Now to the Carlsson side of the family

Carl Adolf Carlsson, before he grew
the beard that Mom remembers

"Now for a while let us talk about my mother’s family. First there was Morfar. His full name was Carl Adolf Carlsson and I think both were spelled with a C. He was kind of a gruff character. He rarely ever talked kindly to us kids. He didn’t like kids. They were in the way. He had a big rough grey beard – it was not trimmed at all -- and he used snuff in the nose and it ran down the beard and it looked so yucky to me. The only time that I remember Morfar speaking in any kind of a kindly way to me was when Margaretha and I were at Mormor’s one day. We were out on the lawn, and we were trying to stand on our heads. Morfar came by and he showed us how to do it. He said to grab onto the grass in front of us and then we could stand up on our heads.

On the other hand, us kids just loved Mormor. My Mormor’s full name was Anna

Anna Mathilda and Carl Adolf Karlsson
(I can't help but chuckle over how much space
there is between the two of them!)

Mathilda Nicklasdotter. She would take me on her lap and she would sing, “Du o ja, du o ja, du o ja.” “You and I, you and I,” she would sing. I loved Mormor’s bread. Everytime I had been to mormor’s house, I carried home a loaf of bread. I don’t know how much different it could have been from mother’s but it was just that it was Mormor’s, I think. Mormor never had any teeth that I can remember. They used to tell me that I used to say, “When I grow up I’m going to be rich and I’m going to take Mormor for a ride in a car and I’m going to buy her some teeth.”

Morfar and Mormor, they had one son first. His name was Axel. I never knew Axel. He died when he was 20. I believe he had pneumonia; I’m not sure. After Axel came Oscar. He was a jolly happy man, always fun to be with. He married a girl from next door named Frida. Frida had a boy; his name was Hugo. He grew up like our cousin. He was older than Brita. Oskar, in later years, had his own building firm in Kisa. He built a lot of the houses there. One of them was his own. He called it Fridsdal, after Frida and the word “frid” means peace. Fridsdal was three stories high. A veterinarian rented the first story. I don’t remember who lived on the second story, but on the third story, Oskar and his family lived by themselves.

Oskar and Frida Karlsson, taken in 1921 or 1922

Frida was such a kind person and sweet. Every time when we were sent to Kisa on some errand on our bicycles, we always had to go up and say hello to Moster Frida. I suppose that was before we had a telephone, because we always had to go up and say hello and she always had saft and cookies. She just could not be hard on the kids. They had two kids, Karin and Axel. Karin was, I believe, a year younger than Margaretha and Axel was the same age as Lennart. Axel was a real rascal when he was little. Sara remembers that when there was any kind of family party, Frida and my mother decided which one of them should bring their little boy. They couldn’t have Axel and Lennart at the same party, because they caused so much trouble. One time Karin and Axel got into some kind of a fight and Frida couldn’t do a thing about it. She ran down the hallway to where Morbror Oskar was in his office and she called, “Oskar! Oskar! The kids are fighting!” then here comes Oskar and he just had to show up in the door and the fight was over. We had a lot of fun with Axel and Karin. We have still seen them when we go home and Axel and his wife Gerd have been visiting us here. Axel turned out a good man."