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A Quest: Memory Lane XXIII (My Favorite Daughter)
Sarah was not happy being uprooted in the middle of a school year in Dover. None of us were thrilled having to move her away from her group of good friends but we were a military family that saluted smartly and moved on. Well, at least we moved on. Days before we flew to Norway My Jane’s siblings surprised Gerry and Helen with an anniversary party before Sarah was transplanted in the middle of her sixth-grade year to Stavanger, Norway. The move midyear to The International School of Stavanger made the transition easier for our daughter. The population at the school consisted of students who often had parents from two different countries and birth certificates from countries they could not remember. The student body, except for the Americans, spoke more than one language, and many had dual citizenship. None of the students had grass growing under their feet so Sarah was not an unusual arrival in January. (She looks unusual in this photo, however.) Her transition was much easier than she feared and new friends were made quickly.
Our ‘little’ girl found herself immersed in a myriad of activities and adventures as she began her transition through the teen years. Sarah had been playing the flute for a few years and she continued this musical experiment in the ISS music department. (Children’s parade on Sytten de Mai) Her involvement in the extracurricular activities offered at school helped her make some new friends from many different locations around the world.
Musically she was taking piano lessons from Mrs. Tracey after school. Sarah remembers how her teacher always commented how fun her nails were. (Playing Christmas music at Frodes gata 10) Her attempt at violin lessons only lasted a month because, ‘the teacher always yelled at me’. As I remember he wanted Sarah to cut her fingernails and that was asking too much for a teenager who got rave reviews about her nails from her piano teacher.
Sarah’s interest in sports continued in Norway where she participated in soccer and softball at the school. Playing on the school’s softball team got her to Düsseldorf for an International School tournament. Sarah could not find her glove when the game started so she watched while looking for the missing leather. Apparently, another girl needed a seat cushion and used Sarah’s glove as padding. Once the mystery of the missing glove was solved Sarah went into the game with her glove and proceeded to record two outs against the opposing team. Coming off the field the opposing coach kidded, ‘I think you are a secret weapon.’
Playing softball extended outside of school where she played on the same co-ed team with her father. I enjoyed playing beside Sarah when we made up the right side of the infield. One inning the opposition had a runner on first when the batter hit a ball to our shortstop. He threw the ball to Sarah for the force out of the runner. Now we had a new runner at first and the next batter hit a ball to third. Our third baseman threw to Sarah again at second for the force. Sarah must have forgotten she was wearing a glove because keeping her eye on the ball she caught it with her nose. (This is the actual moment of the nose catch.) Instantly, our shortstop who was the squadron corpsman was beside her doing the medical ‘thing’. Sarah insists I did not come over to see how she was doing. She claims the rest of the team gathered to see if she was alright, but I just stood at first base. But I was standing by her when the short stop now corpsman asked her, “What’s your name?” She looked at him like he was from another planet. I could see her thinking, ‘What’s wrong with you Lew? You know who I am.” So, I interjected, “He just wants to know if you know who you are?” She managed, “Sarah.” So, we determined she did not have a concussion. Unfortunately, our coach seemed hesitant to put her in the infield after that play. I guess he did not like the sight of blood. Relegated to right field for nose protection in subsequent games Sarah lost interest in playing on our team. I still cherish the memory of those games when my teenage daughter and I played together on the right side of the infield.
Soccer did not provide the bloodletting Sarah experienced on the softball field. The girls’ team was not in a league as such but traveled around playing where they could schedule games with other girls teams in the area. I remember one soccer match on an island. We had to hustle to complete the match in time to catch the ferry. If we had missed the ferry, we would have been stuck on the island overnight. We did catch the ferry to the mainland and our vehicles. And there was no blood.
There was a short two-week track experiment that ended when Sarah pulled the ligament in her right ankle.
The final involvement in sports found our teenager cheerleading. (Children’s parade on Sytten de Mai) Here are her own words on the subject, ‘Did JV cheer leading in 8th grade. Did basketball games. Found it somewhat boring so stopped.’
My Daughter remembers The Harlem Globe Trotters visiting ISS and putting on a little show for the student body. Sarah says, “One of the players bounced a ball off the glass backboard a little too hard and broke it. They rushed him off to make sure he wasn’t bleeding. He wasn’t. That was the end of the show. “ Of course, no blood, no glory!
