ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, May 12, 1996 TAG: 9605130101
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BEDFORD
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
HE MAY NOT BE FROM NORWAY, but Wally Post's wife and mother-in-law are, and together the family hopes to obtain a charter for a Sons of Norway lodge in Bedford County.
By trade, Wally Post is a sales representative for a machine-tools business in Salem. But in his heart, he's a Viking.
And he's got the horned helmet to prove it.
The Viking Wally. Wally the Red. Wally the Horrible.
These aren't the most fearsome monikers, but then again, Post isn't trying to frighten anybody. In fact, he's trying to make some new friends. Forty of them, to be exact.
That's how many members Post will need to obtain a charter for a Sons of Norway lodge he's trying to organize in Bedford County. Post and his family will be hosts of a membership picnic in celebration of Norwegian Independence Day on Saturday at their farm in Bedford County.
At first mention, the Sons of Norway sounds like something out of one of Garrison Keillor's Lake Woebegone monologues, but the fraternal organization isn't fictional - it has more than 73,000 members in the United States, Canada and Norway.
Founded in 1895 to help poor Norwegian immigrants purchase life insurance and other necessities, the Sons of Norway is now more of a social organization for men and women of Norwegian descent or those who have an interest in Norway. It also participates in charitable projects such as Habitat for Humanity, and it sponsors the world's biggest children's ski race every year - the Barnebirkie in Wisconsin.
"There are more Norwegians living in America now than there are in Norway," said Post, who founded a Sons of Norway lodge seven years ago in Pennsylvania.
"And the traditions of the Norwegians in America are held stronger than in Norway," added his wife, Carol-Ann "Lilla" Post.
That's plenty evident in the Post household.
The Posts, who moved to Bedford last year from Pennsylvania, live in a Swiss chalet built on a green, hilly stretch of farmland. The house is filled with Norwegian art and carvings - ornate cupboards, Norwegian-flag refrigerator magnets, silver Viking ships, wooden trolls, dragons, and breadboards decorated with smiling blond children and the intricate, brightly colored Norwegian flower patterns known as rosemuling.
Many of the items, such as the family's kitchen benches, were made by Post himself, an amateur carver who has won awards for his Norwegian-inspired art.
The cupboards of the home are stocked with Norwegian foods such as lefsa, a flat biscuit that looks like a napkin. On holidays and special occasions, it's not unusual to see the entire family dressed in the native costumes of Norway - the men in red-and-green vests and black slacks, the women in bright ceremonial village dresses known as verdags bunader.
Post - who at 57 looks more than a little like hamburger entrepreneur Dave Thomas - isn't Norwegian himself, but comes from Dutch stock. However, his wife and mother-in-law are Norwegian.
It was through them that he discovered Norway. "I just fell in love with the costumes and traditions," he said. "Now we want to introduce the third and fourth generations of our young to Norway."
That should be easy. Four generations of the family live on the Post farm. Julie Bjorvik, Lilla Post's mother, lives there, as do the Posts' son and daughter-in-law and their children.
Bjorvik, who speaks English with a soft Nordic accent, is the most Norwegian of anyone in the family. She was born in Bergen, Norway's second-largest city.
She realized a lifelong dream when she met the Queen of Norway at an appearance in Virginia Beach a few months ago.
"There were hundreds of people standing there, and the Queen saw my mother in her native costume and she went right over to her," Lilla Post said. "She asked Mom how long she had been here and Mom said, `Not so long, 50 or 60 years,' and they both laughed."
At home, Bjorvik wears deerskin after-ski slippers popular in Norway and has an elkhound named Freia, named after the Nordic goddess of love and fertility, (Bjorvik points out, however, that this Freia is fixed.) Bjorvik's rooms in the house are filled with Norse paintings, carvings, books, and furniture.
For a Son of Norway, talking to real Norse native is like having a celebrity around, Wally Post said. His wife has been to Norway, but he still yearns to go, so learning from such people as his mother-in-law about his adopted homeland is almost like being there.
As a matter of fact, Post can list several steps to becoming Norwegian. They include a fondness for fish pudding (it's just what it sounds like) and knowing a few good Swedish jokes (Norway won its independence from Sweden).
So far, he's received about 20 inquiries about his picnic, and is hoping for more. Gatherings like the picnic give Nordic enthusiasts a chance to swap stories or teach each other customs or native dance steps, he said.
And it's a good place to find out about Norwegian foods, which admittedly can be hard to find. "If I need to know where to get something, somebody will know where to get it, here or through an importer," Post said. "It's a wealth of knowledge and sweet kinsmanship. It's like family.'
Next Saturday's meal should be a traditional Norwegian koltbord - literally, a cold picnic, with such dishes as shrimp, fruit, and fish salads, ham, and many types of breads. And there will be popular Norse activities such as hiking, and maybe even some older Norwegian pursuits.
"We're going to do some sacking and pillaging if our Viking blood gets up," Post said. "If we get rowdy, we're going to sack Bedford ... or Moneta, whichever direction we're facing in."
Wally Post's Norwegian Independence Day picnic will be held Saturday at 1 p.m. at Post's home, 377-1 Dickerson Mill Road (Virginia 746) in Bedford County. Guests are asked to bring chairs and cold foods, but no alcohol. For more information, call (540)587-5850.
LENGTH: Long : 110 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: WAYNE DEEL/Staff. In Norwegian costume are (from left)by CNBWally Post, his wife, Lilla, and their granddaughters, Amy Joy, 9,
and Jenny Lynn, 4.