"This is my grandmother." "Her name was Aslo Beck and she was born in Norway." "But this is more the way that I saw her." "I'd like to tell you a story she told me many years ago." "My Grandmother Ironed The King's Shirts" "In 1905 Norway became an independent country." "and it was decided in a referendum that Norway will have its own king." "In the viking's era Norway had lots of kings." "Most of them died in bloody battles over borders or religion." "Except, of course Orfdon the Black." "He drowned." "But there had not been a norwegian king or queen... since king Hakon VI died centuries ago." "There was a bit tricky to identify a rightful earl." "So, an Ad was placed in a Royal Newspaper." "And unemployed royals from all over the world applied." "Finally prince Karl of Denmark was selected to be... king Hugon VII of Norway." "He arrived in Oslo with his wife queen Maud... and their son, prince Olaf." "They moved into the palace on the top of the hill... of Kalr Johan street." "The new king was very motivated and adapted quickly to the norwegian way of life." "But like most Danes the new king couldn't ski very well." "And queen Maud who was English could neither ski... nor speak Norwegian." "But worst of all was..." "that neither the king nor the queen, have ever learned to iron shirts." "Oh, lets just hire servants." "There are no servants in Norway." "On May 17th this became a problem." "A crowd was waiting for the new king and queen... to come out and wave from the balcone." "Well, after this crisis they found a respectable clothing shop nearby which agree to iron their shirts." "The shop was called Hoff." "and these was where years later my grandmother came to work." "She had worked there for a long time without knowing how important her job was." "When one day she noticed a royal monogram on a shirt she was ironing." "So when a man came to pick up the shirt... my grandmother was especially curious." "From that day on, whenever she had an oportunity... she said proudly:" ""I iron the king's shirts"." "Even to people she didn't know." "She also told Otto Hansen." "And some cavalier." "Or the Oslo police marching band..." "And he was very impressed." "Before they knew it, they were married." "In 1940, my grandmother's connection to the king... came to an abrupt, if temporary end." "War broke up in Norway." "and the king would have to flee from Oslo." "My grandmother saw the royal family, with their carefully pressed shirts hurried down Karl Johan street to the railroad station." "Where they caught the 9.30 train to Hamer." "Hamer is a small town where the king held a secret, war-time meeting with his goverment." "But this days Hamer is probabely most famous for what happened during the 1994 Olimpics." "It was here, as I'm sure you remember, that Tania Harding's skate laces came undone in the middle of her long program and the judges shocked the world by letting her start over." "The invaders chased after the king and insisted that he must surrender" "but he said "No!"" "And he meant "No"." "All over the country people shouted "Long live the king who says:" "No"" "Everybody except my grandmother who said:" ""Nice shirt"." "The king urged his subjects to resist the invaders." "Than, to avoid an imprisonment or worse, he narrowly escaped to lead the resistance from England." "Norwegians responded to the kings plea." "Meanwhile, the soldiers from the occupiers army lined up at Hoff to have their shirts pressed." "My grandmother missed the king and didn't like her new customers." "But then she had an idea." "She would sabotage the enemies uniforms." "As the number of enemy trups and officers increased... my grandmother decided to mobilize the other shirt-pressers at Hoff." "Word spread of their activities and soon all the shirt-pressers in Norway were involved in the nation-wide shirt sabotage." "The impact of my grandmother's sagotage was dewastating... and by the spring of 1945..." "When the war was over they were quite happy to leave." "When the war was over they were quite happy to leave." "The king returned and everybody went down to the harbour to meet him." "My grandmother and her conpatriots were decorated for bravery." "in the special ceremony for resistance fighters." "Then she came back to work and continued to iron shirts for the king." "But in the '60 strange things were happening in the world of the fashion" "Ties were too wide, and shirts too colourful, and men too hairy." "She resigned from Hoff, because she no longer approved..." "In her retiremant she tended to the grooming of my grandfather" "Anlike my father who only wore turtlenecks, my grandfather was an elegant man with impeccable taste." "He also had a way with horses." "Once, when I asked him "why", he told me his ancestors, were Portugease gipsies and to escape forced labour on Vasco da Gama's ships they had travelled on horseback all the way from Lisbone to Oslo." "but that's another story" "transcript of the English dialogues" " kasjopeja."