FAMILY BUILDINGS IN NORWAY.
I had an opportunity to visit Norway on a recent trip to Europe. I was interested in seeing some of the places that I grew up in and looking at family accomplishments over the years.
Family is interesting. Not only is there a large number of us, but all are engaged in one kind of enterprise or another.
I am not much impressed with the socialists in power in Norway, but the country has little external debt and has a very useful Petroleum Fund which is invested all over the world and helps fund many of the programs the government thinks is good.
It is an example of what all governments COULD do if they chose. Make good investments and use the results to make good choices for people. Unfortunately, that is seldom done in many countries.
I looked at a building built almost a hundred years ago by Uncle Anders Hesstvedt. I had not seen it since I was a boy. Anders was my grandfather's brother. Here is the building today, still standing and still in use. The upper story serves as a top scale restaurant after all these years.
Bakkekroen Restaurant
Grandad was quite the entrepreneur. As a young man he went broke a few times and moved a lot before settling on his life-long project, a ladies wear store. He did very well, raised a large family and built his own home.
Grandfather's Home Today
Grandfather as seen at his beloved
"Garder"
in the 1930's
Grandfathers Store Window, Christmas 1928.
"Kahrs & Co."
won First Prize Award for their
Christmas Window Display.
While I was in Norway, I used the opportunity to visit and photograph a building where I went to school. Built in 1925, the place is still in use, though it features a new roof. Extra buildings have been built to hold the additional students of an increased population today. Here is what it looks like today.
Fjellstrand Skole on Nesodden, Norway
In 1965 the building looked like this:
This photograph (digitized from an Ektachrome Slide) was taken in the Summer of 1965, when I visited the place as a young American Soldier. This photograph is featured in our book AN IMMIGRANT REMEMBERS, advertised elsewhere on this blog.
Sometimes it is good to return and take a look at our roots and appreciate our past, our heritage and the things that helped make us what we are today!
Written and Photographed
by
Harald Hesstvedt Scharnhorst
* * * * * * *
