Washing Up - Sepia Saturday 792

For this week's Sepia theme, "washing up", I looked through some old photos in search of some that might show my grandparents'  kitchen sink, as I remember it from my early childhood (I was born in 1955). I found these two below - and on closer inspection, I even think they may have been taken on the same occasion, as my grandmother (Sally) is wearing the same clothes in both. 

Here she's feeding their collie Zepp a biscuit. She's standing next to a narrow cupboard next to the electric stove. To the right, next to the door (leading out into the entrance hall), is the kitchen sink with draining board.

Here she's sitting on the sofa by the window (one of two), drinking coffee, with the kitchen sink to the left. There's a small mirror on the wall above: They also often used the kitchen sink for washing hands and face, shaving etc. 

It occurred to me that if I put the two photos together edge to edge, they would show the whole small sink area. The scale is not 100% the same in both photos, but close enough...

Dishes were always washed up directly after a meal, dried with a towel and put away. In the photo the dish rack is turned up against the wall - when it was down, it covered the whole small draining board. There were no other workbench surfaces in the kitchen. The kitchen table was used for "everything".

In my childhood, they did also have WC and a bathtub installed down in the cellar, but there was no washbasin or mirror down there, and the walls and floor were raw cement... In summer they still mostly still used the old "outhouse" out in the yard. It was not until after my grandfather died (in 1969) that my dad arranged for a WC (+ washbasin) to be put in for my grandmother in what used to be a wardrobe next to the living room on the ground floor; and also a WC in a wardrobe upstairs (where there was already a washbasin in the adjoining bedroom). My grandmother pretty much only used the downstairs kitchen + living room (and slept in the kitchen) during the last years when she lived there alone, while we used the upstairs two rooms when visiting her.

After Sally moved to a retirement home in the village, and after her death, we kept the house as a holiday house. When dad retired from work (at 60), he and mum decided to move there permanently - but not until they had added a large new extension (more than doubling the living space), including a modern kitchen and bathroom + large new living room downstairs, and an enormous home office space upstairs for dad. The old living room became their bedroom; and what remained of the old kitchen (sink and stove and cupboards removed) became a sort of extra, doorless, room where some "antique" furniture and books were kept, as reminders of the past. 

Linking to Sepia Saturday 792

 

 

Picnic - Sepia Saturday 791

 

My paternal grandparents loved to go on picnics ("coffee outings") in the summer. My grandmother Sally would pack a picnic basket with a coffee thermos, cups and saucers (porcelain, not plastic), and some buns and biscuits to eat. I'm not sure who the couple in the middle are, but it's Sally to the left, and her sister Hildur with husband Olle to the right; and I think it's probably from the mid/late 1950s. 

(Black & white photo re-cropped and turned sepia by me.) 

Linking to Sepia Saturday 781

Old Cars - Sepia Saturday 782

 In one of my many envelopes, I recently found this photo, which I can't recall having made its way into any of the family albums:

This is the car my parents had in my early childhood. The photo is from my paternal grandparents' yard, and was probably snapped by my grandfather Gustaf when we were about to leave after a weekend visit. My grandmother is leaning into the back - probably saying goodbye to little me. 

Another photo of the same car, on an icy winter road. Sweden had left-hand traffic back in those days (until 1967). Whether my dad stopped on purpose just to take this photo, or the car stopped by itself, I don't know. I'm probably in the back seat here too. We lived around 100 km away from both sets of grandparents, and did quite frequently drive to visit them on weekends.

In summer, my paternal grandparents Sally and Gustaf liked to go for a drive and have a simple picnic outdoors. 

Before my parents bought the Volvo - probably in connection with little me coming into the picture - they (or my dad) had an older car, which they called Patrick. 

In this very blurry photo he's doing something with it in his parents' yard.

This I think is my parents setting off on their honeymoon, in 1954. 

A couple of years before they got married (I think they had just about started "dating"), my mum was a teacher in a small countryside school, for a small number of pupils of varying age. There weren't many books for the youngest, and my mum then made some of her own (with her own illustrations). One of them is about a young troll getting a lift by an old car called Patrick (with a tendency to sometimes stop "for no apparent reason").