Our shy girl continued her interest in the theater. International School Theatre Association (ISTA) was the elite group of thespians (8-10 from Stavanger) who traveled in the fall to the European festival. This core group led the school efforts for a spring school play in Stavanger. The first production Sarah participated in was “Paint the Fence”. My daughter was going to be incredibly angry with me because I had orders to attend a chaplain event in Germany during the show. Fortunately, I had a good relationship with the ISS leadership and was invited to watch the dress rehearsal. I never did like having Sarah angry with me. I believe she had the most fun with “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat.” The students outdid themselves on this show and received rave reviews.
In Sarah’s Freshman year Stavanger hosted ISTA so the annual play was skipped. The students spent a week learning how to do improv before we all attended an evening of improve in the ISS auditorium. (The ISS auditorium during a musical concert) Sarah remembers some confusion at the beginning of the week. We sponsored one of the visiting students, so we went to the airport to pick up our sponsored teen. Turns out they took all the visitors to the school straight from the airport. Somehow, we found out through a teacher where the teens were and rushed to the school. Sarah remembers, ‘We were the last ones there and they were about to give up and have our teen spend the night at one of the teacher’s homes.’ Obviously, this was before Americans were using cell phones. Sarah and Sam our temporary guest.
In 8th grade Sarah went on a culture trip to Nice, France with her class over her birthday. She remembers trying lots of seafood; “Mussels, octopus, squid, and something else (something that was in a shell). We did go to a flea market type place. A couple of friends got me some presents that I still have.” remembers my favorite daughter.
Then in 9th grade the culture trip was to London in the spring. In her words, “Got to go to Hell in ‘Doomsday’ via audience participation. Saw a ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and ‘Copenhagen’. Went to the Globe Theatre. Got a drama lesson there. And then got to go onstage and perform our one line. There were even youth groups in the seats who applauded for us.” I think Sarah really enjoyed the culture trips. The trip in sixth grade was to Oslo but Sarah has no memory of that experience. However, it is the one trip from which we have a photo to share.
Young Life had an active group in Stavanger and Sarah gravitated to the teen gathering and Julia the leader. Sarah developed several friendships from her time with this gang. One of the joys living in Scandinavia is the proximity to Europe. Our Stavanger Young Life group traveled to Brussels for a gathering with Luis Cataldo a Christian motivational speaker. As Sarah recalls from this trip, “And we had real Belgian waffles.”
Another highlight of her Young Life adventure was participating in a mission trip to Hungry. Our teens from Stavanger joined over one hundred other teens on a mission to transform some old Russian military barracks into low income housing. Sarah was heavily involved in the creation of a playground for the children who would be living in the new housing area. “The Hungary kids were very fascinated with the swings. They were always occupied.” Remembers Sarah. Our group visited Vienna, Austria on our way back to Stavanger where we stopped at an amusement park and in the evening had dinner in a rotating restaurant. Sarah remembers eating at a second floor Subway while in Vienna.
The Norwegian authorities require students to attend nature trips in middle school. We all forget what they were called. I will let Sarah tell you about these trips. “In 7th grade we went to the water and went boating. And did other stuff like that. I was the only one who did not flip a boat. We did go wave riding. We got some pretty good waves, maybe 3-4 feet tall. In 8th grade we went Cross country skiing. We would pack a lunch and go out for the day.” Practicing in our back yard. (Snow fun in our front yard.)
We continued the horseback riding lessons for a year or two in the Land of the Vikings. Seems Sarah was not too keen on the grooming part of the horse hobby and decided she didn’t want to keep up the practice. It might have been about this time in her life that she decided she did not want to be a vet either.
The party tradition with a collection of friends continued through our years in Scandinavia. These parties included military teens and oil teens from Canada, England, South Africa and The United States. Her circle of friends evolved due to reassignment of the parents, but the group always seemed to find someone to follow the one who left. I believe Sarah still maintains contact with some of those friends from Norway.
Every summer Sarah found her way back to Hartman Center for a week of camp in Milroy, PA.
Before we left Norway, I had to take Sarah onto Kjerag. She was mad that she had not been able to go on any of the retreats so the three of us drove up to Øygardsstølen on what had become a very foggy day. Looking down toward Lysebotn was a total white fog. But Sarah was determined, so while My Jane stayed in the restaurant the two of us climbed to the first peak where she built a rock pile to commemorate the experience. Honestly, we could not see twenty feet in that fog but Sarah checked off something on her ‘to-do-list’.
Sarah was not happy leaving Dover but her experience in Norway seems to be rich in many good memories.
See you next time.