Norman Rasmussen interviewed by H.B. Simonsen
Corrected by H.B. Simonsen
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: What is your full name?
[SPEAKER_01]: Norman Ivar Rasmussen.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you, when and where were you born?
[SPEAKER_02]: I was born in Ringsted, Iowa on my parents' farm, the family farm.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when was that?
[SPEAKER_02]: October 5th of 1939.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: And your parents, what were their names?
[SPEAKER_02]: Thorvald and Kristina Rasmussen.
[SPEAKER_02]: My mother's maiden name was Nelson.
[SPEAKER_02]: N-E-L-S-O-N.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_02]: My father, should I go on?
[SPEAKER_02]: My father came from, he came from Denmark in 1930, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: In the heart of the depression.
[SPEAKER_02]: He was 25 years old and came over here and could speak no English at all.
[SPEAKER_02]: and he was gonna go to Oregon.
[SPEAKER_02]: He had two cousins, that's his reason for coming here.
[SPEAKER_02]: But instead, one of the guys on the ship told him that he sailed over with, they said, if you wanna farm, you wanna go to Iowa.
[SPEAKER_02]: And he said, I know some people in Estherville, Iowa that would take you and help get you started.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so this guy helped him get a ticket on a train, and then he telegraphed ahead to Estherville and told them what day and what time he'd be there.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's how he arrived here.
[SPEAKER_02]: And he's an only child, and he had one aunt, and she never married, so I have no family that I'm aware of in Denmark.
[SPEAKER_02]: I have friends, but no family.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you know where in Denmark he came from?
[SPEAKER_02]: He came from Fyn.
[SPEAKER_02]: And Odense, he spent some time between Fyn and Odense, where he grew up.
[SPEAKER_02]: And he was in the Danish army for, I don't know how long, for a period of time, if it was six months or a year or how it was.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he came to Estherville, Iowa.
[SPEAKER_01]: We can...
[SPEAKER_01]: go on there, how did he, he went on to?
[SPEAKER_02]: He went to a little town, or a little village called Helfa, Iowa, and it's still in existence.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then from there to Ringsted, and he worked for the different farmers in the area.
[SPEAKER_02]: And he started in Helfa, worked for a guy by the name of Pete Munson, was his first employer.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then he worked for Soren Nielsen,
[SPEAKER_02]: And when he worked for Pete Munson, I think it was that way.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then the way it was then, every Sunday he would go over to Soren and Margrethe Nielsen for a Sunday dinner because they could talk Dane.
[SPEAKER_02]: And they worked with him to learn the English.
[SPEAKER_02]: And in time he picked up and always had a brogue.
[SPEAKER_02]: He always did.
[SPEAKER_02]: The tractor was a tractor.
[SPEAKER_01]: Things like that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Which is good, you know.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he eventually ended up in Ringsted.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, he did.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then he worked for different farmers around the Ringsted area and got involved in the country church out there.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's kind of how he met my mother.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then they married nine years later.
[SPEAKER_02]: They were married.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then there's
[SPEAKER_02]: And her, my mother, she was originally born and raised on a farm southeast of Ringsted, where I farm now a little bit.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then they have, there was five children.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm the oldest.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then there were four boys and one girl.
[SPEAKER_02]: And one lives in, the next oldest lives in Milford, Iowa.
[SPEAKER_02]: The middle one lives in Cocoa Beach, Florida.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then the daughter lives in Sibley, Iowa, or my sister.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then my youngest brother lives in Mesa, Arizona.
[SPEAKER_01]: Arizona?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, Mesa, yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then when dad got married,
[SPEAKER_02]: That's when my grandfather had purchased another farm and then he moved on that and farmed that.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then later on when they retired, they sold that farm and I kept, or then I bought, when my grandfather passed away, then I bought the one where my mother was born and raised.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's very much in the family farm.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think it'll, and not next year.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think maybe next year it'll be a century farm.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think, pretty sure.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's when it's been in the family for a hundred years.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's an expression you have.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Your mom and dad, they met each other in Ringsted.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you grew up in Ringsted.
