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When I first arrived in Washington State I discovered a different denomination.  For someone raised in the South I thought there were only Methodists, Baptists, Catholics and one or two Mormons.  I had no idea there were Lutherans and Washington State has lots of Lutherans.  All of my neighbors were proud descendants of Scandinavians and interlaced in their conversations was always the "Lutefisk Supper" this and the "Lutefisk Supper" that.  Finally, one day the whole neighborhood was in an uproar.  The very next Saturday night was to be the "Lutefisk Supper".

     Monday morning brought Grete and Ingeborg to my front door selling tickets for the "Lutefisk Supper" to be held at their church.  I hemmed and hawed, but the gals presented me with four tickets that a family down the street bought, but because they were on vacation they were unable to attend.  Not knowing anything about lutefisk, I asked the gals but they seemed to be very vague and mentioned things like wooden boxes, dried fish, white, fishy, potatoes, stinky, cod and lye.  Lye?  What in the heck does lye have to do with anything?  I assumed this was a mispronunciation, maybe, lime.  Yeah, it must have been lime as in lemon and lime. 

     Saturday evening finally rolled around and people started lining up early at the kitchen door of the Lutheran Church.  By the time my familiy and I arrived the line made three wraps around the church.  I knew in my heart that this was going to be a wonderful experience in my family's life, one we will remember for years to come.  The odors coming from the church kitchen were not exactly aromatic, but with all these people waiting in line, it must be a good sign.  As we made our way through the kitchen door, I was amazed at the number of people hastily devouring their food.  I was hoping there would be plenty for us to have.  I looked over at the people eating and was glad to see no one was having seconds.  In fact, I noticed a lot of gulping and one old fellow was holding his nose as he swallowed.

     No sooner had we sat down, Ingebord and Grete were at our table ladling a mass of viscous looking substance onto our plates.  I poked my fork in this white mass and discovered a jelly like substance that Grete said was the lutefisk.  I found a couple of pieces of potato, four or five green peas and came to the conclusion that the white mass must be white sauce.  I took a big fork full and looked over at my famly as they too put a fork full into their mouths.  So there we sat in the Lutheran Church kitchen with mouths full of "Lutefisk Supper".  What to do?  Oh Lord, what to do?  It never entered our minds to spit it out, so we all swallowed as one.  Have you ever eaten fish jello?  We played around with the white mass for a good ten minutes, got up from the table and said our good-byes.

     That's when my family started taking our vacations the week of "Lutefisk Supper".  No hard feelings and we always bought tickets from Grete and Ingeborg and had them give our tickets away to some poor shmuck new to the neighborhood.