SOCIAL ACTIVITY. Members, supporters and their children met in southern Stockholm for a social gathering in the summer sun on the afternoon of Saturday, 17 July.
The group gathered at a beach, where they laid down their blankets and set up barbecues and chairs, while the children ran to the lake and threw themselves into the water. The temperature was much more pleasant than the scorching heat in the concrete confines of the big city, thanks to both the shade and light winds. However, one or two non-Aryan complaints of it not being warm enough could be be heard from some attendees, who, in order to keep their honour intact, will remain anonymous.
While the children and some adults splashed around in the water, others lit the grills and started cooking dinner. A wide selection of sausages and meat ended up on the grill, and there was no one who left hungry.
As always during social activities, the focus was less on the struggle, and instead anecdotes and conversations about a wide range of topics flowed freely. When everyone had finished eating and the grills had burned out, the group moved on to a large lawn nearby.
Here a match of brännboll (a game similar to rounders and baseball) would be decided, despite it consisting of two motley teams and several players who were injured or unable to run. The rules and scoring were explained, but this information would soon prove to be of little help, as this became possibly the organisation’s most chaotic match of brännboll to date.
At first, the fielding and batting teams were relatively even in number and age range. However, this changed straight after the first man stepped up to bat. After an excellent hit of the ball and a fast sprint, the batter suddenly stumbled before reaching the second base. An incredible pain throughout his thigh meant that this was his first and last attempt to fight for his team’s honour on this occasion.
The batting team was now an adult player short, but continued as best they could. One of the younger children in the batting team, whose true loyalties were already under question, did his best to keep the match interesting. After a teammate hit the ball, the child ran after the ball himself, picked it up, and continued to make a home run, while the batter watched on in surprise.
But this was only the beginning. When it was the other children’s turn, the previous child continued to play fetch, which the child now seemed to think was the purpose of the match.
After a while, it was finally time for another of the adults to drop out of the batting team, this time to be able to keep watch on one of the smaller children who wasn’t participating.
When it was time for the teams to swap over, the aforementioned child showed their true colours by mutinying and switching to the numerically superior team. However, the child couldn’t be accused of a lack of commitment; rather, the young player had an unwavering determination to be in possession of the ball at all costs, despite once again being on the batting team.
After several breaches of the rules, plus more children running away with the ball, the batting team’s time began to run out. However, this did not seem to bother either the referee or anyone on the batting team, so there was no changeover until at least double the amount of allotted time had passed.
With just half as many players, the fielding team was always going to find things difficult, even with much brave running and several nice catches. Furthermore, half of the players in the opposing team were only required to run a fraction of the distance due to their young age.
Finally, the referee announced the end of the game, and it was time to tally the points and declare a winner. The referee’s final verdict was that neither team had won, as he had either not understood the rules, or had simply forgotten to count the points.
Despite all of this, everyone was happy with a pleasant evening spent in nature with friends. Back at the car park, the party was welcomed by a rarely seen majestic sunset, which was the perfect end to the evening.