[SPEAKER_01]: I did.
[SPEAKER_01]: What kind of schooling was there?
[SPEAKER_02]: This is kind of strange.
[SPEAKER_02]: Excuse me.
[SPEAKER_02]: We lived on the same farm in a county called Palo Alto County.
[SPEAKER_02]: It borders Emmett County, where Ringsted is, and Kasuth County to the east.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, in the first grade, I went to a school called Sunnyside.
[SPEAKER_02]: Mm-hmm.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that was a country school, and I was in first grade.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then the second year, I went to another country school in second grade, and that was called Giffen School.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that, both country schools.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then third, fourth, and fifth, I went to Fenton, which was in Kossuth County.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then sixth grade on, then we got back into Ringsted and went to school there.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the reason that we could move from one school to the other in each one a different county until we came back to Ringsted was because in our township they had a rule that if you lived in Independence Township, which we did, they would pay the tuition no matter where you went.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it just, that's the way it worked.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so that's why we did that back then.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then I graduated from Ringsted in 1957.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then I pursued farming and had a corn sheller, did some custom work, that type of thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Got married.
[SPEAKER_01]: What kind of crop did you grow?
[SPEAKER_02]: We grew corn, beans, and at that time some alfalfa.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I still farm that farm.
[SPEAKER_02]: I grow, I have 18 acres in a wetland program for 15 years.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know if you heard that guy speak, Jerry speak a little this morning about this government thing.
[SPEAKER_02]: Anyway, it's for wildlife is what it's really for.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then I have 40 acres in beans and 80 acres in corn.
[SPEAKER_01]: That means that it's land that's taken out of production.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's set aside and cared for when you need to mow weeds or cut weeds, you do and keep it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's for, it's supposed to be for ducks.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a wetland, but it's really for us out down there, mostly for pheasants.
[SPEAKER_02]: I have a group of people that come out from Indianapolis, Indiana every year.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's two different groups and, uh,
[SPEAKER_02]: They've been coming out, this will be their 17th year.
[SPEAKER_02]: And their youngest boy, or their oldest boy, or the one guy, was a baby when he first came out.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now he comes out and hunts with us.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I have a friend up in Michigan that comes and spends about a week or 10 days.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I devote my fall to harvesting and pheasant hunting, or entertaining more or less, and enjoy it and look forward.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you've been farming all your life, well, since you grew up.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: What kind of social group or social life would you say there was in Ringsted during your lifetime?
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, it's changed.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, we used to have two churches or three churches.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now we're down to two.
[SPEAKER_02]: there isn't the population that there was.
[SPEAKER_02]: We don't even have a grocery store in town anymore.
[SPEAKER_02]: We have a hardware store and a tavern, a cafe type thing, and another cafe yet.
[SPEAKER_02]: But there used to be dances we could go to all around the area, but there isn't any of that, very little of that anymore.
[SPEAKER_02]: What we called the big band era,
[SPEAKER_02]: where we had the orchestras and stuff come in and play.
[SPEAKER_02]: There isn't that.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't think there's, I think if it wasn't for the churches and the social gatherings we have there, there wouldn't be a lot of social things going on.
[SPEAKER_02]: Not like there used to be.
[SPEAKER_02]: Other than the school, of course.
[SPEAKER_02]: And school, when I was young or growing up, we never played ball or sports.
[SPEAKER_02]: because we worked on the farm.
[SPEAKER_02]: Either we worked at home or we worked out and there was work to do.
[SPEAKER_02]: Shell corn, walk beans, bale hay are just the daily chores at home.
[SPEAKER_02]: And now these kids live in town and it's a good thing they have their sports programs and stuff all summer long and winter too for that matter.
[SPEAKER_02]: Helps some of them stay out of trouble.
[SPEAKER_02]: Gives them something to do.
[SPEAKER_02]: Helps build character.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it's that part.
[SPEAKER_02]: And there are groups of families that get together for card clubs and stuff like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the churches, you belong to a Lutheran church.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: We belong, or I belong to St.
[SPEAKER_02]: John's Lutheran.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was a little country church.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then we merged, or we yoked is what we did, with St.
