Kungsholm, the circus, Svea i Såg & birthdays

"There are so many stories about growing up at Kjettestorp that I’d like to tell. I’m sure I’ll end up repeating myself some, but here are some small stories that I don’t think I’ve told yet.

This is a Kungsholm hat ribbon that sold on Ebay a while back :)

One time I remember we had gotten what we called sailor hats. It was a round hat with a band on it and on the band said Kungsholm. Kungsholm was a new boat that had been built to go to America. We would put them on our heads with a little bit of a tilt, but Hildegard said, “Put them straight. You look like gangsters.” So we had to put them straight on our heads when we went to school but as soon as we were down below the first hill, we tilted our caps again. That’s kids for you.

This is a little tiny picture from one of Mom's

albums. It's about 1/2 an inch wide. I've 

blown it up as much as I can, and I still

can't tell who it is or where or when it is.

Any ideas?

Another happy time I remember was when a circus came to town. Ragnar was going to take us kids and Folke i Sör to see the animals. We didn’t even think of going to the circus show. That was in the evening anyway, but in the afternoon, people could go see the animals. These were exotic animals that none of us had ever seen before. Well, Ragnar had Margaretha on the back of his bicycle. I rode Fram. That was the first time I rode a bicycle all the way to Kisa by myself. Henrik and Brita and Sara and Folke all came. The roads were more peaceful then, of course. Nowadays, the way cars and trucks go, you couldn’t put a bunch of kids on most roads, but I don’t think we saw any cars at all. How we enjoyed looking at those animals. I don’t remember all they had, but I remember elephants. I had never seen a live elephant before and I don’t think any of the other kids had either. They were so so big and yet they had eyes and mouths and feet just like animals we knew. We were amazed that they could be so big and be a living thing.

This is another small photo from one of Mom's albums. It's

labeled "K i Grönede." I found a very similar photo on

kindabild.se and the information there says "KG Karlsson, 

 Grönede, 1912." Might this be Mom's Morbror Kalle?

Sometimes you do things when you’re a kid and you don’t know it affected somebody until later. I think I’ve talked about the Svenssons i Såg. They weren’t very well off. I saw the daughter in the family Svea in Kisa one time when I was working in Stockholm. I had come home on vacation and was walking in Kisa, and I met Svea, and she said, “Now I’m going to thank you for what you did for us when we were in school.” She said they had worn mended clothes and there was a girl named Tyra who was always making fun of Svea and her mended clothes. She said, “We always had clean clothes but we didn’t have new ones.” Well, apparently at some point, I stood up to Tyra and told her that if she didn’t stop I was going to tell my dad and he was on the school board. I don’t think I threatened with my dad at any other time.

Margaretha had been sick when she was little. I’m not sure what it was. In those days, lots of times, the only thing they knew to do was to give bedrest. They would put out a little white cradle in summertime and Margaretha had to sit in there. Other kids played around her and played with her some.  It was hard on her having to sit there and hard on us having to stay right close to her, but after a time, she got better.

Birthdays were always special when we were kids. First thing in the morning, Dad would go into the room of whoever had the birthday and he would play violin. We would come after with a tray of some saft and some cookies or bullar. Dad loved to sing. He had a good tenor voice and he would sing with us a lot. One song that he especially liked to play on his violin was on a record that he sent me one Christmas. It got to me. I sat here playing it on the old record player and weeping and remembering happy times. It was called “Morgon mellan fjällen.” (To hear her sing it, click the video below :) Sorry Amanda but I had to sing it when I was thinking about the happy old times we had and how we used to sing, but now you have proof that your talent doesn’t come from me."