THE TALE SPINNER
Vol. XVI, No. 33
August 14, 2010
IN THIS ISSUE:Vol. XVI, No. 33
August 14, 2010
Lyle Meeres takes up his tale of a Baltic cruise
Jim Olson shares a story from one of his old newsletters
Pat Moore writes about early-rising crows
Carol Shoemaker compares the geography of men and women
The editor reports the results of the heart monitoring and blood tests
Sites are suggested by Bruce Galway, Carol Dilworth, Carol Shoemaker, Doris Dignard, Gerrit deLeeuw, and Pat Moore
Lyle Meeres continues his description of their
BALTIC CRUISE
On Sunday we had a day in Oslo with the "Viking Heritage" tour and we were blessed with a good guide. We went by Akershus Fortress and City Hall. Some of the books had been less enthusiastic about the Vigeland Sculpture Park, but she explained what to look for in the sculptures and at the same time wove in the story of Vigeland himself. He must have had a strong ego to succeed in the face of doubters and money shortages. Typically, Vigeland's sculptures reflected the cycle of human existence, from birth through love and children to old age and death and new life. Our guide was drew attention to details to cause us to speculate about ideas associated with several particular pieces: for example, one column had a man defeating a dragon; parallel and some distance away, on a second column, the dragon was eating a man. The struggle was between good and evil. The ideas were not unusual but the presentations were dramatic.
After the Vigeland Sculpture Park, our next stop was at the Viking Ship Museum, where we looked at three very old ships with curved wooden prows. These had been buried for over a thousand years. Two were in good shape while the third was in pieces. Why was there a difference? The two that were found in clay had survived well, but the other was found in sand. There were also artifacts such as a sleigh, because the Vikings believed that the dead would need their belongings in the afterlife.
We then went to Holmenskollen, where at first it was too foggy to see the city or much of the ski jump. Norwegians are proud of their skiing traditions. Then we saw various buildings at the Folk Museum. These reminded Pat and me of the buildings constructed behind our museum in Red Deer, except this was on a really large scale (170 buildings) and several attendants were in costume.
Lunch was very late. The ship left at 4:00 p.m. and we watched as two people ran for it but arrived too late. They were able to catch a Port Authority vessel which brought them out to the Jewel of the Seas. People on board applauded and though I couldn't see their faces, I imagine the latecomers' were red.
At dinner the one couple was missing again. We didn't see how we could have scared them off because we had never seen them. We heard that they wouldn't leave the casino if the woman had a machine that was paying off. Dinner at the slots Coins make tough eating. With my limited capacity for musicals and my love of reading, I skipped the evening show but I fell asleep over my book.
Cruise day 4 was at Copenhagen. We headed into the city on a shuttle bus after breakfast. We walked across a very attractive somewhat rounded “square” into the Nyhavn Canal area, stopping frequently for photos. The ladies tried to stop for a wee break but the female attendant insisted that they had to have two kroner each to use the facilities. Eventually she got them change for a rather large bill. Meanwhile, I looked around. I loved the cafes, the ships, and the colourful buildings that were attached to each other, so I took several photos.
After leaving Nyhavn, we walked quite a segment of the Stroget, a 1.6-kilometer-long pedestrian street that surprised me by having many trucks along the way, making morning deliveries to stores. Despite this, the street was interesting enough, especially at intersections, where the view opened up to reveal older buildings.
We came back to the shuttle bus just as it started to rain, but managed to get quite wet once we got back - going from cruise terminal store to store. Pat and I considered buying a blue and white plate but agreed that it was more expensive in the “duty free” shop than one we saw in a Stroget store. Lunch was at the Windjammer after we got out our wet tops.
The afternoon tour began at 2:30, from the pier. The Rosenborg (Rose) Castle, dating from the early 17th century, would have been better without the sheets of rain that made the long entrance walkways flow like creeks, going over the tops of our shoes. It was harder to retain an upbeat tone and though our guide was tolerable, she was not up to the weather.
