Time Travel (On the Trail of Our Ancestors)

(3 August, continued)  

On our way back from lunch at the old mill café, I wanted (if possible) to check some distances between a few places in the neighbourhood of where our paternal grandparents grew up. Back in July 2012 we managed to locate both the farm where our grandmother was born and lived until she got married (easy enough to find), and the small wooden cottage on the grounds of a neighbouring farm where our grandfather grew up (more difficult to find the way to). But I forgot back then to make note of the distances. Over the years since then, I have been going through a lot more old photos and letters and family history; and often find myself wishing I had a better grip of places frequently mentioned.

However, this time we even failed to find our way back to the childhood home of our grandfather. Rereading my old post from 2012 again now, I'm thinking we probably made some of the same mistakes now as we did back then - and gave up quicker... On the other hand, as our last expedition was 12 years ago, even more thoroughfares on narrow dirt roads across farm land may also actually have been closed to the public since then. So we decided not to pursue. I did get one distance properly confirmed, though - between the farm house and the railway station (which back at the beginning of the previous century also served as post office) it's around 1½ km (or 1 English mile). Just about the same distance as my own walk into the town centre these days - so not really "all that" far.

We also drove a roundabout way (more car-friendly) to one of the other places often mentioned in my grandmother's letters (Komlösa). A hundred years ago, I understand there was a chapel there that she walked to sometimes. Nowadays there is a rural museum with a collection of old wagons at an old farm in that neighbourhood. They're the kind of museum that is only open occasionally, though - or on special request. Their website did say it would be open on Saturday afternoons throughout summer (June-August); but when we got there, it looked as closed as the last time we tried (also years ago). We wandered around a bit outside but no person appeared. Never mind - I got a few nice countryside photos, anyway!

 

Time Travelling on a Rainy Day

 

 

Yesterday was another very rainy day in July - definitely more like October in terms of how you'd better dress to go out! (And picnics definitely better held indoors.)

The illustrations above were made by me some sixty years ago, and are parts of a calendar that I made for my paternal grandmother - presumably either for Christmas, or her birthday. The drawings were in a sort of frame where one could change the picture for each month. (For some reason, three out of the twelve months are missing now, but I assume all were included originally.)

While it's been raining this July, I've been spending some time going through boxes of old letters etc. Reading, sorting, shredding... in order to at least reduce the amount...

I come from a family of hoarders and writers. My paternal grandfather was a journalist with local history as his special interest. My dad was a railway enthusiast who spent much of his spare time writing books about Swedish railway history. In their retirement years, both my parents were engaged in a local history society; and mum also contributed personal memories for the National Museum of Nordic history (in answer to questionnaires).

After our parents died, my brother and I inherited a house full of hoarded stuff - and not least loads of "paperwork". We donated boxes of papers and photos to the local history society, and had a truckload (literally!) of this and that collected by the national railway museum. When we finally sold the house, quite a bit of family-related stuff still came home with me, though. Ten years later, I'm still (periodically) sorting through old letters, family history notes, photos, postcards and other memorabilia... 

Through my nearly 69 years of life, I have of course also managed to hoard some similar stuff of my own - even if living in flats rather than in a house of my own during my adult years has set certain limits.

Neither I nor my brother have any younger generation of close family to pass things on to, though. So my aim is to try to keep "organising and reducing", while I'm still able. 

It's a slow process, though, because every time I start going through something, I find myself travelling back in time... Whether it's laying the puzzle of my parents' or grandparents' lives before I myself was even in the picture - or reviving my own memories. 

Yesterday, I (re)found a pack of letters and drawings from myself to my paternal grandmother (saved first by her, and then by my parents).

The earliest one, I think, is from when I was about 3½ years old. Before I was born, my mum was a teacher for young children. After I came into the picture, she was a housewife with her own baby as her only pupil. It seems she started teaching me to write already when I was around three...

Alas it is in Swedish, so most of you reading this can't fully enjoy my phonetic spelling. But the deciphered message runs: "Hi Grandma, today I've been out playing with Åse and Pia and Amari (=Anne-Marie). I have drawn a picture for you. Monica"

My mum (in an enclosed letter) claims only to have helped "a little"... 

To save her mother-in-law from too much headache, she also interprets the drawings: The first one shows two girls (I'd say a mum and daughter!) and a clothes line with washing hanging on it. The other one a nursery with a baby lying on the bed. (Note: My brother wasn't born until I was six. I do seem to recollect having wished for a sibling when I was much younger, though...)

Elsewhere and in Another Time

Oops, I see that somehow a week has flown by again without me posting anything new here. The rather summery temperatures have continued - but changing now, and it seems to be getting a bit more autumn-like again. I've been out on my daily walks, but just along the same old paths as usual; and for the most part I've let the camera rest. 

The thing is, in my head I've spent a lot of this week Elsewhere and in Another Time - which is not all that easy to illustrate by photos from the Here and Now...

Just now, I let Bing Image Creator have a go at it, though. My first instruction was simply 'Time Travelling 1920s' - which, for some reason, only rendered pictures of Men. I added the word 'Woman' for another search; and then created this collage using images from both:

Time Travelling 1920s - Images by Bing Image Creator

I also tried the phrase I used above - "Elsewhere and in Another Time". Besides mystic images, that also seems to have inspired Bing to invent a whole new language...

 

The "real story" is not quite as mysterious as all that; but it involves recently having been contacted by A Stranger, who some time ago happened to come across two of my ancestors in his own research for a book. And then he found me via my family history blog... 

