When Farfar, then Henrik, then Mormor died

"Now I guess I need to talk about the years when there were partings, when Farfar, then Henrik, then Mormor died.

Johan August Karlsson Boberg
1865-1933
photo taken in 1921

Our Farfar died in 1933. I don’t remember too much about it because the three little kids were not taken along to the funeral. I think I already told you what I remember about the night that Farfar died. The only other thing I remember is that they had coffee in Kjettestorp afterwards. The organist in church was named Bernard Diebert. His wife had the most beautiful hairdo. As she sat in salen underneath the wall clock, I admired her hairdo. She had short hair in waves that laid flat against her head. I thought she was the most beautiful woman. Funny what sits around in the attic of your mind.

In 1935, Henrik died. He hadn’t been well. They called it sleeping sickness. He could be walking home from school and fall asleep in mid-step and fall down on the ground. So when they sent Henrik on any errands anywhere, when he had a horse and wagon, they always sent me along. I guess I wasn’t so much use around home then, but I could wake him up and see that someone held onto the reins of the horse so they didn’t shy or run away too fast. This meant that I talked a lot to Henrik while we ran these errands. He used to tell me, “I don’t know why God doesn’t take me home. I have asked him. I know I’m not like the other boys.” He had prayed and prayed. He could never take part in any sports and he wanted to go home to God in heaven.

Henrik Boberg      1919-1935

confirmation photo taken in 1935      

Well, that summer, Henrik and Sara and I were signed up to ride bicycles to Kisa to go to swim school. The Sunday before we were going to start, Henrik was down in Pinnarsbaden with some other boys. He asked them to show him how to swim. He was kind of embarrassed not to know. He was kind of a big kid, 14 years old, 14 and a half. He was just confirmed. Well, however it happened, he got into some kind of hole. A lot of those lakes have underwater streams or currents that you don’t see from the top. There can be whirl or twirls in there, and the water draws you under. Well, he got under the water and he drowned. There was a doctor down there who had a summer home. He came to help right away but there was nothing that could be done. His heart had stopped.

I remember when somebody came and told us that Henrik had died and Mama was at the neighbor’s. Papa went down to Pinnarsbaden, and we didn’t want to be alone when Mama came home. When Mama came, I don’t know where Sara and Brita were. I found myself just standing and looking at Mama. She looked at me and said, “What’s the matter with you little Gun?” I didn’t know if I should tell her or not. I couldn’t speak. Right then, though Papa came back and wanted to take Mama with him. Anders Carlsson was there again with his car and took them down to the hospital where they had taken Henrik, so they could see him for the last time.

When they came home, two of Mama’s brother came and stayed all night. Mama and Papa probably didn’t get much sleep. Evening had come. Margaretha and Lennart didn’t really understand what was going on. I don’t think that I understood it the same way as the others did either. I ran into Mellangården and said, “Snälla Tant Anna (Please Tant Anna) come in and fix some supper. Margaretha and Lennart are crying because they’re hungry.” So she took me by the hand, and we went back into our house. She fixed something to eat, and I think she saw to that we all got to bed too.

Mama used to tell me afterwards that when she cried, I would say, “Mama don’t cry. He’s at home in heaven like he wanted to be. He asked God to take him home.” That was very hard for the whole family.

I remember the first Christmas after Henrik had died. Us kids were all in

salen, so happy and waiting to get things going. We had to eat first and read the scriptures before we got presents. We were so excited. Mama and Papa

didn’t come and didn’t come. I couldn’t wait, so I ran to the kitchen. Just as I ran in there, I saw Papa sitting in a chair with his heads in his hands and he

Anna Mathilda

Niklasdotter Carlsson

1862-1937

was crying. I heard Mama say, “Come on, Thor. Now we have to do for the living. We can’t do any more for Henrik.” I was sharp enough to realize that this was their moment together, so I crept back into salen and closed the door. Then they soon came in.