Then we were turned loose in Tivoli Gardens, more an amusement park than a garden. It opened in 1843, but today the flood made more of it water rides. Appropriately enough, we came back to see the famous Little Mermaid, which was so close to shore it was easy to imagine vandals successfully attacking it: beheading it at times, breaking off her bronze right arm, and splashing her with paint. It is truly little,which combined with its closeness to shore, makes it doubly surprising. I think most people are like me and imagine it sitting isolated on a rock out in a significant harbour, and seeming small because of distance. It seems to me a Hans Christian Andersen symbol deserves a better fate.
We were late getting back to the ship so dinner was a rush. Our veal was mostly bone and not worth working at. Pat asked for regular coffee, I asked for decaf, and when they were both poured out of the same carafe, I questioned the contents. I was told I got decaf, so I didn’t drink it, and drank herbal tea for the rest of the cruise. I’d rather get sleep than late-day caffeine. We had after dinner drinks and I left for our room. Copenhagen was an interesting city, one with character - it wasn’t the city’s fault that the second half of our day could have been better.
August 22 or Cruise Day 5 was a day at sea. Paulette slept in but Donna, Pat, and I headed to the dining room for a better breakfast. Later Pat and I read on the balcony. The balcony on a ship is an oddity. We don’t end up spending a great deal of time on the balcony, yet it is something we would choose to have on every cruise if we could. It extends our sense of space, and it makes us feel that we can get closer to things we are looking at. As a prairie dog, I enjoyed going out on the balcony to look for other ships. I’m certain the crew would think I’m nuts, but then they are more accustomed to being on water.
At noon, we went to the session on Stockholm, Helsinki, and Tallinn. What wasn’t one big advertisement in the session was fine. We had a rather different and good lunch by eating in the dining room. In the afternoon, we attended a session on St. Petersburg, and as before, it was largely commercial. It was a formal day so we had drinks where we could hear the fine music in the central area. We learned that drinks are cheaper if you specify that you want the house brand. Otherwise, servers will push you to name a brand (“Would that be Beefeaters?”), an annoying approach to increasing the profit rate because they charge more for specified brands. It was a good dinner, and it was followed by a performance in the theatre by Brenda Cochrane, who has a pleasing and powerful voice.
We woke up on August 23 to Stockholm and rain. The clouds cried on and off throughout the day. The “splendid view” at Fjallgatan was largely blocked by the supersized Norwegian Dream cruise ship. I ended up discarding both photo attempts. City Hall, with its blue hall for the Nobel Prize banquet and its gold hall for the dance, was more satisfying. I tried a few pictures that I ending up keeping. However, rain pushed the guide and driver into taking us for a city tour until the rain finally stopped and we were able to go into Gamla Stan, the old city.
The four of us went down stone stairs into a cavelike old prison for lunch. Later, we went to a crystal shop, and while Donna and Paulette were shopping there, Pat and I did a short walk into the district, where I took a few more pictures. Then we went into a Swedish bookstore ,where I bought two of Henning Mankell’s recent books - one a mystery, as usual, and the other more of a fable.
We saw an interesting statue of St. George and the dragon in the Coronation Church, and then it was off to the truly fascinating Vasa Museum. Imagine being able to walk around the perfectly-preserved Titanic and see it from several angles. The Vasa is a 1600s ship that is 95 per cent intact, and when you see the incredible woodcarving, it is difficult to believe. This huge ship keeled over and sank in August of 1628 on its maiden voyage, less than a mile from its launch site. Why did it sink? The king had wanted a second gun deck, with 64 large guns in all. A gorgeous ship on dry land, it was top heavy and unstable on water. Finally, in1956 an engineer who knew that the less-salty Baltic water did not support the wood-eating worms that destroy most sunken wooden vessels found the vessel, but it was not raised until 1961. It was a treasure of information about life at sea. Our own ship made a late departure as one turbine wasn’t working. Supper was fine. Then we had drinks and listened to the music, though Pat and I skipped the evening performance of song and dance. Once again we set our watches ahead one hour.
To be continued.
