an additional $850 dollars per person which is about what the original round-trip fare was for BOTH of us. After pleading on the phone, even playing the death card, the living robot on the other end of the Delta help line finally managed to get us on a different flight for just 38 dollars more apiece routing us through Atlanta, Minneapolis and then home. We didn’t have a long wait between flights but as we approached each gate it looked like everyone’s head was bowed in prayer. I thought, well that’s nice that so many people still ask the Lord to keep them safe when flying but upon closer inspection..they all had their nose buried in their I-phones. Now, we travel quite a bit but in the past couple years the number of people hypnotized by their phones..especially in airports.. has reached epidemic proportions. Especially disconcerting are those who can’t even put their phones down in the restroom where thumb scrolling and one handed peeing have become an art form.
Mary’s funeral was at St. Teresa’s Catholic Church in Beresford where she was a member for over sixty years. To this old Lutheran, it was actually two funerals; the Wake on Friday and the service Saturday morning. Mary was such a sweet pious woman and always involved in church doings it was easy for the Priest to pile on the well-deserved praise during his sermons..or homilies or whatever it’s called between the lengthy liturgy.
After lunch at the church where everyone ate their fill of ham sandwiches, salads and bars..then extended the appropriate sympathies, it was time for the Trudeau clan to exhale, relax and share personal memories which we did back in Alcester at the community room. I put on some of Mary’s favorite big band music and we feasted, imbibed, laughed and cried until early evening. She loved it when her kids all got together like this and never wanted the party to end..so, in her memory, we did our best to please.
On Sunday, I went to meet my cousin, Olav Bra from Trondheim, Norway who is visssiting his American kinfolk for a few days. It’s been great getting to know him face to face rather than through letters and e-mails. He gladly shared the story of how our common ancestor (My grandfather) gave up his birthright (the oldest son taking over the family farm) in order to come to America.
L to R Olav, me, Denny Lund, Bob Gruseth, Larry Gruseth
Olav has done very well for himself in Norway; not only farming but also operating a lodge, of sorts, with banquet facilities, bars and meeting rooms all on the site of his family farm. He has three beautiful blonde daughters, a couple grandchildren and an open invitation for all of us to return to our native homeland which I’d love to do again someday.
We gave Olav the grand tour of Keloland on Monday which he found most impressive. I was impressed too. It’s been a while since I sat in the studio for a live newscast. The news and weather sets are beautiful with huge high definition monitors everywhere; a far cry from the old studio which had two monitors; one sitting atop a box with wheels so it could be rolled around the floor and another old black and white TV which sat on a high shelf by the side door. Everybody (except Hemmingsen) smoked cigarettes and there was usually a blue haze hanging in the studio like fog over the Golden Gate Bridge. Dedrick, Burt and I would often take one last big drag just as the cameraman hollered “Stand By” forcing us to exhale quickly and flick the butts out on the studio floor. The camera guys hated that because not only did they run the risk of getting hit in the eye by one of those tobacco missiles but the butts would cling to the camera dolly wheels preventing them from rolling properly when they needed to change positions. Oh, well, that’s all a distant memory now, sort of like lines of people at the airport waiting to use pay phones.