Old Cowbelle: Lutefisk and Andy Rooney

• Ina Murray

Ina Murray

Talk about it

It seems like all good things eventually come to an end, and so is Andy Rooney’s appearance on Sixty Minutes. I will miss the old curmudgeon. He is 92 and ending his stint on the program. He said he isn’t retiring and that he will always be a writer.

Morley Safer commented, “Andy is no “Mr. Congeniality, but he always spoke the truth, even if he stepped on toes.”

Rooney’s eyebrows are almost a foot long, and he once said, “I refuse to have my eyebrows trimmed.” (I sure would like to go after them with a barber scissors.)

His final comment was “I have always been a writer who has also read what I wrote.”

Our Savior’s church is gearing up for the annual famous “Lutefisk Supper” on Oct. 27.

So much advance preparation! I too was in the middle of it for over 50 years, and when this time of year rolls around, I do miss it all. Lefse, krum kaka, sand bakkles, flat bread — all made ahead by talented, willing hands, giving of their time.

Re-arranging of the furniture, with many of the men of the congregation taking part, then the big day that begins before sunrise, stirring the delicious grot.

It takes a lot of cooperation and dedication to make it all go smoothly. I like to think the Lord smiles down and says, “Well done, good and faithful servants”

My first years were spent as a waitress, wearing the black skirt, white blouse and Norwegian apron (before the red vests and caps were introduced). Then for about 20 years, Erva and I made coffee, and the rest of the years I found myself in the craft room (country store.) And made my 125 krum kaka.

These days I find myself giving my donation and just thinking about it all.

It was fun, and I am so glad that it continues, carrying on the Norwegian tradition by supporting the work of the church and sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the world.

From an old People’s Almanac, a couple of strange items:

Having seen her first husband drink himself to death some years earlier, Carry Nation started her crusade against alcohol in 1899. In a single year, she broke up 20 saloons with her trusty hatchet. She was arrested 30 times in her life.

Edgar Allen Poe, a tragic figure in American literature, married a 13-year-old girl who died of tuberculosis. Inventor of the modern detective story, known for his poems and short stories, Poe suffered poverty, alcoholism, near insanity and died drunk in a Baltimore gutter in 1849.

In lighter tone, are some bizarre epitaphs from the same book:

Here lies the body

Of Margaret Bent

She kicked up her heels

And away she went.

Here lies Ann Mann,

Who lived an old maid

But died an old Mann.

Here lies

Johnny Yeast.

Pardon me

For not rising.

Here lies an atheist

All dressed up

And no place to go!

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