Ragnar the youngest

Ragnar Boberg, 1915,
13 years old

"The last to be born in my father's family was Ragnar. He was 12 years old when his mother died so he lived with Mom and Dad and Farfar. He was like a big brother to us when we grew up.  I don’t know for sure how old I was when Ragnar met a girl named Hulda Fagrell. She was from Ulrika and Ragnar and Hulda were married.  I remember going to that wedding. It was wintertime and there was a snowstorm. Dad was determined to go anyway, so he hired a taxicab from Kisa to come and take us to the wedding. There was so much snow and no snow plow had gone and the taxi got too close to the edge so it got stuck in snow and Dad and the taximan would get out and shovel and then we could go some more. By the time we got there, the wedding ceremony was over but we got in on the party anyway. Us kids were very fond of Ragnar and Hulda too for that matter.

When Hulda and Ragnar were first married, they farmed her homeplace that was called Kottebo in Ulrika. They farmed there for about six years or so and then the old folks died off and Hulda’s siblings wanted their share of the farm, so it was sold, and Ragnar couldn’t farm there anymore.

Ragnar often has a smile
in photographs which was
unusual in those days
because you had to hold
your pose for a long time :)

They rented a farm outside of Linköping, and I was sent from Kjettestorp to help Hulda pack and move, and Åke Ivar’s son was sent from Sjökumla to help Ragnar. They couldn’t move everything, so they had an auction and sold a lot of things. Well, when everything was packed and ready to move, Sunday came along, and Hulda and Ragnar were going to church. They belonged to the Pentecostal church in Ulrika, and I went along. We went on two sparks. Some of you know what a spark is – it’s a sort of a sled that you stand up on and you kick along. You can ride it in the snow and ice. It has two metal runners that are bent up in front and on those runners there is built up handlebars and a seat, so you can have one passenger on a

Ragnar's smile in 1921

spark.

Well, we got to the church and we took our coats and hats off in the cloakroom and went in and sat down. We had barely sat down when a man came and sat down beside me and asked me if I didn’t want to be saved, if I didn’t want to give my heart to Jesus. He went on and on. I had been brought up Lutheran and I was terribly shy so I couldn’t think of how to answer these questions coming from a grown man who I didn’t know. I can’t remember that I answered him anything, but finally I whispered to Hulda, “I’m leaving.” I got up and put my coat and hat on and took one spark and went home.

Standing in front is Margaretha. Sitting are
Johan August, Hildegard, Elin and Thor.
Ragnar, Henrik and Midi are standing in back.
This picture is particularly interesting they're
in their everyday work clothes. I'm guessing
it was taken in 1927 or 1928.

They soon came home too but then in the late afternoon, they were going back to church. There was a potluck dinner so the church could say goodbye to them. They wanted me to come but I refused. I said I would stay home and milk the cows, so they didn’t have to hurry home. They had two cows that they were going to take along. As I was going to the barn, I realized that Ragnar had sold all of his lanterns in the auctions, so I couldn’t find one lantern. I had to take a candlestick with a candle and put that in the little window in the barn, and then I sat down to milk. After I had milked one cow, Åke came and he wondered why I was there by myself. When he heard my story, he had to make some jokes about it. He said things like Pentcostals were just louder than Lutherans all the time and the loud Bobergs were Pentecostals and the quiet ones were the Lutherans. He was Pentecost himself but he was a jolly, happy fellow and he saw the funny in it. Then he milked the other cow, so when Hulda and Ragnar came home, everything was done.

A few days later, Åke was out in the woodpile chopping wood. There was a

Hulda Boberg and Monica,
April 1948

rule that you couldn’t leave a place without wood. There had to be enough wood cut, so the next person who came in there could get started. I was in the kitchen helping Hulda and there came this preacher again. He looked at me and then told Hulda, Oh he felt so bad about that girl that didn’t want to be saved and she would soon go to hell.  I went out to where Åke was working on the woodpile and said I wouldn’t go in until that preacher was gone and I didn’t either.

When Hulda and Ragnar had been in the new place about a year, the first little girl was born. Then after another year another little girl was born. They were named Monica and Katarina, I believe. When the first girl was born, then I was sent from Kjettestorp to help Hulda, so I stayed there a couple weeks, I think. When the second girl was born, I don’t remember. I must’ve been working somewhere else. When Ragnar retired from farming, they moved to Motala, and there they belonged to the same Pentecostal church as Ivar and his family. I think they really had a fine time together, those two brothers. Ragnar worked in a factory that made electrical

This is Mom doing Bobbin Lace
or Knyppling in Swedish

bulbs, and both Hulda and Ragnar and the girls – at least the oldest girl – learned how to do knyppling. That is that lacework that you do on a little loom, set in a pillow, where you wind the thread around pins and the thread is wound onto wooden bobbins.  Ragnar had a heart problem just like his dad and he died somewhere in his 60s."