ORAL HISTORY OF JOHN LUND KRIKEN Interviewed by Suzanne ...

Kriken: Oh, a little bit. My parents, my mother’s side are Lutheran. One of her brothers
was a Lutheran minister. And I did grow up a little bit with that.
Riess: Was it important?
Kriken: No, not really. For some reason, I never did get into that. On my army dog tags
it said, “no preference.”
Riess: Lutheran is very strict.
Kriken: And at some point, I sort of separated with my parents on that perspective,
because they were devout. It was much of their social life--actually, for them it
was a way to be in touch with Norwegians, and a connection to home in
Norway. And in later years, but not when I was growing up, they would come
over to the Norwegian Seaman’s Church on Hyde Street to attend services
which were all in Norwegian.
Riess: That was a very strong community, the Norwegians.
Kriken: I don’t know, compared to other ethnic groups; but it was a community, and
they did have friends who were Scandinavian or Norwegian.
Riess: Aren’t they quick to clarify they’re Norwegian, not Danish, not Swedish? I
mean, Scandinavian…
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