We were "the little girls"

"I remember a lot of stories about Margaretha too. She and I were close in age and we were the younger girls, so I think I've told you we were called the little girls.

The adults used to tell

Mom is on the right here and 

Margaretha is on the left. I'm not sure

who is in the middle. This is one of many

photos in Mom's albums where she and

Margaretha are dressed alike.

about how Margaretha had a big yellow ball when she was little. Well, one time, she happened to go out at night and see the full moon, and she thought that her ball had somehow gotten up in the sky. She begged everyone to get her ball down. Everyone tried to explain but she wouldn’t hear it. Finally she got to Farfar and said, “Can’t you get my ball down?” He told her to wait where she was, and he went and found her yellow ball and brought it to her and said, “Here. I got it down.” Then she was satisfied.

Another cute story about Margaretha that the adults used to tell was about how in summertime, there used to be stepladders out in the yard, up into the cherry trees. Us little kids were not supposed to climb on those. I don’t know if Margaretha didn’t understand or forgot or what but she had climbed up a ways on one of those ladders. One of the grown-ups saw her and went to pick her down. She said, “I was up in heaven,

but now I’ve come down again.”

Another time I remember, Margaretha had been sent on an errand to Mellangården and they had just finished a meal. Tant Maria was starting to clear the table. The men were all sitting around; it wouldn’t be thought that a man would put a plate in the sink. Margaretha though ran up and started helping Tant Maria. They got all the dishes off the table. Henning sat there musing and said, “Margaretha, you’re such a good girl. I think I’ll wait until you’re grown up and marry you.” Margaretha was so mad when she came home. She said, “Mama, I will never ever marry Henning! As much as you know it!” Mama answered, “Don’t worry. By the time you’re grown up enough to get married, Henning will already have found another girl and will be married.” In the end, Henning never did find anyone. He remained a bachelor all his life.

Another "twin" picture :)

I remember one time Margaretha and I had been to see Mormor in Grönede. One of her boys had given her a box of chocolates, and they were all eaten now. She gave us the box they came in to share. We thought it was so beautiful. And how were two girls to share one beautiful box? We argued about it all the way home. We took our case to Mama, and she said if Mormor said to share then we were to share it. She decided that we could each have it for so long; I don’t remember now if it was a week or a month or what; and then the other one could have it. Margaretha still didn’t like that though. She said, “It is so much better if I get to keep the box. I have more things than you do.”

Margaretha and I spent a lot of time with the Davidssons i Mellangården

Margaretha, 1942, 18 years old

too. I think I was 12 years old when Anderssons moved. Fru Birgersson who owned Mellangården had died and a niece inherited the place. She had recently gotten married, Ingrid Davidson and Torsten, and they wanted to move in there. Anderssons bought themselves a new farm in another parish named Hagerstad and the place was named Bröth. When Davidsons came to move in, when we got home from school, Margaretha and I, Mama said we could go in and say hello to the new people and introduce ourselves. So we went in there. Tant Maria sat by the fire because it was the custom that one person stayed on the farm until the new people came. It was not just left empty. Anderssons had bought a little house for Tant Maria on Bobergskullen in Kisa. She had served them her whole life and that was their gift to her to buy her a little house, so she stayed at Mellangården until Davidsons came. I remember we ran up and gave Tant Maria a big hug. Ingrid asked if that was our grandma. We said no. I guess the way we greeted her was so enthused that she thought it must be our grandma. Davidsons had a little boy named Rune who was only a few months old when they moved in. Margaretha and I babysat him and later his siblings when they came along."

Mom and Margaretha in Stockholm

I always wanted to be like Sara

Sara's confirmation photo from 1936

"I remember how growing up, I always wanted to be like Sara. I always looked up to her. I never could quite get there. No matter how I tried, Sara was always a step ahead of me.

One time, Sara and I were sent on an errand to Mostugan. I was happy to be sent on an errand with Sara. Midi said Sara could borrow her bicycle but I could not ride it. I rode the old Fram. Maybe I should take a side trip and explain about that old bike. It was the one that we all learned to ride on including Folke i Sör and maybe even Göta. It was a Fram. I’ve never seen anybody with that make of bicycle before or after. The word Fram can also mean front and we used to make jokes that people didn’t used to know which was front or back on a bicycle so they had to label the fram on this one.

Well, as Sara and I were riding on this errand, when we came down a little ways below Björndal, there was loose gravel at the side of the road and I got in there, of course, and crashed. The bicycle handles got so crooked that Sara, and I couldn’t get them straightened out. I wasn’t so skilled yet, so I couldn’t ride it, so Sara took Fram, and I took Midi’s, and we promised not to tell.

