In Denmark 1990, Twenty-Five Years Ago

Before Denmark, I knew my grandfather was confirmed at the church in Haderslev.  I think I knew it was the Dom Church.  I knew my grandmother was from a town outside Haderslev.  It was interesting to me to visit churches in Denmark.

Church in Haderslev

"I found the Church of the Holy Spirit.  They were taking in a sign about a music performance at 12.  Sparrows outside the church filling up the bushes." 

I visited the Church of the Holy Spirit again while in Copenhagen.  In Haderslev, I visited the Dom Church.

Anthology In Like Company

The anthology I appear in from Salt River Review arrived during the week.


In Like Company
Edited by James Cervantes

Laura Jensen: Diary Excerpts from Copenhagen 1990

Some extracts from the notes I kept in a dairy about the trip to Scandinavia in 1990.  I arrived in the morning.  After I rested at the hotel on April 18th I went to the NyGlyptotech:

”…a room long and narrow with a glass case of french sculpture, horses on a shelf below a shelf of acrobats and dancers, all in wide high leg raises and arm circles, the horses very fine – I stepped from that small dark into a gallery room and plunged and stumbled down two steps.  My Frommer's  thudded to the floorboards but I sprawled out & kept myself from falling. 

                Then I was Copenhagen – was the sky-lit figures we see and circle – I was Copenhagen – the loud buses and small autos racketing in traffic.  I was the sight and the small hazard and the thud of work and industry.

                Several women turned and noticed me and one spoke.  A soft, cushioned stumble of thuds and lugage bundles thundering the floorboards.  A sight unusual, surprizing, I astonished them so momentarily.  

                To make the impression.  And I felt the humility of the inevitable emergence from the shelf of dancers, the shelf of horses.  To trip out, over-padded, clumsy, and dropping things.      The Glyptotech was free on Wednesdays.”

I took a bus to a suburban marsh.

On the 19^th I saw the Hans Christian Anderson  – "the drawings by Hans Christian Anderson were in the basement – very nice contrast, pencil & ink miniatures beside the Thorvaldsen Collection." 

Friday April 20, 1990

                “Before Breakfast I tried two drawings near the Tycho Brahe planetarium.  Cold & windy.  One glove, the green US army seconds, fell back of the bench, down into bushes.  I had to balance on the pavement edge, hold on to the bench which was bolted down, and reach in to get the glove.”

I went to the Riksarkivit – “The building had an entry, then a pale space with a winding pale stair.  On a landing was a door with rondel glass windows.  All in colors.  In the reading room entry were wood panel cupboards like wardrobes for belongngs and a counter where one signed in.”  

Twenty-five Years Ago, Trip to Denmark 1990

April 18^th 1990, in the morning, my flight landed at Copenhagen Airport.  There was ” …then a sand shore that became an airfield, greener with low buildings with red roofs so much more modest and humid and colorful than the ocean.            

The Danish was mixed with English translations.  The bags came quickly and they did not search my luggage. “

At the airport I caught a bus to the train station.  A swan swam on a small lake on the ride.

“The old train station has scaffolding inside up to the high roof, kiosk-like offices inside – a bookstore, an information booth. I stopped, took a number in a large office with counters.  There I tried my first Scandinavian phrase -”Kan jag få  en tidtabel till Jutland?”

I was successful! The clerk gave me a timetable.

Other Scandinavian phrases are greeted with a disbelief, as though I am slurring so badly they wonder if there is some medical emergency, or if I am ill or not capable of speaking:  they seemed embarrassed – one must persist.

Hotel Hebron, Copenhagen 1990

I found the hotel.  It is true, these is a lot of color here, also so much detail and juxtaposed color.  New of course, it is like your eyes must adjust.”    At the hotel, I rested.  It was true, I was in Denmark.

It was Twenty-five Years ago, I went to Denmark.

Father WIlliam Bichsel at Wright's Park, June 1990

Recently Father William Bichsel died.   My post today includes a photo of Father William Bichsel, which I wanted to share at the remembrance site at the Guadelupe House.  The photo reminds me of how Father Bichsel often was at Wright’s Park twenty-five years ago.  He sat at benches to counsel people, he walked there at the park.   The  overgrowth, with an upper pond clog,  challenged park maintenance.  Some very tall old trees in the 1990s fell in storms.  That drama was intense, and is remembered.  The rehabilitated park is beautiful and ornamental.   Now it challenges park maintenance. 



The photo of Father William Bichsel was taken the day after I returned from my trip to Denmark, Sweden, and Finland; I lived two blocks from Wright’s Park and early the day after I returned in an airporter, I walked to the park and happened to find Father William Bichsel there.

Laura Jensen 1990

 So he took my photograph for me, and I took a photo of him.  I got a snapshot of some flowers at the park, and the roll of film was complete. 

From Malax - Emelia Lågas

Daughter of Matt Lågas, who lived in California, Emelia Lågas photograph is from her marriage to Badar.  The family appears in the photograph taken by Marie Malm on her visit in 1930.  She was the sister of John Mattson, visited by Linnea Gord in Eureka in 1937.

Linnea Gord's Diary 1930: … and Eight Years Later

 Eight years later, Linnea Gord went back to Malax. 


Convention Center Vancouver, B.C.

She worked as a secretery and as piano player with The Gord Family Orchestra.  In 1931 she attended the Runeberg Convention in Vancouver, British Columbia.  (In the autumn of 1931 Charles Gord, Linnea's father, died.)  The choir director Martin Carlson retired in 1934, and Linnea Gord became director as well as accompanist for the Tacoma Runeberg Choir. 

At the Coit Tower 1937

In 1937, August, during her vacation, she traveled by Train and Bus to encourage Lodge members from Eureka, California, to join the choir in a Choir Tour to Finland organized for 1938.   In Eureka she met her Grandmother's nephew - John Mattson was the son of Matt Lågas, the brother of Marie, Emelia and Alina Lågas, cousins visited by Marie Malm during the visit in 1930. 

Far left, John Mattson





Anna (Koping) and Bror



Linnea and Molly, Hoquiam 1937

To return, Linnea Gord took the bus along the coast and stopped in Hoquiam, where she visited Amelia Hendrickson again.   Amelia was married and with her husband ran a store in Hoquiam.   

Lise and Isak
Lars' child Håkan

The Gord Family Ochestra performed with the 1938 Excursion to Finland, they were the Suomi Band on the Lancastria.  Their arrival at Helsinki was described inthe newspaper in Helsinki. 


 In Malax, traveling in 1938 with her mother, Amanda Gord, she became reacquainted with her cousins Lars, Paul, and Bror, who had married.