Lögberg-Heimskringla - 21.10.2005, Side 8

8 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • Friday 21 October 2005
The common good has to come flrst
PHOTOS: STEINPÓR QUÐBJARTSSON
Iceland’s new Minister of Finance Árni M. Mathiesen visited Oli Narfason as the Minister for Fisheries last spring.
There are a few people
around who do a great
deal, are very important
for their families and
friends and neighbours
and community, but walk
quietly through life de-
spite the fact that they
deserve notice more
than most. Steinþór
Guðbjartsson met one
of them, Oli Narfason,
a farmer just outside of
Gimli, Manitoba.
Recently Oli Narfason
celebrated his 80th
birthday in the Minerva
Hall by highway number eight
— not far away from where
he has lived all his life. As a
school boy. As a fisherman. As
a farmer. As a community man.
As an Icelander. He loves the
area and the area loves him. He
is an important part of it.
A big decision
“I was just like the majority
of the kids in New Iceland who
lived in this area; got my feet
into the lake and was involved
in fishing for a while. Worked
for others to begin with and
then fished for myself. I spent
the Depression years on the
lake and like my peers I did not
get much high schooling — we
had to go to work. That was our
lot in those days. You just did
what you had to do.
“And of course, in the ear-
lier times you were always hop-
ing for a big season even though
the price for the fish was next
to nothing. If you got a lot of
fish and could work hard, you
could make a few dollars. You
always hoped that the next
season would be better. It was
just like going to the casino in
a way. You go there with the
hope that you are going to hit
the jackpot.
“During the off-season I
was at home at the farm. As
time went on, I got married
and had to make up my mind
whether I was going to fish or
farm. I was the only son and in
those days it was tough making
a decent living being a fisher-
man.
“There was a lady whose
parents had a cottage in Gimli.
She often mentions that she
would go for a walk with her
mother around town and when-
ever they came to a place that
looked rather poor and run
down she would know that
a fisherman would be living
there. Now she remarks that it
is completely opposite. ‘You
drive around and see a beau-
tiful big house, a number of
beautiful vehicles in front of it
and just mention it. Then you
say: Oh, a fisherman must be
living here.’ The difference is
like black and white, and if it
would have been like it is now,
when I had to make a decision,
I would have been fishing. But
I selected the farm.”
Guðrún ísfeld and Erlendur
Narfason, Oli’s parents, were
born in New Iceland, but their
parents emigrated to the area
from Iceland in the 1880s. They
had six children, Oli and five
sisters. His first wife, Guðný
Helga Bjarnadóttir Johnson,
died in 1982. They had four
children. Eighteen years ago he
and Marjorie got married and
she also has four children.
Until about seven years ago
Oli farmed at “Víðivöllum” off
highway eight. His son Clifford
took over.the farming and since
then Oli and his wife Marjorie
have lived closer to Lake Winni-
peg, between highway nine and
the lake just south of Gimli.
“When I was a kid there
was no connection with Iceland.
We did not really know what
was going on in Iceland, but we
were Icelandic and we lived in
New Iceland. On the streets in
Gimli you could get by as well
or better in Icelandic as in Eng-
lish except during the summer
months when the campers were
around. My sister Dilla was the
first one in the family to go over
to Iceland and she found a lot
of relatives there.”
A born musician
For decades local newspa-
pers and those who have been
reporting on events in the Ice-
landic community have often
highlighted the fact that the
community singsong was led
by OIi Narfason. Not only does
he sing like a professional, he is
a born musician and plays the
piano whenever he can.
“I have always loved music
and whenever I get a chance to
sing along I don’t pass it up,” he
says. “I suppose I started sing-
ing as a small baby and even-
tually I went public. Actually, I
think that I first led the Icelandic
sing-along eveninjg, kvöldsön-
gurinn during the Islendingada-
gurinn, the Icelandic celebra-
tion in Gimli, in 1975. I guess
it went on for about 25 years. I
have belonged to a church choir
and other choirs as well. Joe
Pálsson had a choir I belonged
to and so on and so on. If 1 have
a chance to sing I’m always
quite pleased to do so.”
21 tickets for a dollar
Being in the dairy busi-
ness for the greater part of
his life has not allowed Oli to
have many hobbies other than
singing. Yet he curled a bit for
years with Raymond Sigurdson
and played hockey as a kid, but
farming has been like a hobby
in its own way.
l_f oriri \r/\n p/\i 11 r|
m oiivi yuu Luuiu
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