Book, Coat and Cross

This is the hymnal that Mom got for confirmation. It's the 1937 revision of Den Svenska Psalmboken and it's tiny! The photo with my thumb shows how small the print is.

When I was a kid, the church didn't have hymnbooks in the pews like they do now. You had to bring your own. All the other kids in the family got their own hymnbook when they were confirmed. When I was confirmed, the church was in the process of making a new version of the hymnal, so Dad said, "We'll give you one when they get it done." I did get one about 15 years later for Christmas. I still have it and it's a beautiful book.

But at the time then, because I was being so responsible and getting to confirmation and to church, Mama thought I should have a summer coat, so she and I went on the bus and we went to a store in Kisa called Fabriksboden. They

This photo shows the dress Mom wore when

she was confirmed and the cross that her

parents gave her :)

had clothing for all ages at a little lower price than other places. Well, we found a coat that was supposed to cost 25 crowns. It was a little too long though. Mama said, "I can alter it myself if you give it to me for 23 crowns." The clerk said ok. This coat was off-white with brown top-stitching, double-breasted with brown buttons in front. The pockets had brown top-stitching too. We came home to Papa and showed him the coat and told him the story. He said, "I'm proud of you Mama. Du har judat med en jude." I didn't understand what this meant at the time but later I realized he was saying, "You have jewed down a jew." Well that was the first coat that I ever had that was mine from the beginning. I had always had hand-me-downs before that. That winter Mama took me to a woman

she knew who did difficult sewing and she had this woman make a winter coat for me. That coat was green and around the collar and on the pockets,

Amanda still has the cross :)

there was fake leopard fur. Mama had the lady make me a muff too because that was the style right then for teenage girls and that was also out of the fake leopard fur.

When I was actually confirmed, Mama and Papa gave me a cross; it was a very plain silver cross. I gave that cross to Amanda when she was confirmed, a little more than 60 years later.