Fargo Evacuation and the Red River Valley of the North Flood: A Personal View

Ethnic stereotypes are just that: stereotypes.

Warning: Middle-Age Guy Rambling

Take me, for example: I'm a Norwegian-Irish-American. Make that a Norwegian Irishman who's a citizen of the United States of America.

Norwegians have a reputation for being stoic, unyielding, and lovers of lefse and lutefisk. The Irish are known, among other things, for being laid-back alcoholics. In the southern reaches of the British Isles, at least. (I know: Not everybody in England feels that way, but everybody from Swift to Punch magazine have referred to it.) Farther afield, the Irish are known as a nation of poets. Sozzled poets, but poets nonetheless.

Then, there's me. I had a very serious drinking problem - still would, if I allowed it - and love language, talking, and writing. And, I'm firm-minded. Maybe stubborn. Okay: sometimes I can be downright pig-headed.

Sound like parts of the stereotypes? Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not.

Surrender? Never!!

My Norwegian forebears won turf disputes with dire wolves, and staring contests with glaciers. The Fargo-Moorhead part of the Red River Valley (and northwest Minnesota) is home to a lot of sons and daughters of Vikings.

It's a little hard to imagine them, as a group, walking away from a flood while there were dikes to build.

Actually, I think most people, all over the world have more determination than some suspect. But, that's another topic.

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List of posts about this flood:

• "Red River Valley of the North Flood, 2009"