Electricity comes to Kjettestorp!

"I remember when electricity first came to Kjettestorp too. Dad thought it was time, and Torsten and Ingrid Davidson wanted electricity, so Torsten and

This photo was taken in honor of Mormor Elin's 50th birthday

Dad went to all the places around. If they got together, it would cost less to get it installed. They had to provide logs for the poles and different things. There was a man named Johan who lived in Mostugan. He had been visiting his son who lived in Tranås. He came by to tell Dad all about electric lights. “My son has a light in every room and even one outside the door.” They couldn’t hardly imagine such luxury. I remember when they first turned on the electricity to Kjettestorp. We ran around and turned on lights everywhere -- upstairs, downstairs, up in the attic. We thought it was great. One thing we really thought was great was that we didn’t need lanterns to go work in the barn anymore. A lantern you had to move from hook to hook as you were milking the cows or getting animals fed. With electricity, we turned on a switch and there was light everywhere! There was even light in the chicken house, and Mama was pleased that the chickens started to lay more eggs because they had more light.

Kjettestorp in 1929 or 1930 which means that the baby out front could be Lennart :)

It took a while but then everyone started to have refrigerators. What an improvement that was. You didn’t have to run out to the storage house everytime you were cooking. Then Morbror Oscar remodeled Mama’s kitchen. They got rid of the old brick bake oven, and she had a new stove. It was modern with enamel on the outside. They had already put in water pipes so we had a pump in the kitchen. We could pump up water, and nobody had to carry water anymore, and we didn’t need the big old barrel of water. Then they got a pressure system, and we didn’t even have to pump anymore. Then Mama got herself a kitchen machine that could make doughs when she was baking. Between the kitchen machine and the new stove, baking was much much easier. Then I remember when we got a vacuum cleaner. There was no end to the luxuries that came with electricity.

Midi, on the right, and Hildegard, on the left,
with a little girl who I can't identify.

These things did mean that there didn’t need to be so many people on the farm all the time. Ragnar had gone and taken a job somewhere else. I guess that’s how he met Hulda. Midi and Hildegard decided they wanted a little independence too, so they got a job in the Pentecostal church in Österbymo. Midi worked sort of as janitor and they got a free apartment upstairs. They were there a few years.

One time when they were here, there was going to be a party. Mama was going to be forty years old, and she wanted Midi to come and help her get ready. The other girls were not quite old enough to do all the things that needed to be done. So I was sent on the bus to Österbymo to stay with Hildegard because she had to have help with everyday things. She needed someone to comb her hair and get her socks and shoes on in the morning. That was my first trip alone out in the world. I think I was nine. Brita took me down to the schoolhouse where we waited for the bus. She stepped out to stop it and told the driver to set me off at Bethel in Österbymo. I still remember the dress I was wearing. It was a red dress with white polka dots. The skirt was cut completely round. It was called full-volang. I had little puffed

Midi outside and Hildegard inside :)

sleeves and a white collar. I remember how when I twirled around my skirt stood straight out. And that’s the dress I wore when I went to stay with Hildegard. I felt so grown up and so curious to be out taking a bus trip all by myself. I stayed there for a week.

While I was there we went to the Pentecost church meetings. They all hollered so much that I got so scared. Hildegard whispered that I could go outside. Well, outside I found the daughter of one of the couples that was in there praying, and she had a little brother about three years old who she was set to watch out there. I asked her if they always hollered like that. She said, “Oh yes and it doesn’t scare me anymore, but I don’t want to be in there.” I remember that little boy. I thought he was so cute and, we tried to teach him new words. I kept trying to get him to say Gun. One day I guess he got tired of me. He said, “I can say Gun but I don’t want to.”

 Well, when the week was over we took the bus back to Kjettestorp. On the way, Hildegard bought a cake in a bakery! A boughten cake! I’d never seen one before. I thought it was beautiful."