An American Fourth
Mine is a unique American story. I am the daughter of an immigrant and the wife of an immigrant. I have two son in laws that are immigrants. As a child, I would climb the many steps to the crown of the Statute of Liberty. I failed to ask my dad how he felt when he first saw the majesty of that monument. Nevertheless, I can imagine that as a young sailor, she spoke to him. He came as a Norwegian sailor who never went back. The immigrant experience is my story. I left the cocoon of my Norwegian surroundings when I started school. However, with the exception of my dearest BFF Barbara who was Italian and a couple of other girls on the block, my exposure to non-Norwegians was limited. One summer, I decided to attend Sunday School at another church during the summer. It led to our leaving our Norwegian church and attending Calvary Tabernacle. No longer did my ear hear the hymns in slower tones accentuated with W’s pronounced as V’s...