• Sunday-What'sUP June 13 - 08:45 pm

Over the years a number of interesting Shoebox Memories have come from Melodie Hayes, whose father Ted Anderson owned the grocery store in Iron Mountain for many years.

Here's another Ted Anderson shot, one from 1988. I remember I was home and the newspaper came. I sat down to read it and said, "Oh, this is an interesting question, let's see what people answer to If you could eat only one food, what would it be?" Notice that one lady said "A pasty." My dad was standing there like the cat who ate the canary, waiting for me to notice that he was one of the respondents, and when I got to the last picture, I screamed, "Lutfisk!" Then I noticed it was Dad who answered. We all roared with laughter. This is one of my greatest memories about my mom and dad - how we would laugh together. They were the best parents in the world and I miss them both every day.

Melodie

I think that Ms Carol Lawrence had the correct answer. I tried to eat lutefisk once. You notice I said once.

If there was a "Like" button after Dean's post.....

Some years ago I found out from a Michigan (late) email friend what lutefisk is. I'm with Dean and Donna! :]

Nice story!

Memory of laughing with Dad:
In 2003, we brought my dad home from the hospital with incurable heart disease, to in-home hospice care. My mother, who was sleeping in the next bedroom wanted to hear him during the night, so I bought the ”loudest” baby-monitor I could find and set it up in his bedroom. When I turned it on and told him to say something, it was so loud that he could hear his own voice coming from the speaker in the next bedroom. He said in his Scottish brogue; “Are you kidd'n? The neighbors are going to hear me kick-off.”
That was one of the last things he said before he passed away. He had a great sense of humor and showed no fear, right to the end.

All of these dad stories sure make me miss my dad. He passed away ten years ago this summer. In his life, he had been a farmer, a logger, and a carpenter, and he was a tough old Yooper Finn, right to the end. He was an animal and nature lover, something I "inherited" from him at an early age and still have today. (Finally getting my master's in biology.) He had a quirky sense of humor, one that people often didn't get, that often involved plays on words, and he passed that tendency on to me, too. He was a quiet and stalwart presence in my life, but I'm reminded daily of the tremendous impact he had on it. How I miss him, and my mother, too...

My dad was a relatively quiet man but often said exactly what he was thinking...sometimes to the embarrassment of his wife and daughters. My oldest sister had a date with the son of a family friend. He was a bit on the 'short' side, so when he came to get my sister for their date, my daddy (who had never seen Bobby before) blurted out "They pulled you before you got ripe." You can imagine the gasps from the rest of us. He went 'home' in 1993. Still miss him!

I've had lutefisk once, emphasis on "once"!!

But, poor Dr. Nat has not had the wonderous joy of lutefisk yet. So, on our journey to Norway, I plan to introduce her to that famous norweigian dish; after all, how can she truely call herself "The World's Shortest Viking" without indulging in the culture??? J

My dad had a cute sense of humor and didn't have a mean bone in his body, but from time to time he would say something really out of character. After a day of bridge with "the girls" Mother mentioned several things she had heard at bridge. She mentioned how Mrs. D had lost 20 lbs in a week or so. BTW, Mrs D weighed about 300 pounds. Upon hearing this tidbit of news Dad said "if she keeps that up a long time she will waste away to a shadow-----of a boxcar". Of course Mother gave him a look that would have killed an ox but the rest of the family thought he was spot on.

Let's see, "gelatinous in texture",along with "a strong,pungent odor". It's name literally means "lye fish". What's not to like?

dane, that sounds like something that should be banned, like lead paint.:-p

My Mom, then Dad after Mom passed away, made Lutefisk every Christmas Eve. When I was young, I would hide in my room with the door shut all day to protect me from the smell! As an adult, I ate it. Dad cooked it in a milk broth with onions and peppercorns (he said my Grandmother's recipe). Not something I'd eat every day, but not bad as a Christmas Eve tradition.

With all the 'talk' about lutefisk I just happened to think of a good side-dish for it....hominy! Then you'd have your recommended daily requirement for lye. ;)
My husband loved hominy but to me it smelled like mothballs.:(

I hate to be stupid, but exactly what IS Lutefisk??
I always thought it was pronounced "lukefish", some
type of a fish...

It's actually pronounced "lute-ah-fisk", and while I usually don't trust Wikipedia for much of anything, the explanation given isn't too bad.

Lutefisk, if you dare....

And here I thought Lute Fisk was a basketball coach, formerly at the University of Arizona. Oh no, I guess that was Lute Olson!

Lutefisk (Norwegian) = literally "Lye fish"
Lutfisk (Swedish) = literally "Lye fish"
Lipeäkala (Finnish) = literally "Lye fish" also.

Capt. Paul (Eclogite):
"… poor Dr. Nat has not had the wonderous joy of lutefisk yet. So, on our journey to Norway, I plan to introduce her to that famous norweigian dish; after all, how can she truely call herself "The World's Shortest Viking" without indulging in the culture??? J"

Good luck with that plan, Cap'n!

Lute was our Iowa Hawkeye's B. Ball coach before Arizona!

...and that's no lye.

Swedes pronounce it LOOT-fisk and Norwegians say LOODA-fisk.

Thanks for posting my story, Charlie, and thanks to everyone for their additional stories! Great to read :-) We all feel the same about lutfisk.