[SPEAKER_02]: Paul's in town.
[SPEAKER_02]: And we were both the same synod, the same everything.
[SPEAKER_02]: There was a split way back when I was very young.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, between the Danish and between the ELC and the LCA and then it all merged into one.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so we're in there and now we have a lady pastor and we just love her.
[SPEAKER_02]: She's just a joy.
[SPEAKER_02]: some real good ones, and one of ours is here today, and his wife that was here, and then he retired, and he still preaches off and on different places.
[SPEAKER_02]: Harold Heinze, just a wonderful man.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I've been, I've served on church councils.
[SPEAKER_02]: I was an usher at that country church for 47, 48 years,
[SPEAKER_02]: And I spent 16 years on the telephone board.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I put in 21 years as a council member for the church.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then I worked full time for 27 years at a manufacturing company and still farmed.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I kept busy.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think you did.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I was married in 1963.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's kind of ironic, or it was.
[SPEAKER_02]: I was married, I was 23 years old when I got married.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I was married for 23, and then we were divorced.
[SPEAKER_02]: In that union, I had two children, we had two children.
[SPEAKER_02]: And she had two before, so I adopted them.
[SPEAKER_02]: And now I've been single for 24 years, and I'm happy.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't have a problem with it, you know?
[SPEAKER_02]: what I want to do.
[SPEAKER_02]: I try to help different people in different areas.
[SPEAKER_02]: I do like to go to rest homes and visit some people.
[SPEAKER_02]: I have a school teacher that's 95 years old.
[SPEAKER_02]: She had to go to a rest home a year and a half ago, Good Samaritan Home.
[SPEAKER_02]: I keep very close in touch with her.
[SPEAKER_02]: She's just had her 95th birthday.
[SPEAKER_02]: Matter of fact, I visited with her this morning.
[SPEAKER_02]: She said, you got to get home and take me out for a ride.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Things like that work real well for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I give back to that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: You have four children.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Where do they live?
[SPEAKER_02]: One lives in Mountain Home, Arkansas with her mother.
[SPEAKER_02]: One lives in... He was married and lived in...
[SPEAKER_02]: in Gulfport, Mississippi.
[SPEAKER_02]: And they split up.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then he found some gal on the internet and he's living in Indonesia.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I hardly ever hear from him.
[SPEAKER_02]: My other son hears from him at Christmas time.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then I have another daughter that lives in Spirit Lake.
[SPEAKER_02]: which is only 45 miles or 50 miles from me.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then I have a son, Michael, he lives in Ringsted or Sway City, and he drives trucks.
[SPEAKER_01]: So some are close and some are very far away.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, exactly, exactly.
[SPEAKER_01]: Often Americans are moving around a lot.
[SPEAKER_01]: I hear the stories I've been hearing yesterday and today.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's about the story of moving around and living in the west of the country and then perhaps in Germany abroad and back again.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're much more mobile in your way of life than most Danes are.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: used to be at least.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right or wrong, but that's the way it is.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I don't think it's all bad.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think either.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I can look, and we talked about this here just sitting outside the other day here.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, if you took, and I've been involved in an all-school reunion before.
[SPEAKER_02]: In 99 we had one.
[SPEAKER_02]: And they're talking about having another one now next year.
[SPEAKER_02]: And you visit with the different people that have left Ringsted for an example
[SPEAKER_02]: and went out into the world, the majority of them have done very, very, very well.
[SPEAKER_02]: You didn't have to stay in Ringsted, Iowa to make a mark.
[SPEAKER_02]: There is opportunity all over.
[SPEAKER_02]: And if you wanna go out and grab a hold of it and use it, it's there for you.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I didn't realize that when I graduated.
[SPEAKER_02]: I thought well I got the world by the tail because I'm going to sit here and farm and all that and everything's going to be great.
[SPEAKER_02]: It has its ups and downs just like everything else does.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you come to Danebod folk meeting.
[SPEAKER_02]: I came about, I don't know if it was six or seven years ago.