When Jim Olson was updating his computer files, he found this submission from one of his old newsletters, written in 1999 by a woman he knew only as Dorothy. Here is her story:
DOTTIE REMEMBERS THE WAR
You might like to read some of my experiences as a Red Cross Overseas staff assistant. In 1944 I was sent to Hawaii, and first served at Hickham Field overseeing the volunteers making in-flight lunches for personnel passing through. I was pleased after six months to be sent to the Big Island, Hawaii, where four of us worked at a R&R camp for officers and enlisted men situated on the edge of Kilauea volcano. Our job was to entertain both enlisted men and officers. The camp was serviced by Korean POWs. They built the fires and policed the grounds and were generally very polite and helpful. They called themselves equivalents of Seabees, as they had been conscripted by the Japanese to build airfields, etc.
One of the most touching moments of my overseas life was when Christmas came 1944, and we wrapped Christmas presents to take to them behind their barbed-wire enclosure. One of our officers dressed as Santa Claus, and when we had entered the camp, we distributed the presents, and then the Koreans formed a group and sang "Silent Night" in Korean. We all wished that the next Christmas we would all be home. We conducted tours there in the Hawaiian National Park speaking to large groups, which we took around by bus, about the flora, fauna, and legends about Madame Pele (the Hawaiin goddess of volcanoes and fire).
After six months there, I got my wish to be sent to a "forward area". We flew in a C-47 which wasn't insulated and six of us, two officers, and a couple of Wright engines shared the space, which was incredibly cold at that altitude. The only "john" was a pail with a curtain around it. There were no seats, so we wrapped ourselves in blankets and lay on the floor. The two officers slept on top of the mailbags. Later they told us this was the warmest place, but they hoped we would think they were gallant instead of being self-serving.
Our arrival on Saipan was at night. We were stationed in a hospital area and were escorted to the quonset hut which was to be our home. We asked the nurse to show us where the latrine was. She told us to get our flashlights and follow her. We sloshed through muddy ground for about five minutes and reached this 18-holer, and upon entering it, saw unpartitioned wooden cubicles and numerous two-inch-long brown centipedes slithering all over. Ugh!
My roommate and I thought we never could get used to such a horrible place, but we soon did. All notices were posted there. Also, our drinking water and toothbrushing water was contained in a lister bag, a canvas bag hung on a wooden tripod. Very often, upon going out there in the morning, we would find it either cut down by the Japanese who were hiding out in the cliffs below our Quonset, or worse, finding that some small creature like a lizard had drowned in the water during the night. Got used to that too.
Four of us were attached to the 73rd Wing. I was with the 499th Group. We met all the missions before they went in to be debriefed. Between meeting the missions, we also drove around Isely Field distributing doughnuts, lemonade, and coffee. We also went on a systematic basis to the anti-aircraft stations.
You speak of movies. There were several natural amphitheatres on the island, and I believe there were about 30 of them with movies. I never went to the movies but a doctor I know told me that he was sitting watching a movie and looked to his right, and was surprised to see Japanese men in US army fatigues sitting there. His doubletake was noticed by the Japanese, and they fled back to the mountain.
I was told that on one occasion, a message was sent down from the mountain where Japanese were waiting to be rescued by their buddies, which asked if anything could be done about the caliber of the movies, as they had been very poor lately.
When the war ended, I sat on a beach and was truly moved as I heard the ships offshore doing the three short beeps and one long signifying V for Victory. All the anti-aircraft sections were sending up tracer bullets that lit up the sky. It was very sad to think of all the beautiful young men who had died to achieve this.
I was driven around in a weapons carrier which had a superstructure built on it by a crew the colonel in charge of Air Defense Command gave me. The Red Cross didn't supply us out there so we had to scrounge as well as we could. An artist was assigned to decorate it, and I was horrified to see that on the sides were painted sexy-looking pinup girls. I said I couldn't ride around in that as it would make anyone wonder what we were giving away. So the disappointed artist repainted the superstructure, and now it just said DONUTS BY DOTTY.
I wonder if anyone remembers those days. Using my computer, I found out the 73rd Wing was holding a reunion in Asheville, NC, and I went. I wish I had known about this before as one of the reunions had been held on Saipan, and when I saw the pictures of it as it is today, it was hard to believe. There are beautiful hotels and roads. In my days there, there were just coral roads and vestiges of towns had been blown away when we took the island. Also, there was the famous place where the natives had committed mass suicide, having been told by the Japanese what horrors the Americans would inflict upon them and their families.