Well, Mama had sent a bouquet of lilacs to Clara, the housekeeper in Mostugan. And oh, she was so excited to have company. She was going to treat us to homemade saft (juice) and cookies. The juice was in a bottle on the table. Well, I couldn’t read yet, but Sara could see that the bottle said Absolut brännvin.  We knew this was a drink that was Bad. Papa wouldn’t even have it in his house. That was a strong drink like whiskey. When they had bottles like that, they didn’t wash the bottles before putting the juice in because it acted like a preservative. But we had to be polite,

Sara, 1935

so we tasted the juice we were given and it tasted horrible. We tried to drink as little as possible, but we ate some cookies. Then Clara went into the kitchen to get something and Sara said, “Quick! Let’s pour the juice on a plant.” She had an indoor plant there and we poured our juice on it. Then Clara came back and saw our glasses were empty and said, “Oh you drank up all your saft. Won’t you have more?” We said, “Nej tack. Nej tack. No thank you . No thank you. We can’t drink any more.” When we came home to Mama, Sara said that Clara had given us brännvin. Of course Mama knew better and didn’t believe it. She asked what color it was and we said it was dark red. So Mama said that couldn’t have been brännvin then because brännvin looks like water. She said maybe the juice was too old and that’s why it tasted so bad. I guess the two old people didn’t drink juice so often.

I remember one time when trying to keep up with Sara didn’t work out so well for me. Faster Midi had three names; her names were Midi Sofia Otilia. My middle name was also Sofia. We thought Otilia was an awful old-fashioned name. Well, one time Sara started to tease me. She would run by and call, “Gunborg Sofia Otilia!” I got mad and I was trying to get the best of her. She had run up over Berget and down to Källebacken, and I was running after. I couldn’t think of anything else to holler but, “Sara Matilda Skitkäring” which would be like “Sara Matilda Shit-old-woman.”  Of course, that was a word we were not supposed to say. When we came down by Källebacken and I was screaming on top of my lungs, here came Tant Anna i Mellangården. She didn’t hardly ever go to the store herself because she had Henning and Lydia and Tant Maria to send, but that time she was going herself and came by our house right then. She said, “Gun come here. I wouldn’t scream like that if I was you. It doesn’t sound nice at all.” Oh how embarrassed I was. Sara was nice about it then and didn’t tease me about getting caught."

I found this photo labeled Kjettestorp Skola 1935 with no names on it. I've tried to identify some of the students. If anyone can add more names, please let me 

know :) I believe the teacher is Gunnar Brolin.

When the Telephone came to Kjettestorp

Elin and Thor, 1926 or 27

"My dad decided that he wanted a telephone. Mama had been sick. I don’t remember what was the matter, but she was in the hospital in Linköping, and Papa couldn’t take time every day to go down to the store to call and ask how she was doing. One day he sent Henrik and me to call, and Farbror Anders was going to help us. It happened that Mama was up and walking around when the call came and the nurse called her over, so she talked to Farbror Anders first and then Henrik and then she wanted to talk to me. I could hear that that was Mama’s voice but where was she? I just couldn’t understand it and I got completely tongue-tied. I couldn’t speak. I was maybe five, six, seven. Farbror Anders sat down on a chair and pulled me up on his lap and he told me what to say. That was the first time I talked on the phone. So anyway, this was part of the reason that dad decided he wanted to have a phone in our house. I know I sure didn’t do a very good job reporting back to him about how Mama was doing. He wanted to be able to call for himself.

Then it happened that one night I woke up when someone knocked on Mom and Dad’s bedroom window. Farfar was in the hospital in Kisa, and the

Thor and Elin and

Birgitta, 1948

knocking was Farbror Anders from the store. He said that the hospital had called and said that Farfar was going down hill fast. If they wanted to see him alive again, they should come as soon as possible. Well, Farbror Anders was the only person around there who had a car at that time. He needed one to go and get provisions for the store because there were no delivery trucks at that time. He had driven his car to Kjettestorp and said he would wait and take them to the hospital, if they wanted to come now. I think if they had had to go by horse and buggy, they wouldn’t have made it on time. If I remember right, they all went, Dad, Midi, Hildegard and Ragnar, and they made it on time. Farfar died that night.

Well, that got Dad even more decided to have a phone put in. People around thought, “Oh now Thor in Kjettestorp has gone completely nuts. Now he wants a phone!” One person said, “I would never have one of those things in my house! Such crazy stuff!” But Torsten and Ingrid Davidsson came from Vimmerby and Södra Vi, and they were used to having both electricity and a telephone. They were young, up-to-date people. There finally Dad had an ally; they didn’t think he was crazy for having a phone in his house. The phone

Torsten Davidsson and Thor, late 40s or early 50s

was already installed in our house when they arrived, and it didn’t take long before they wanted to come and borrow the phone to call the relatives and their parents. Pretty soon here came Lisa i Sör and wanted to borrow the telephone, and before you knew it Grässviderna had come to borrow the telephone. It was closer to come to our house than to go to the store. Well, it didn’t take long before they all wanted one of those things in their house.