[SPEAKER_02]: I can't remember.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I don't know if you've interviewed or met Axel Thomsen.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not yet, not yet.
[SPEAKER_02]: And okay, well, he came up to me one day in the cafe in town.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, he called me.
[SPEAKER_02]: He said, come out to the house.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I did.
[SPEAKER_02]: And he said, you need to come to Tyler.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I said, well, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_02]: He said, you need to try.
[SPEAKER_02]: Even if, come for one day.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you don't like it, leave.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I came on a Thursday evening, and I got my room, and I stayed Thursday night and Friday and Saturday and went home Sunday.
[SPEAKER_02]: And before I left, I signed up for the following year.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I've been here ever since.
[SPEAKER_01]: I believe that.
[SPEAKER_02]: I was in Brainerd, Minnesota before I came here.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a group of us who go up there fishing and playing in the water and drag races.
[SPEAKER_02]: Some go to it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I had as much fun as I've ever had up in Brainerd this year.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I had to pull myself to leave.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I knew, you know, I could have spent another day up there and been a day later.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I knew that wasn't the right thing in my heart.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I said, see you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here I am.
[SPEAKER_01]: This year you're talking about, yeah?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I came just like I was supposed to on Wednesday afternoons.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that suits you very well.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is such a wonderful experience.
[SPEAKER_02]: What do you like so much about it?
[SPEAKER_02]: The fellowship.
[SPEAKER_02]: The camaraderie.
[SPEAKER_02]: You sit down and you meet all kinds of people, people you've never met before, and also renewing old acquaintances with those that you remember from last year and the year before.
[SPEAKER_02]: I just got done writing a note on three different cards out there for three people that,
[SPEAKER_02]: can't be here this year for various health reasons.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the first time I came here, I stayed the same place I do now and in a private home.
[SPEAKER_02]: And there was a couple from Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
[SPEAKER_02]: And their names were Norman and Loretta Peterson.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, there was a lot of Normans around here.
[SPEAKER_02]: So everybody called him Nummy.
[SPEAKER_02]: And he was just a grand person, still is.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's got Lou Gehrig's and now he's in a rest home.
[SPEAKER_02]: But for several years I helped him get up and down the steps and in and out of the van and get him in here and get him out and get him back home.
[SPEAKER_02]: And everybody said, you shouldn't have to do that.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I said, I couldn't refuse that.
[SPEAKER_02]: If I had to come up here and sit and watch him and couldn't help him, I wouldn't even want to come back up here.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's just part of it.
[SPEAKER_02]: If somebody needs some help, you help them.
[SPEAKER_02]: And now they just, they can't.
[SPEAKER_02]: And she called me about two weeks before we left for Brainerd, or I did.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah?
[SPEAKER_00]: Can I leave a sweater in here?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_00]: No sweater?
[SPEAKER_00]: Nope, I wish it were.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sorry, don't believe much he says though.
[SPEAKER_00]: I do.
[SPEAKER_02]: I've known her since she was that high.
[SPEAKER_02]: But where were we at now?
[SPEAKER_01]: The guy you were helping.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, Norman Peterson.
[SPEAKER_02]: But she said he'll never be able to, it's just a slow trip down, but
[SPEAKER_02]: But he flew airplanes and he could play accordion and he was a musician and he could just do anything.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I had no idea there were people like that around.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you've been enjoying it from the first day?
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right off the bat.
[SPEAKER_01]: Does the experience of being here, does that bring some of it with you home?
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: I sit and tell some of my friends at home the fun that we have.
[SPEAKER_02]: Some want to know about the lectures, and some want to know, well, what else are you doing?
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, well, we sing.
[SPEAKER_02]: They don't do that anymore.
[SPEAKER_02]: We folk danced, and we sang out of what we call The World of Song all as we grew up.
[SPEAKER_02]: We just did.
[SPEAKER_02]: That was part of our Sunday school, part of our summer school program, part of our church.
[SPEAKER_02]: But we used to have Fastelavn as the party before Ash Wednesday.
[SPEAKER_02]: And we don't have any of that stuff anymore.
