ISBN10: 0816667446, ISBN13: 9780816667444, [publisher: University of Minnesota Press, Minnesota] Softcover Paperback. Growing up with Swedish and Norwegian grandparents with a dash of Danish thrown in for balance, Eric Dregni thought Scandinavians were perfectly normal. Who doesn't enjoy a good, healthy salad (Jell-O packed with canned fruit, colored marshmallows, and pretzels) or perhaps some cod soaked in drain cleaner as the highlights of Christmas? Only later did it dawn on him that perhaps this was just a "little" strange, but by then it was far too late: he was hooked and a dyed-in-the-wool Scandinavian himself.But what does it actually mean to grow up Scandinavian-American or to live with these Norwegians, Swedes, Finns, Danes, and Icelanders among us? In "Vikings in the Attic, " Dregni tracks down and explores the significant--and quite often bizarre--historic sites, tales, and traditions of Scandinavia's peculiar colony in the Midwest. It's a legacy of the unique--collecting silver spoons, a suspicion of flashy clothing, shots of turpentine for the common cold, and a deep love of rhubarb pie--but also one of poor immigrants living in sod houses while their children attend college, the birth of the co-op movement, the Farmer-Labor party, and government agents spying on Scandinavian meetings hoping to nab a socialist or antiwar activist.For all the tales his grandparents told him, Dregni quickly discovers there are quite a ...
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