Re: [Skate] Oscar Diary.
Hi,
Here is Friday's entry - a little delayed again, sorry:
Oscar Mathisen had been travelling through Europe for weeks,
collecting trophies in various precious metals from this and that
corner of the continent, challenging and beating venerable old
records. He had stifled challenges from Austrians, Swedes and Finns
alike, not to mention the Hungarians, the Swiss, the Bohemians and
the Danes, and his fellow Kristianensers had followed his exploits in
the papers as the telegrams came ticking in about his sensational
efforts. But most of them had never gotten to see him in-between all
his travels, not since early in January at any rate, and the hunger
for a glimpse of this phenomenal fellow citizen of theirs had grown
quite out of proportion. When the Saturday a hundred years ago today
dawned, it promised a beautiful winter’s day, all with fast times on
the ice in its wake. And the excited mood that had been hanging in
the air all week long erupted into a lavine of extasy threatening to
turn the small, northern city upside down. Everyone wanted to see the
races, and from the early morning hours, streets were full of people
making their way to Frogner Stadion, trams stuffed to their utmost
capacity with people reeled noisily up and down Kirkeveien and
Bogstadveien. Already at 10 o’clock, the southern curve was beginning
to fill, and the cheapest tickets were sold out at 12. As the time of
the races was approaching one or two hours later, over 20 thousand
tickets had been sold, the newly built stands were creaking under
their load, and the hills and trees around the rink was filled with
thousands more. “Norsk Idrætsblad” reports that the sight of the
trees on the Frogner field (the later park) reminded you of the
monkey trees in the tropics, with the hopeful youngsters of
Kristiania standing, hanging and lying on any usable branch. People
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