The Boberg Kids

Brita Boberg, 1919

"Now, of course, you know my brothers and sisters, but I thought I would try and give you all of their information really quick. We can check later if I got the dates all right. So, Mom and Dad were married in October of 1917 and Brita was born in 1918. Her full name was Anna Brita but she pretty much was never called that. Next came Henrik in 1919. His full name was Johan Henrik. He died when he was 16; I believe it was '35 or '36. Well, next to be born was Sara Matilda in 1921. Then came me Gunborg Sofia in 1923 and Elin Margaretha in 1924. The baby of the family was Lennart born in 1928.

With six kids, it was sometimes hard to keep track of all of us. One time when, I think I was two years old, they were going to have a party for Farfar; he was 60

Henrik Boberg, 1920

years old. They were so busy working all of them that no one was paying attention tome for a little while. I had seen Dad go with the horse and the hay wagon down towards the schoolhouse so I set after. Of course I don’t remember this; adults told me this story later.

Dad came over a hill from a field where he had been working. I think he was hauling in grain because Farfar’s birthday was in September. He just came over that hill and he saw me. You who have been there, you know that when you go down the first hills, there is a kind of flat space for a while. Dad saw me there, my blond head almost out of sight over the hill, running like a two-year-old does. He called to me. If he hadn’t come

Mom, about 3

in that moment, I would have continued on down to the school house and what would have happened to me there, no one knows. I heard him and stopped and ran to him to meet him. He picked me up and put me on top of the load. To spare the horses, Dad usually walked up that steep hill. You know how steep that is and Dad was so careful with his horses. When he came to the house, everyone was running around the yard frantic looking for me; I had disappeared. They looked up and saw me there sleeping on top of the grain.

One time, they used to tell us, Sara disappeared. We had been playing hide and seek, and she went in the vagnsboden, the wagon room, and there was chest in there where they kept some things. I guess it looked like a good place to hide. When no-one came to find her soon enough, she fell asleep. We thought everyone had been found, but then realized that there was no Sara. Eventually, I guess one kid thought of going in there with the wagons. We used to crawl down in front of the

Sara, about 5

sled when we played hide and seek, but when they came in there, someone thought of looking in that box, and there lay Sara sleeping. There were a lot of funny incidents. I repeat myself I’m sure, and you have to forgive me for that, and I’m sure I forget some things too. But I’ll talk more about my siblings later."

Baby Lennart in Elin's arms

Baby Margaretha