Story originally printed in the Westby Times or online at www.westbytimes.com
Published - Thursday, May 22, 2008
40th Westby Syttende Mai in the record books
The stars were shining down on Westby last weekend with near perfect weather, large crowds and food, fun, music, and festivities galore during the 40th annual Westby Syttende Mai, May 16-18.
A highlight of this year’s celebration centered around the visiting Gjovik Folkedanslag musicians and dancers. The group of 40-plus Norwegian visitors provided entertainment at locations throughout the community from Norseland Nursing Home to Timber Coulee, before entertaining a standing-room-only crowd of over 700 as the featured Syttende Mai Saturday night entertainment. Dressed in authentic Norwegian bunads the group sang a variety of ancestry music and performed folk dances. During their stay in Westby local residents provided housing and transportation for the Norway visitors. The popularity of the group drew spectators from neighboring states who chartered buses to Westby to partake in the weekend festivities.
A high point of the Saturday evening event was the sale of Evelyn Larson’s original 2008 Syttende Mai button design. The design brought in an astounding $2,600 and was purchased by the Anderson Family in honor of their mother, Ella Anderson, who has strong ties to Syttende Mai. Anderson held an early board of director role and was instrumental in promoting the annual celebration.
Prefest events kicked off on May 10 with the annual princess coronation where the 2008 Westby Syttende Mai royalty were crowned. Reigning over the 40th annual celebration were Princess Devi Stoffregen, 1st Attendant Emily Bauer and 2nd Attendant Christa Nerison.
On Thursday, May 15, the food was plentiful at the Sons of Norway pancake supper and the Westby-Christiana Fire Department fund-raiser cook out. The food kept following on Friday, May 16 with the annual Westby Locker brat fest at noon and the typically sold out Impact charcoal chicken dinner at Westby Elementary School held in the afternoon.
The sun was shining outside and so were the spirits of people attending the annual old-time music show on Friday afternoon. The musical melodies continued at the well attended Friday evening Syttende Mai choir concert and the chords hit a faster beat later that evening when Leather and Lace took the forefront in the downtown entertainment tent with people kicking up their heels inside and outside the tent.
On Saturday morning the festivities got an early start with the annual bike race with over 150 bikers from around the Coulee Region cruising the scenic country roads, while greeting the posse of runners and walkers who were hoofing it down County Trunk P or waving to the golf fanatics who took to the Snowflake course for a round of more golf.
Back in Westby hundreds of people had their fill of Norwegian delicacies at the Sons of Norway Frokost breakfast where volunteers had their work cut out for them keeping the platters full as the serving line continued to grow. The long lines extended all weekend long at the food vending stands downtown where Hub’s fries, batter fried cheese curds, funnel cakes, brats, burgers, steak sandwiches and stuffed baked potatoes, corn on the cob, lefse, polsa and cheesecake on a stick were all big sellers.
True rommegrot lovers who wanted to proclaim their love for the flour, butter and milk mixture had their chance on Saturday during the reincarnated Rommegrot eating contest. At the age of seven, Lydia Stalsberg, was the youngest winner and she must have been groomed for the event by her grandmother, Madelyn Stalsberg, who won the adult women’s category. The men struggled through the event finding it hard to swallow the mixture due to the hot temperature at which it was served. Ron Hall came out on top, but the men all had hot pipes by the time their 30-second contest was up. All contestants deserved a hand for their efforts since the rommegrot mixture they were served wasn’t seasoned with sugar or cinnamon. By the look on teenager Olivia Nottestad’s face a little flavor would have helped the medicine go down or in this case the rommegrot which was lacking the sweet stuff.
The kiddie parade once again lived up to its popularity with plenty of children and pets decked out in Norwegian attire. The cameras were flashing as parents and grandparents tried to capture yet another precious Kodak moment for their scrapebooks.
A crowd favorite this year’s funniest entry went to Jermyn Balk of Cashton who was dressed as a piece of lefse. The young man didn’t mind wearing the oversized costume, which his dad convinced his son was his coat. It’s a good thing someone held Jermyn’s hand during the parade because if a gust of wind had blown through his lefse coat would have sailed like a kite.
The lip-sync contest may have seen its last year as a Syttende Mai event with very few entries and the arts and crafts numbers appeared down from previous years. The kiddie tractor pull kept Westby FFA members busy on Highland Street for most of Saturday afternoon as did the newly organized draft horse show held at the ball field. The draft horse show had a continuous crowd of spectators for its inaugural year and organizer Pat Mlsna is hoping to expand the event in 2009. The same could be said about the new youth bike race event held at the go-kart track on Sunday morning, which organizers Wally and Melissa Brauer hope only gets bigger and better in the future.
The heritage tent and rosemaling show drew thousands of people on both Saturday and Sunday who enjoyed baking demonstrations, woodcarving, rosemaling, crocheting and even occasional fiddle playing. Visitors got the chance to watch area artists at their best and socialize with them at the same time.
One area artist, Betty Homstad, recently donated a doll house to Syttende Mai which was sold during a silent auction held in the heritage tent. Naomi (Flugstad) Bekkum, the wife of Owen Bekkum, and the 2008 Westby Syttende Mai parade marshals, purchased the doll house for $200. A retired school teacher, Naomi, promptly donated the doll house back to Bekkum Memorial Library for area children to enjoy. The money raised from the sale will benefit the Syttende Mai Princess Scholarship Fund.
On Sunday area churches also registered a banner year for the traditional meatball and lefse dinners held at Westby Coon Prairie and Our Savior’s Lutheran Church. Earlier visitors enjoyed worship services throughout the area and a polka mass at Country Coon Prairie Church. There was also a full house for the annual Norwegian spoken worship service and pie and ice cream social on Sunday evening at North Coon Prairie Lutheran Church in Newry.
Syttende Mai wouldn’t be the same without a troll hunt, won this year by 14-year-old Tyler Jarrett of Westby. Tyler found the troll in a tree, by a fence, near the water tower in Westby. Troll hunters scoured the region in search of the small wooden troll from Friday afternoon when the first clue was released until it was located at 6:35 p.m. on Saturday after the third clue. Tyler was awarded the $100 prize by the troll hunt sponsors, Connely Law Office.
The weekend festivities were capped off with the big parade at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday. This year’s parade committee was aiming for 150-200 entries, but stopped at 125 due to time. The first area community parade of the season had spectators setting up lawn chairs on Saturday evening and lining the streets and yards with blankets early Sunday morning. Children came equipped with pails and bags in hopes of retrieving plenty of candy thrown by parade entries including commercial, royalty, novelty, equestrian and civic.
As the parade ended and the festivities wound down the cleanup crews came to life. City of Westby employees, members of the Westby Area High School football team and event committee volunteers worked together to put Westby back together and another Syttende Mai to bed.
All stories copyright 2006 Westby Times and other attributed sources.