In 1937, Mormor died. I was in Kisa helping look after Tant Johansson at that time. Her daughter Anna and I stood by the window one day and saw Morfar and Mama and Morbror Oscar, Morbror Nisse, and Morbror Ernst walking across the square going up to Oscar’s house. Anna said, “Now little Gun, I think you should run up to Moster Frida’s house. I think your Mormor has died.” So I went up to Fridsdal, and I found Mama laying down on one of the kids’ beds. I crawled up next to her in bed and cried my heart out. My precious Mormor had died. It was never the same again to go to Grönede when Mormor wasn’t there."

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."

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."

Brita was the perfect oldest sibling

"Brita was the oldest one of us six kids. She was the perfect one to be the oldest sibling. She was such a neat person. She could never get dirty. In school, she hated to hold hands with some of the other kids. We didn’t have a place to do gymnastics of any kind, so sometimes we would push all the benches and desks off to the sides of the room and do something there like ringdances and such. For some of those, you had to hold hands. There was one girl who they said always had sniffles on her hands because her nose was always running. Brita refused to hold hands with her. Brita was the one who looked after us little ones. I don’t blame her for getting tired of us at times. All through the years, if we needed something and Mama was too busy, we would go to Brita.

One time, we were out riding bicycles, and Brita and Folke i Sör crashed in the corner of the house there. Brita was always such an orderly kid. She never really got dirty and always washed her hands if they got any dirt on them at all. Well, she got so mad at this crash because she hit the ground on her hands and knees. She hollered at him, “It’s your fault! Don’t you know that you’re supposed to ring your bell when you come to corners!” The rest of us sort of chuckled because we didn’t remember Brita ringing her bell either.

When we got older, Brita was the only one who gave me any kind of instruction in how I developed as a woman. My mother never mentioned a word. There was no such thing as buying sanitary napkins in the store. They used to have homemade ones. One time when they had one of the big washings

This is one type of mangle. They were used

to squeeze water out of freshly washed 

clothes before the clothes were hung up

to dry. This helped the dry faster :) 

that I’ve talked about before, Mama and Midi were upstairs working the big mangle. They would fold the sheets and tablecloths in such a way and run them through that mangle. One would stick it in one side and one would ease it out the other side, while kids turned the crank and made it go. One time I was doing the turning, and I asked about the sanitary napkins: “What is that?” Mama and Midi looked at each other and smiled a bit and Mama said, “You’re not old enough yet to need them. You’ll know when the time comes.” When I asked Brita later, she told me I wouldn’t need them until I was really a woman, and I thought I was still a kid, so then I didn’t worry about it. Later when it did come, Brita explained to me what to do and how I needed to take care of it.

Moster Brita cross-stitched these little

people who dance along the front

of one set of shelves in my kitchen :)

Brita was always really good at handicrafts. She did a lot of cross-stitch. She made some beautiful tablecloths with cross-stitch around the edges and all kinds of other things too. She taught me a lot about how to keep your thread taut and your stitches even. She could knit beautifully too.  You who know how much I have knitted in my life now might find it funny to hear that at one time, I failed at knitting in school. Girls did those kinds of things in school then. I was supposed to knit a sock. You use four needles and you knit with the fifth around in circles and I had the worst time with the heel. I knit it, and my teacher ripped it out. I knit it again, and the teacher ripped it out again. My stitches were too uneven and ugly. I don’t remember for sure now how many times this went on, but one day, I went to Mama, and I cried. Well, Mama thought that had been enough. She took the knitting and handed it to Brita and told her to do it for me. When I showed it to the teacher the next day, she said, “You didn’t do this.” I said, “No Brita did it because Mama told her to.” The teacher let it go then. I think she might have been a little scared of Mama. I was sure

grateful  to Brita for that heel.

One other thing, Brita took me to the first movie I ever saw. I think I was 16 years old the first time I was allowed to go with Brita and Sara to see Snövit och de Sju Dvärgarna! (Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.)"