I have many memories of those days. Once, Hap Arnold came there to give the wing a pep talk. I tried to get my truck close by, as I wanted to hear the speech, but no luck. As soon as my truck was spotted, a long line formed to receive the lemonade, etc. I was covered with doughnut sugar and was a mess when all of a sudden I heard Rosie O'Donnell, The BG who was the commander of the wing, say "Dotty!" I turned around and there was Hap Arnold and Rosie. I had never seen a five-star general before and was suitably impressed. He held out his hand and said, "I think you girls are doing a terrific job." I returned the compliment and said, "I think you are doing a terrific job, too."
Well, I never heard the last of that. Rosie said I had made the general's day, and everyone kidded me about my dumb remark, comparing us to Arnold's spectacular achievements. The word "too" did me in.
Pat Moore writes that
THE MYSTERY IS SOLVED
At 5 o'clock every morning, the silence of the night is shattered by the sound of crows chattering. The early morning has been so still that we have been used to the quiet, and so this wakes us with a start.
After waiting for at least 1/2 hour for them to stop, I turned on the radio to relax and was fascinated to listen to an interview over CBC/Calgary with a bird specialist, because so many people in Calgary were enquiring about the crow problem this year.
Because they are subject to predators - in this area mainly the owls - they like to roost together, and my building is surrounded by 40-50-foot evergreens. I am on the third floor, so they gather right outside my bedroom window. After hearing the talk, I looked out to count them and the trees were black with the crows. In the spring and early summer they are busy tending their nests and their young ones, but as the young grow older, they take them along to the group meetings and teach them the songs and sounds ... at 5:00 a.m.
Apparently, it is not uncommon for crows to group together in large numbers. The bird specialist said that around the University in Calgary, where there is a large area of trees, they have counted up to 10,000 crows at one time. I could not count the crows in the trees by my bedroom but there must have been at least 1000 from the volume of sound!
Another interesting fact about crows: they and the blue jays are the only birds known to hide food, and then if they feel someone or something is watching, they will wait a while and then hide it in a different place. How smart is that!
It will be a few more days/weeks before 5:00 a.m. is silent again!
Carol Shoemaker forwards these comparisons:
THE GEOGRAPHY OF WOMEN
Between 18 and 22, a woman is like Africa - half discovered, half wild, fertile, and naturally beautiful!
Between 23 and 30, a woman is like Europe - well-developed and open to trade, especially for something of real value.
Between 31 and 35, a woman is like Spain - very hot, relaxed, and convinced of her own beauty.
Between 36 and 40, a woman is like Greece - gently aging, but still a warm and desirable place to visit.
Between 41 and 50, a woman is like Great Britain - with a glorious and all-conquering past.
Between 51 and 60, a woman is like Israel - has been through war, doesn't make the same mistakes twice, and takes care of business.
Between 61 and 70, a woman is like Canada - cool, self-preserving, but open to meeting new people.
After 70, she becomes Tibet - wildly beautiful, with a mysterious past and the wisdom of the ages ... an adventurous spirit and a thirst for spiritual knowledge.
THE GEOGRAPHY OF A MAN
Between one and 80, a man is like Iran - ruled by nuts.
FROM THE EDITOR'S DESKTOP
For those of you who may have been wondering about the results of the heart monitoring and blood tests I recently had: they were negative, just like all the tests I had done in the hospital. The clinic doctor who gave me the good news said they were "pretty good for my age." It has been suggested that perhaps my problems were related to old age, and that is as good as any explanation I have yet heard.
I thank you for your kind enquiries.
SUGGESTED SITES
Bruce Galway believes you will never see a pas de deux like this:
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Doris Dignard sends the URL for a video of dolphins blowing bubbles:
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http://nw-seniors.org/stories.html
"Think of life as a terminal illness, because if you do, you will live it with joy and passion, as it ought to be lived." - Anna Quindlen
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