Class re-union in Løgstør

After a hearty breakfast I thanked Karen and Vagn and said "Good-bye". The night before Vagn had showed me a piece in the local paper about a book which had been released the day before and with the author present for autographing at a large book store in the neighbouring city. The book was a collection of biographies and interviews with well-known people from that part of the country and it was written by one of my friends, Søren Christensen, from my class at school. I quickly stopped by the local book store to see if it had arrived there. When I got there I found the books prominently displayed at the front of the store and I eagerly purchased one so that I could have Søren sign it for me later that day. Søren is very talented and this is his fourth book published in the last 10 years. He does non-fiction only and usually writes about the country and its people and supplies some excellent photos to illustrate his subjects. He has many times given me credit for steering him towards photography. When we were 16 years old I had an old box camera and I would develop and make make my own prints. Well, Søren was very interested and and I showed him how to set up a darkroom and how to develop films and make prints. I am glad that I had a small part in his later success as a photographer and author.

I had only a 40 minutes drive to Løgstør and arrived there early and therefore drove slowly through the narrow streets (boy are they narrow!!) and reminisced about my teenage years in that small, sleepy and safe town.

At 11:00 o'clock I met all my school chums at a large factory called "Løgstør Rør" where we would be guests at a luncheon and also be given a guided tour of the plant. After all the "hellos" and the hugging of our old friends we started on the two hour tour of the facility. "Rør" means pipe in Danish and the company supplies insulated pipes for heating and cooling to most countries in the world. Its mission statement puts it this way: “We make the World's energy supply more efficient and reduce the global energy loss with leading insulation products, improving the environment for the populations in all continents.“ It was interesting to see how the pipes were insulated and then placed inside another pipe. As it was a Saturday there was only a skeleton crew to show us the various steps of the manufacturing of these pipes made in many different sizes. The company has become very large with factories in several European countries and is one of the leaders in insulated pipes for use in cold countries as well as very warm environments.

The lunch and the beer were appreciated after walking around the very large facility for almost two hours. In the afternoon we went to see the new Matitime Museum of Løgstør. It highlights the past importance of Løgstør as a fishing town going back more than two hundred years. The city now likes to be known as "The City of Mussels" in Danish - Muslinge Byen!

Really Løgstør is not on the shore of a sea but is an inland city on the shore of a large fjord thats cuts the peninsula of Jylland in two pieces and connects Kattegat with the North Sea. It means actually that the Northern part of Jylland, Vendsyssel, is an island!!! The Danes never think of it that way even though you must cross a bridge(five of them connect) to get to the northern part. So much for your geography lesson today!!!

I had chance to drive by the Rowing Club where I used to row on 4 oars boat. Not a sculler though! The trophy my team won in 1957 was there somewhere among the dozens of cups and trophies won over the years. One of my team member from that time was still there but I did not get to meet him.

We then had coffee and Danish apple cake at the restaurant connected to the museum. At 18:00 we all met at the "Hotel du Nord" for the dinner party - 18 of us were able to attend. The dinner was oustanding and four songs by Kurt were composed for the occasion. You all know how the Danes break into song at any festive occasion - especially after a few glasses of wine!!! Kurt is quite an entertainer and reminded us all of the great times we had over the years and how lucky we have been and still are - considering the alternative. I did a small "question and answer" period and there were small gifts to everyone for answering correctly. The five organizers also received a small token of my appreciation for making our re-union such a success. Søren was busy authographing his new book for many of us. We joked and gossipped for a a couple of hours and the party did not break up until close to midnight. We decided to meet again on September 6th 2014 (damn - on my birthday again!). Let us hope we shall all be there?!!

Sep 5, 2009

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