 

And it is a little bit delicate, as he's writing about people (including my two ancestors) who ended their lives in a certain mental hospital. His book project is about trying to bring some of those tragic fates out of anonymity. Besides a draft of his chapter about my relatives, he also offered to send me scanned copies of their hospital records that he'd been able to access from visiting a physical archive (most of the hospital records so old now that they're no longer confidential). As I've been digging into that part of family history a bit myself, none of it was shocking news to me; and I don't mind him writing about it. But I've not had access to the full hospital records before, so I said 'yes please' to that... And I'm now spending some time comparing those to my own private family documents, to see what I can perhaps add. So that's where my mind has been a lot during the past week!  

Time Travelling

Oops, I see it's been over a week since I last put in a post here. This will be a quick one just to reassure you that I'm still "around"...

... even if I kind of feel like I've spent the past week "travelling in time" ... From the early 1900s (continuing to explore old inherited postcards), to WWII (reading a new biography about Count Folke Bernadotte) - to about a month into the future (making plans for a little summer holiday trip with my brother again)...

A Walk around Jurassic Park

Today I had a somewhat unusual goal for my walk.
Going back in time, you might say…

 

Sandra: ▲These two made me think of your Leonard and Lizzie… Slightly enlarged! (LOL) (Although in this case, it seemed to be “Lizzie” flashing her collar at her male companion...)▼

It was really all much too artificial to be scary, until…

… this one unexpectedly started walking around, tapping people on the shoulder! (You wouldn’t hear it coming up behind you, because of all the general background roaring and noise! Have to admit I felt lucky I saw it first – and even then I actually preferred to keep my distance!)

It’s a travelling expo, only in town for a few days… From the advert I think I had expected it to be a little bit more scientific and not quite as much “funfair”. Doubtful if it was really worth the entrance fee (~ $/£ 15 for grownups, 10 for children – for a whole family that could add up to a lot of money). Ah well… For me, certainly an experience “out of the ordinary”, anyway!

(And what doesn’t a blogger do to get a few photos… )

Cheekily linking this post to Friday My Town/Rain and Thunder.
(It did not actually rain today; it was just cloudy. But there was a lot of fake lightning and thunder going on inside that tent…)

Steam Train Nostalgia

- Excuse me, can you tell me what time it is, please?

- Hard to say, ma’m. Time seems to be all muddled up today. I swear I can’t even tell whether it’s supposed to be 1863 or 2013! I think the train from The Past is due to arrive any minute now, though.

 

Oops, here comes a modern day train as well!

Now then, lets have some serious STEAM.

What’s this, there’s smoke coming from the other end of the train as well…?

Turned out they had one steam engine at each end.

Here we go with a magnificent puff of steam.
Hoooooooot! Hoooot!

My Dad would have loved this, had he still been among us. (He died two years ago.) 25 years ago he wrote a book about the history of this railway line (Borås-Herrljunga) for its 125th anniversary. Yesterday the 150th anniversary was celebrated in the village where he lived half his life – first in his childhood and then again in his old age.

My brother was here for a couple of days, mainly to celebrate my birthday (Thursday). Dad’s birthday was the same day, by the way. Anyway, since this jubilee happened to take place the same weekend, we decided to take a peek at some of the events, before Per drove back home on Saturday afternoon. They had a full day’s schedule in the village; we only hung around for an hour or so before lunch though. But enough to see the steam train leave for Borås, and then come back again about an hour later, and take off in the other direction. (They went back and forth a few times during the day.)

The sky itself seemed to “join in” with some steam clouds of its own to match the occasion.

 

I’ll be doing a separate post showing some vintage cars we saw as well.

Book Review: One Lane Bridge

One Lane Bridge: A Novel, by Don Reid (2010)
****

J. D. is a busy middle-aged man who suddenly finds himself facing both family and business problems – nothing too out of the ordinary, but a lot to cope with all at once. He and his wife run two restaurants, and when cash begins to disappear from one of them, he and his wife disagree about how to deal with the problem. At the same time their daughter comes home unexpectedly, wanting to drop out of college; and on top of that he is worrying about his mother who has recently moved into a nursing home.

One evening, to clear his mind, J. D. goes for a drive on his own in the countryside. He drives over an old one lane bridge, and then the car breaks down. He walks up to an old farmhouse to ask for water for the radiator; and finds a poor family with problems worse than his own.

Their situation continues to bother him, and he decides to go back and offer them some help. But when he does, accompanied by his wife, he can't find the place. The old one lane bridge is simply no longer there – instead there is a modern two lane bridge. J.D. is quite sure that he has not lost his way and that it is the right place – it’s just not the right time!

While J. D. struggles to find his way back to help the strangers in the past, his behaviour creates a further strain on the relationship with his wife; and even his best friend thinks he's crazy.

I found myself liking this book. It’s different, in that it manages to combine very realistic everyday events and relationships with things completely out of the ordinary (time-travel). I particularly admire the author’s ability to let both worlds (or times) remain important, not only to J.D. but also to me as reader.

If I had to compare this book to another one, The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger comes closest in my mind – but not too close!

If you like every loose end neatly tied up at the end, this book may disappoint a little in that respect. Personally, however, I found that to contribute to the illusion of realism.

One of the points I think the author is trying to make in this story is that we’re all connected both with the past and the future – also in ways that go beyond the bonds of immediate family.

(This ebook was temporarily free when I got it; it is no longer free, but not very expensive either. It’s one of the better contemporary ones that I’ve found for free so far.)