Page 10 - Lifestyles in Palm Beach Gardens - November '20

Page 10, Lifestyles in Palm Beach Gardens
Norway: Land Of The Midnight Sun

By Don Kiselewski, MCC, fishermen edged northward along the
D.S., Palm Beach Gardens coast and avoided the bitter cold of the
Travel Leaders interior mountain areas. These original
At 1,600 miles long and inhabitants established communities
just more than a mile wide along the coastline, taking advantage of
at its narrowest point, the the warm Gulf Stream.
country of Norway has About the same time the Athenians
a shape that resembles a were building the Parthenon (500
tadpole swimming south. BC), the warming trend suddenly
The southern portion is reversed, bringing extreme cold to
bound by the North Sea the area. During the warmer period,
while the northern portion contemporary drawings were chiseled
reaches above the Arctic Circle, and it shares a common into rock in Norway depicting boats
border with Sweden, Finland and Russia. Norway’s carrying as many as 30 men, warriors on
population is about 5.4 million* and about one in four horseback and four-wheeled carts drawn
Norwegians lives in the three largest cities: Oslo, Bergen and by horses. The growth of the nation was
Stavanger; English is widely spoken throughout the country. sharply reversed by this new freeze Southern Norway’s fertile hills are ideal for farming.
The southern portion of Norway is hilly, forested and most and a large portion of the population
fertile for food growing, while the northern reaches are stark perished.
and barren, barely supporting the life of the Laplanders who Survival during this period, by
live there. Norway is bound on the west by the Norwegian necessity, changed the way the people
Sea, which slices through the sheared mountains to form a lived. Men, who before had worn only
network of fjords. With these extremes in terrain, few places a belted cloak, now wore underwear
in the world can compare for rugged beauty. and trousers. The nomadic lifestyle of
Likewise, very few countries were influenced as much in the people became agricultural out of
their development by the terrain and weather as Norway. As a necessity to secure food and fodder
the last ice age receded about 12,000 years ago, hunters and for their livestock. People and animals
occupied either end
of the same house –
an unhygienic but
necessary form of By using soil to insulate their roofs, early Norwegians inadvertently created Chia
central heating. homes.
With the passing cling to the edge of the seemingly endless fjords, fighting
of time, construction techniques Mother Nature’s steep mountain slopes to capture enough
improved. Timber homes were now built land to cultivate.
utilizing soil on the roof for insulation. Norwegians are avid outdoorsmen and sportsmen. They
The farmers would often control the swim in water about the temperature that most Americans like
grass and weed that grew on their roofs their beer. The country’s passion for skiing shines through
by putting goats up there. in their daily life, much the same as baseball and football is
Today’s Norwegians live in a modern, reflected in ours.
independent country, although remnants The fjords gave Norwegians their great seafaring
of these harsh times still exist as
Children of the World by Eva Rybakken, located at the North Cape reminders of their past. Small farms Norway on page 11

The scenic village of Geiranger and the Geirangerfjord, a
branch of the Storfjord

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