And to think that now, here I sit, with a phone in my pocket. I can open it up and tell the woman in the phone, “Call Sara Home” and it does! How much things have changed in my lifetime. I think that’s another good change."

Stories of Lennart

This photo is in one of Mom's albums and is labeled "kusiner." I believe it is her paternal
cousins because it's next to a picture of adults that's labeled "Farfar, fastrar o farbröder."
In the first row, left to right, I believe we have Henrik, Sara, Brita, and baby Lennart. In the
back row, Mom is the tallest in the middle and Margaretha stands to her left. I believe the
other children are Ivar and Adela's kids, Ingegärd, Torsten and Ake, and Linnea and Gunnar's
children, Svea and Rune, but I'm not sure who is who. 

"My first real clear memory of life is from when Lennart was born. Brita and Sara, I think, guessed that Mama was going to have a baby but I didn’t understand that part. I was only five years old. They sent me to Mama to ask her if she was going to have a baby. She said, “You don’t understand that sort of thing yet. We’ll see.” If Brita and Sara had gone themselves, maybe they would have gotten an answer, especially Brita because she was ten years old.

Well, anyway, I remember the night when he was born. Margaretha and I slept in the junior bed in Mom and Dad’s room right then and all us kids were gathered up and sent to other beds. Margaretha and I were put to sleep in Hildegard’s bed. We were supposed to sleep, anyway. But Hildegard sat on a chair in the room, fully clothed, which was so odd. And everyone in the house seemed so anxious and we could hear all kinds of noises, people running back and forth. Midi came in ever so often and told Hildegard about the progress. I kept asking Hildegard what was going on, but she wouldn’t tell me anything. She just said, “Now you have to go to sleep, like I’ve told you. You can not talk any more.” So I didn’t dare to ask any more questions, but Midi would come in and whisper to Hildegard so I wouldn’t hear what she said. Well, pretty soon, I heard a baby cry and then after a bit Midi came in, and she was so excited that she said out loud, “It’s a boy.” I could see they both looked so happy then, that I went ahead and went to sleep.

Then in the morning, they combed our hair and washed our hands and faces and when we were all cleaned up, we were told we could go in and see our new little brother. Everybody rushed up to Mama’s bed. I stood in the doorway thinking that now I would never get near Mama again. If there was another one younger than me, I had no chance. Margaretha always pushed me away as it was. Mama was wise. After a bit, she saw me standing there and called me up to her side. She told me to lay my hand on the bed next to the baby and she took Lennart’s hand and laid it in mine. I was immediately so in love. I loved that little brother with all my heart then and there.

They used to say that I’d sit singing by his cot when he was going to nap. I’d sing and sing on and on. He probably wasn’t old enough to care if I was sitting there or not. When he got a little older and could sit up, I got to feed him. He’d sit in a high chair that Farfar had made out of wild hazel bush stems which were tall and slender. He warmed them up somehow so he could bend them how he wanted them.

When Lennart was little, there was a little bit of competition between Margaretha and I to see who could best look after Lennart. There probably weren’t lots of other things that we could help with very well when there was Brita and Sara to help, so we were often sent outside to look after Lennart. Morbror Kalle had made us a little wagon. It was a miniature of Dad’s hay wagon. Lennart could sit in there when he was about a year old and hang onto both sides. Margaretha was going to show that she could pull that wagon just as well as I could. She was going to pull him up onto Berget, the hill we played on, but the path up to Berget wasn’t very wide and the wagon slid off the path and tipped over and Lennart landed in a bunch of nettles. Oh how he screamed. Any of you who have touched nettles know how that stings. Mama came out and there was a bit hullaballoo. I had started to feel a little bit glad that it hadn’t gone well for Margaretha, but when I saw the welts on his soft little skin I felt so bad.

Farbror Andersson i Mellangården had a lot of trouble with his legs. When

Lennart was little, he would go over there and go with Farbror Andersson on a walk up through the fields and look at things. On their way back one time, Farbror Andersson thought it looked like Lennart was getting tired so he held out his hand and said to Lennart, “Would  you like to hold my hand if you’re tired?” Lennart said no; he could go by himself. After a bit then, I guess Lennart was getting more tired so he held out his hand to Farbror Andersson and said, “Would you like to hold my hand if you’re tired?” They walked hand in hand the rest of the way home."