Shadow Shot Sunday

This iron fence and its shadow caught my eye on a walk around the old cemetery today.

And so did this sunny flowerbed: surrounded by shadows, but enjoying the spotlight of the sun in the late afternoon.

When walking through the 'valley of shadows,' remember, a shadow is cast by a Light. Austin O'Malley
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/austin_omalley_119089?src=t_shadow

Linking to Shadow Shot Sunday 2

Sunday School 1912 - Sepia Saturday 474

My contribution to the Sepia "country church" theme is not a church, but a Sunday School photo from the Swedish countryside in 1912. Must be end-of-term, in June, so almost exactly 107 years ago. The photo is glued into a photo album that my paternal grandfather got for his 50th birthday - and with Sunday School 1912 written underneath. He was born in June 1904, and this is probably the earliest photo of him that exists. The problem is that I don't know which boy in the group he is! He'd be eight years old here. My bet is on the one fourth from the left in the front row, wearing a sailor blouse - but that's just a guess (based on the shape of the face). With time, he became a journalist and a good photographer himself. He grew up in rather poor circumstances, though. I'm not familiar enough with the fashion of 1912 to guess which outfit might be considered higher status at the time: sailor blouse or suit! But obviously, whatever else you were wearing, some kind of hat was required...

Linking to Sepia Saturday 474

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)...

Post Office Letter Carriers - Sepia Saturday 473

My paternal grandfather, born 1904, was a journalist and photographer. I think this photo may have been taken by him in the mid 1920s.
 
The building is the railway station at Fristad (in the province of Västergötland, Sweden). The station house was built in 1900 - the same year my grandmother was born. (There had been an older wooden building before that.) 

The post office was also in the station house; and this photo obviously shows the postmen and coach drivers delivering the post to the village and surrounding countryside.

One of the men in this photo could be my grand-mother's older half-brother Carl. He was born in 1870 and died in 1928. Most likely the driver of the carriage on the right (without uniform).
 
Their father (my great-grandfather) Samuel, born 1835, was a farmer, and also used to deliver post back in the 1890s. The story in the family is that he met his second wife, my great-grandmother Selma, in a country store to which he delivered the post. He was a widower with several grown-up and nearly grown-up children then; while Selma was a younger widow with one daughter from her first marriage. They got married in 1898; and my grandmother Sally was born in 1900.

When Samuel retired from farming in 1903 (he died in 1907), his oldest son Carl took over the farm, and also the delivery of post. 

I posted the same photo on my blog Greetings from the past back in 2013, then linked to Sepia Saturday 182. Back then, I still had the identities of two of my grandmother's older brothers mixed up. But if the one in this photo is Carl, who died in 1928, that narrows down the date of the photo to that year at the latest. And if the photographer was my grandfather (born in 1904) I don't think it can be earlier than 1922 (probably later). 

Maybe... Just a guess, but it suddenly strikes me that 1925 may have been an occasion to have such a photo taken (and perhaps published in the local newspaper?), as that would be the 25th anniversary of the station house.

Below are two postcards published by Swedish Post in 1969, showing postal coaches from the 1880s (owned by the Post Museum since the early 1900s).

Linking to:
Sepia Saturday 473

Swedish National Day Celebration

Sweden's National Day is celebrated on 6 June in honour of two historical events: Gustav Vasa being elected king 6 June 1523, and the adoption of a new constitution 6 June 1809. 

This year offered a really warm and sunny day for it; which  meant that quite a lot of people turned up for our public celebrations in the park. Me & camera included! 

It's a good opportunity for "people watching"... But I try not to get too personal with the photography - taking most of the pictures from a distance or from behind. (Only zooming in on those up on the stage...) 

 

Parade coming from the other side of the river...

 

The children's choir is from the municipal music school.