The Snake Handling Minister and Smoking Ole

Ole and I went to a funeral yesterday. The father of a good friend of ours died at the age of 89. He was sitting at a table looking at a photo album with his wife and some friends who were visiting and he just fell over dead. Up to that point he hadn’t had any health problems. What a way to go – no laying around for that Norwegian farmer. I guess it was a burst aneurysm in his heart.

Anyway, it was an interesting funeral if funerals can be interesting. I didn’t think funerals like this took place anymore. It was at a little country church out in the middle of nowhere in a very Norwegian community. The church had been built in 1895, and with the exception of a couple of additions such as an enlarged entry and a large dining room, the original church was pretty much intact.


There had been some updating in the sanctuary, such as lighting, etc. But the original alter was still there, which was extremely ornate and beautiful, along with some of the original lights fixtures. The light fixtures really caught my eye, as they were wrought iron chandeliers that hung from the ceiling each holding six kerosene lamps that were lit. I wish that you could get good look at them, but they don’t show up in this picture, although you can get an idea of what the alter looked like.

Then there was the minister – who still wears the ruffled clerical collar like they used to back in the “olden days.” He was a real fire and brimstone minister, at times speaking in an extremely loud tone of voice and holding his arms skyward. I almost expected him to reach in a box and pull out snakes to handle or something. It was almost that kind of a funeral service.


Then it came to communion, which I’ve never seen done at a funeral before either. At least not at a Lutheran funeral. Instead of communion wafers there were actual loaves of unleavened bread, which were broken in pieces and a piece given to each participant. And a communal silver chalice was used – not the little individual plastics cups. Sorry – but Ole and I didn’t participate because of all the flu going around right now. Just call us germaphobics, but no thanks.

Then of course, there was the big dinner served following the service. You could tell it was a Norwegian community due to the mountains of food that were available – all homemade, nothing store bought. And again you could tell it was a Norwegian community because even though you had your plate loaded with food hanging over the edges the ladies would come around and try to force more food on you. “Come on and eat some more, then.” No wonder they’re all round with rosie glowing cheeks. You couldn’t empty your coffee cup before someone was there filling it again with very stout black coffee, strong enough to eat the silver plating right off your spoon.

So that was the way the morning and early afternoon were spent. Funny, how you can do nothing strenuous and come home exhausted, so that meant a nap in my future. The grand doggers wouldn’t let Ole take a nap because they had been shut up all morning and were raring to go. I’m glad they like Ole better than me in that situation.

Then Ole got a call from Dick that the fire department was having a practice burn last night. Somebody had donated an old house out in the country that they wanted taken down because it was taking up space that they could be farming. So Ole went on his first fire run last night. Have I mentioned that Ole is a volunteer fireman? He was so excited about this drill.

The officers of the fire department went out ahead of the trucks and started the house on fire (bunch of fire bugs). When it was going good they called the fire in and the rest of the guys had to get the trucks going and find the address out in the country. Ole said by the time they got there the fire was hot and unfortunately the wind had come up. When they started this whole thing a 6 p.m. there was no wind. Of course the grass around the old house was tall and dry, and the tree claim along one side of the property was old and rotten with lots of dead trees. So I’m sure you can see what happened next. Ole and his nozzle man were out trying to put water on some of the old trees that had started on fire when he noticed that the nozzle guy’s fire jacket had started to smoke due to the intense heat of all the dry stuff around. Then Dick came up behind Ole and told him that HIS gear was starting to smoke too! So they each got doused with the fire hoses to cool their gear down. So I could have had smoked Ole by the time he got home. Hmmm – wonder if it was apple wood – that always makes the best flavor for smoked stuff. Anyway it was 12:30 before he got home last night. They got all the fires out, had to bring the trucks back to the station, scrub and dry all the hoses and get everything ready in case there was a real fire during the night.

So Ole’s not real energetic this morning – just a bit on the pooped side. And Daisy’s beside herself because she’s ready to get at ‘em but all Grandpa wants to do is sit and drink coffee.