Scandinavian American. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1945-1958, 1951-01-11

Seppala visited Norway last sum-
mer and was deservedly feted all
over in his old homeland. Even
though he is past his seventies he's
still young and vigorous in spirit.
For instance when he was met at
the dock in Oslo by a welcoming
committee and a beautiful young
girl placed a rose i'm his lapel, the
thing he still remembers wildly
from the ceremonies is the big
"klem" that she gave him. And
that pose had to be repeated when
the news and cameramen arrived.
"And that" says Seppala twas not
hard at all.'
To hear Seppala talk about his
visit in Norway is almost like 60
ing on the trip and many of his
stories are priceless jewels.
From his own little hamlet up
north (Skjervoy) comes this story:
In Skjervoy German headquart-
ers were located during the occu-
patton, and many of the fishermen
had a tough time getting along.
Some of them had to flee up in
the mountains to save their lives
after sabotaging or otherwise
harming the "herrenvolk." But on
one occasion the fishermen did
show an almost unbelievable CO.
operation. A big German warship
was torpedoed outside Skjervoy
and hundreds of soldiers and Off
GERS lost their lives. Many bodies
were found floating along the
shoreline Finally the German
headquarters offered reward of
rs kr. pr. body in order to give
them a decent burial. The fisher
men got busy and gathered bodies
by the dozens, disregarding the
ordinary fishing for the benefit of
giving the poor Germans suitable
burial-and the 25 kr. per head
connected with it. Then one day
during this fishing season an old
fisherman found a body of Ger
man admiral or something. Any
way, the uniform was decorated
with all kinds of medals and rib
bons and stars. The fisherman
thought for sure that a body like
that ought to be worth consider
able more than the set price Of
25 kr., and anchored the admir-
al" temporarily in the bay outside
his house and went to headquart-
ers to negotiate a new DEAL" but
to no avail. A body was body
and rs kr. was the price. Well, the
fisherman figured that rs kr. was
better than nothing and went for
the corpse. But alas, some dirty
so-and-so had stolen the body in
the meantime and most likely had
pocketed all the beautiful medals
and the 25 kr. on top of it.
This is one of the stories that
Seppala told during a party the
other night and he's got many
more. I propose that we, some day
soon, arrange "Seppala night" in
Norway Center-not only because
we want to hear him tell stories
from his wonderful experiences
during so years in Alaska but
mostly because he is the one and
only King of the trail'' and a
credit to his countrymen all over
the world.
In q week or two the new Nor
way Center will be open to the
public, and In spite of the unfort-
innate delay, the opening day will
be greeted with genuine enthusi-
asm among Seattle's thousands of
Norwegians. II Is almost unbe-
lievable that we finally have this
beautiful "home" to call our own
-. One thing We should remember
always, the Norway Center did not
simply grow up all by itself. As II
stands there II represents months
and years of hard work-mostly
by very few. Some of us bought
a bond or two and let u go nj that
but far too many of our own peo-
pie forgot even Ia do that. We
elected q building committee and