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Coming in time for the holidays ?
Festivals, sister cities, and Norwegian Heritage Bothell's Leif Eie's life was truly a 'Story of a Modern Viking' for our time
To some people August is the month to kick back and let thoughts drift
to good times past. It’s also a good time to read.
“The story of a modern Viking” is the title of a rough draft
of the autobiography of one of Bothell’s former “characters”. Leif and Pat
Eie were long time residents of West Hill in Bothell and 15 years ago
Leif retired from his work as regional manager of Scandinavian Airlines
to try the sunny climes of Mexico and presently Arizona.
Recently Leif compiled stories of his travels from Norway to
Seattle. “I came to America with nothing and I still have most of it
left,” he writes. The
more than 200 page-manuscript recalls how he came to the U.S. from
Flekkefjord, Norway in 1952, served in the Army during the Korean War
and later joined SAS in New York, first as a cargo handler and later in
sales. By 1964 he had advanced in the airline’s ranks and was selected
to open the SAS Northwest regional office in Seattle in 1964. He saw no
reason a polar flight to Copenhagen wouldn’t be successful, so he laid
the groundwork to inaugurate the service two years later.
Leif had his hand in virtually everything Scandinavian as he
traveled throughout the Pacific Northwest, Alaska and western Canada. He
was a supreme marketer – engaging legions of friends along the way
through his adept manner of mixing entertainment with his native
Norwegian culture. He sang and played the accordion with Stan Boreson,
encouraged trade missions under the auspices of the late lieutenant
governor Johnny Cherberg, and was instrumental in Seattle’s
establishing a sister city relationship with Tashkent, currently a
Russian republic. In 1988 he was named Norwegian of the Year by the Sons
of Norway. Not bad for a kid from a place named Flekkefjord who, as a
youth, used his guile and wiles to survive the Nazi Germany occupation
of his homeland.
Leif was known to friends in Bothell as the “ultimate
arranger”. He arranged for the top governmental leaders of the state
to weigh in for approval of the SAS polar route. As a feature of
Seattle’s Nordic Festival, Leif arranged for a Nordic ski jump to be
built from the roof of the old Coliseum at Seattle Center covered with a
snow pack of crushed ice on a rare 85-degree day in Seattle to publicize
the Scandinavian presence in Seattle. He also arranged for the
predominantly Scandinavian population of his adopted home – Bothell
– to celebrate the Norwegian and Swedish settlers of this community.
“Promoter” comes to mind as I read the chapter Leif devotes
to the short-lived Bothell Scandinavian Festival of the 1960s, an event
to which Leif brought ideas and engaged his low-key manner of bringing
folks together for a common cause and a very good time.
Leif’s memoir remembers that a few days before the first
festival, on a mid-November day, “twelve winsome candidates, sponsored
by local service clubs, participated in a Lucia Bride talent contest.
The Lucia Bride (the queen of light) was chosen at the closing ceremony.
A special Lucia Bride crown was flown in from Stockholm for the
occasion. The winner, together with a chaperone (Vern and Lois Keener)
flew SAS to Stockholm and participated in the Stockholm Lucia Festival
in City Hall, a formal affair.”
Governor Dan Evans and consuls from the Nordic countries were
guests at Bothell’s Festival kickoff luncheon at Inglewood Country
Club in Kenmore. Leif had a cannon flown from the royal ship Vasa that
had rested 333 years at the bottom of the harbor in Stockholm. When
Evans and a score of Seattle dignitaries were in Stockholm during the
SAS inaugural flight from Seattle, the governor fired the same cannon.
It made a thunderous noise to kickoff the luncheon. Leif did not lack
for a flair for the dramatic.
That first Bothell festival included an authentic Scandinavian
smorgasbord, held at the Bothell Lutheran Church. I recall that
attendees wound around the block lining up for the event. (We later
learned the line probably qued up because we had priced the meal far too
cheaply and Keener’s huge roasts of beef were still undercooked). Leif
recalls that nearly 3,000 were served, exhibits and displays enjoyed and
that “everybody was asked to wear Scandinavian costumes, all the
stores had Scandinavian decorations in their store windows.”
Bothell High School’s gymnasium was packed for the concluding
evening program.
Leif’s draft continues, “The program included Handanger
fiddle, Edvard Grieg selections and, of course, accordion music. The
school children in the Northshore School Distict were invited to
participate in a troll drawing contest . . . the winner received a
large, wooden troll. Art Stavig presented a troll skit.”
I recall that we endured story upon story as Stavig droned on and
on; finally, Leif appeared on stage with a map to show Art where the
trolls “really lived, under a bridge,” and courteously suggested
that Art at that moment might want to check out the validity of his
hastily-drawn troll map.
Continuing on about the evening, Leif writes, “Miss Seattle
participated with a song, Professor Werner conducted the 65-member
Norwegian Male Chorus, and the well known TV host and comedian Stan
Boreson and I ended the program with some fun numbers. Before the Lucia
Bride left for Stockholm, she lit the world’s largest, lighted, living
Christmas tree on Main Street, Bothell.”
But, that episode is for another season and another chapter in
Leif’s recollection of the Bothell Order of the Royal Vikings and a
lighter side of life in Bothell. Shouldn’t we add these memories from
“a modern Viking” to the list of stories to include in our 2009
Centennial Edition of the Bothell-Northshore Citizen?
Hugo
and Mayor-for-Life Terry Jarvis (425) 482-4076 |
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June 14, 2006 for
May 24, 2006
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May 10, 2006
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April 26, 2006
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or December 14, 2005
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for November 23, 2005
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August 17, 2005 for
August 3, 2005 For
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