[SPEAKER_01]: But- You used to have summer school.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: A "børneskole" (that is school for children; hbs).
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: But we'd have it for half day.
[SPEAKER_02]: And they still do have that for the Sunday school kids, a summer school type thing.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's on a whole different level than it was when we-
[SPEAKER_02]: when we went, but I think what I can bring home is the memories of it that carry me through.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's something to share in conversation with other people that are up here or have been up here from your hometown when you get together, normally in a cafe or something like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: You feel very much at ease in it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: At the same.
[SPEAKER_01]: with people here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Have you always been, you can say this is politically and also culturally a group of certain values.
[SPEAKER_01]: Have you been sharing those values all your life or are you sort of getting more into that now?
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I try to.
[SPEAKER_02]: I like to visit with people and talk about things.
[SPEAKER_02]: Not so much politically, because I'm not a, as far as the politics of the government and all that.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm a lot happier person if I don't get involved with all that stuff, because I'm not gonna solve it myself anyway.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I work, like I said, on church councils and telephone boards, and there's enough politics in that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now that's behind me.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I just don't need that.
[SPEAKER_02]: I want to do like that one said, that one night she said, be happy.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, if you're going to be a happy Dane, you got to, you got to.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you are a happy Dane?
[SPEAKER_02]: I think so.
[SPEAKER_02]: You bet.
[SPEAKER_02]: You bet.
[SPEAKER_01]: Would you, would you call yourself a Dane?
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh yes.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_02]: A hundred percent.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are, you're an American citizen, of course, but still you will call yourself a Dane.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: How come?
[SPEAKER_02]: Because my father came from Denmark and my grandmother came from Denmark.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean I am an American citizen.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, sure.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I realize that.
[SPEAKER_02]: But if somebody comes up and says something about the Germans are better than the Danes or the Norwegians are better than the Danes, I'll say, whoa, no.
[SPEAKER_02]: Only as in humor.
[SPEAKER_02]: Not to create an argument or anything like that.
[SPEAKER_02]: No.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, I'm proud of the fact that I have Danish heritage.
[SPEAKER_02]: And if somebody came up to me and said, well, are you an American citizen?
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll say, of course, which I am.
[SPEAKER_01]: Would you also consider yourself being a Grundtvigian?
[SPEAKER_02]: I can't really answer that because I'm not sure that
[SPEAKER_02]: I understand everything about the Grundtvigian philosophy.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I think, and when Axel and I have sat and talked in how you feel about other people and your beliefs, some of the beliefs, I could be close to it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm not gonna sit and argue it with anybody until I would read more about Grundtvig and his,
[SPEAKER_02]: but I could hear on a couple of the talks up here that, you know, Grundtvig to me was, he had his beliefs, but he was also a caring person and he wouldn't, I think if you didn't like something, I don't think he'd force it on you.
[SPEAKER_02]: He might present it to you and work with you on it,
[SPEAKER_01]: We have that expression in Danish, which I think is a quotation from Grundtvig, which says, .
[SPEAKER_01]: "Frihed for Loke såvel som for Tor". That is: Freedom for Loke, which is a character from the Nordic mythology, as well as from Thor, Thor, the god.
[SPEAKER_01]: Freedom for everyone.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think that's much in line with what you think.
[SPEAKER_02]: And my father, he was well, well versed on Grundtvig's theology pretty much.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, he has been told by Thorvald Hansen
[SPEAKER_02]: that he said, you missed your calling, Thorvald.
[SPEAKER_02]: My dad's name was Thorvald.
[SPEAKER_02]: He said, you could have made the pulpit.
[SPEAKER_02]: In his feelings, you know.
[SPEAKER_02]: And of course, he brought his feelings with him over here when he came and has used them for a lot of the philosophy of his life as far as bringing us kids up.
[SPEAKER_02]: But we don't realize that at the time,
[SPEAKER_01]: we get later in the years we start to know... I think it's also typical that you you don't realize, you're not aware of the values that you have in your life, you live them instead and that's the way it should be. Yeah yeah. Well I think, do you have anything more to add? I don't think so. Very good. I hope I'm