I followed the same mountainous
route on my ride east towards Stockholm when I met an old white haired school
teacher from one of America’s northern states.
She was making her final journey to her roots. She could speak broken Swedish because her
parents were Swedes and she became the delight of the other passengers. She said I looked like someone she had a
crush on when she was young. Later we
stopped at a small town west of Karlstad where I spent the night. It was a classy place and their TV had some
pretty good 1930’s movies playing.
The next morning I arrived at
Karlstad in Värmland which is a region above Lake Vänern that has a southern
canal that links to the Baltic. From the
train station I walked down the banks of the purple Klara River on the grounds
of what is now called the Värmlands Museum.
(I don’t remember the museum.) My
picture shows me in my old plaid CPO still popular in 1977. Near a birch tree grove I photographed a classical
bronze statue worthy of a picture. In my
opinion Scandinavia has too much of what I call “Slag Art.”
T
My night’s stay in Karlstad was at a
private residence that had a TV with High Definition. They showed hospital operations and specials
on how Swedish teenagers were going bad.
There was also a commercial about socialism that played a catchy tune
about shirkers. Before
dark, I was going through the park when I noticed a man jogging in black
tights. I thought he looked like the
cartoon character Pepe Le Pew in pursuit.
This is another example of how America is several years behind European
customs and fashions. Correct me if I’m
wrong, but didn’t jogging tights for men arrive many years later in the middle
to late 1980’s?
