Plus, I would have just asked him but he died in 93, and back then
I was not worried about asking such questions. When you look back
at your life and your family, there are so many things you would
have liked to have talked about or asked them whey they were
around, but were to young and stupid to think about it.
On 9/16/2013 11:26 AM, WILTON wrote:
'May have been at Sondrestrom with Bernt Balken, the founder of
the base, or at Narsarsuaq, an American WWII base near the
southern tip that I wrote about in the Sondy Tale "Flying with
the Danish Air Force." 'Would be interesting to know where he was.
Wilton
----- Original Message ----- From: "Kaleb C. Striplin"
<ka...@striplin.net>
To: "Mercedes Discussion List" <mercedes@okiebenz.com>
Sent: Monday, September 16, 2013 12:03 PM
Subject: Re: [MBZ] Another Sondy Tale
You know I believe my grandfather was in Greenland. I have no
idea what branch he was with or where or what e was doing over
there. I will have to ask my mother and see of she knows.
Sent from my iPhone
On Sep 16, 2013, at 10:50 AM, "WILTON" <wilt...@nc.rr.com> wrote:
Yep, another Sondy Tale already.
LAKE FERGUSON
By Wilton Strickland
Our water reservoir at Sondrestrom was Lake Ferguson, a
rectangular-shaped lake visible on Google Earth about a mile
and a half across the Watson River and south of the base. The
water was crystal clear and did not get above about 34°F in
summer. Whenever I'd stop by for a visit with the water plant
technician, I could look down into the intake "well" inside
the building built over the lake and see nice fish several
feet beneath the surface. Usually, the only treatment to the
water was to heat it to 56°F before and during the pumping
process via an above-ground pipeline to a pump building with a
huge holding tank near the center of the main base. There it
was checked regularly (the frequency and type of checks I
don't remember) and treated as necessary with addition of
chlorine in accordance with federal standards. The Danish
water plant manager told me that he seldom ever had to add
chlorine. Most of this water is ice melt from the Greenland
ice cap and Russell Glacier where it has been frozen for
thousands of years and is probably one of the best and purest
water supplies in the world. The cold water at the faucets
around base was so cold that I always had to add some hot
water to keep the cold water from hurting my hands.
Summer recreational activities at the lake worried me
somewhat, though. A rowing club was active at the lake, and
occasionally a rower would briefly go into the water. On July
4th, a traditional Danish-American Day celebration was also
held at the lake and the Rowing Club house. In addition to
the usual July 4th fair of hot dogs, hamburgers, beer, soft
drinks, etc., a large part of the traditional celebration was
a football game of sorts between the Danish civilian women and
the American men. Check the link:
http://sondrestrom.com/folks.html. Tradition also required
that anybody who had not been thrown into the lake was going
into the lake before day's end. Yes, I went into the lake,
and I can definitely attest: its temperature does not get
above about 34°F, but I never heard that our domestic water
supply needed any additional treatment because of my dunking.
Wilton
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