I've used some of these photos before, in older Sepia posts:

Sepia Saturday 590 (2021), Sepia Saturday 679 (2023)

Linking to Sepia Saturday 782

Old Friends - Sepia Saturday 781

 

Gamle Andersson, Tvärred

Old Man Andersson, Tvärred

If not for a note scribbled on the back of this photo (probably by my dad, when sorting old photos left behind from his dad), I wouldn't have had a clue. I also found it in the envelope marked "Tvärred", though (a place name) - where most of the photos involve the brothers Anders and Evert Andersson (who have appeared in other recent Sepia posts on this blog). So I suppose I might have made a bold guess anyway, that this was probably their father. 

"Sometimes all you need is a name. You can be sorting through a pile of old family photographs, desperately trying to work out if the subject is your Great Uncle Joe or Cousin Mabel's young nephew, when you suddenly find a name pencilled on the reverse of the photograph..."

(Alan Burnett, Sepia Saturday 781)

This photo does not have names scribbled on the back, but (even more unusual) a date: 10.08.64 (10 August 1964), which pins it down in time. And in this case, I can add the names, and even the place, myself. The man to the right is my grandfather Gustaf (at age 60); and the one behind him his brother-in-law Olle. The man to the left is Edvin Kornelius - as I remember it, usually just referred to by his last name. And the place is the small farm Källeberg, where he lived together with his sisters Annie and Ellen. (From another source, I know that the three of them inherited the place in 1937.)

Olle's wife Hildur and Edvin's sister Annie both died in 1964. I don't have the exact date of death for either of them; but I guess that this visit to Källeberg was probably after both those women died. 

In my own early childhood photo album there is an earlier photo that includes them both, from the summer of 1957:

Standing: Olle & Hildur (my grandmother's sister with husband), my grandmother Sally with me (barely 2 years old) on her arm, Annie and Edvin Kornelius. Sitting: Ellen Kornelius, my mum and dad, and my grandparents' dog Zepp. (My grandfather no doubt behind the camera.)

My grandparents, Hildur & Olle, and the siblings Kornelius were all old friends; and the middle photo of the three men brought Simon & Garfunkel's song "Old Friends" to mind for me...

♫ Old friends

Memory brushes the same years

Silently sharing the same fears ♫

Linking to Sepia Saturday 781

 

Midsummer Family Gatherings - Sepia Saturday 780

My grandfather Gustaf was born on Midsummer Eve, 23 June 1904.

Back in those days, Midsummer Day, also known as St John's Day, was always celebrated on the 24th - and Midsummer Eve thus always on the 23rd. Since 1952, however, St John's Day/Midsummer Day is always celebrated on a Saturday, and Midsummer Eve on a Friday. So during my own whole life, Midsummer Eve has always been a Friday, but the date shifting from one year to another.

But for my dad, back in his childhood, Midsummer always coincided with his dad's birthday - and my grandparents liked to make use of that for annual extended family gatherings. 

I've never had the impression that these parties involved any dancing and singing etc round a traditional Midsummer Pole (maypole), though. (I suspect my grandmother probably found those traditions "pagan", even if I can't actually recall anyone talking about that.) 

I just recently "re-found" a series of six  photos from family midsummer gatherings taking place between 1937-1948. (The years added on the back of them by my dad.) I remember using these for a display at my dad's funeral back in 2011, as his cousins, also included in these photos, were also among the guests attending.

1937

In this photo, my dad, Bertil, born 1931, had not yet turned 6 years old. He's the one furthest to the right of the three standing. The two to the left of him must be his cousins Sten (also born 1931), and Bernt (1932). Their father was my grandmother Sally's brother Nils, who is standing furthest to the left, holding yet another boy, who must be the third one in that family: Olof. The next year, those three brothers would also be getting a little sister, but she's not in the picture yet. Behind my father stands an old woman with head-scarf and glasses - that's my great-grandmother, Selma. I also recognise my grandmother Sally, her sister Hildur, and Hildur's husband. The rest of the people I can't identify, but they're probably "in-laws" from Nils' wife's family. 

1939

In the photo from 1939, my dad (soon to turn 8) is the boy with glasses, to the left. The baby girl, on her mother's arm, must be cousin Marianne - born 1938. A bit unusual is that for once, the "birthday boy" himself, Gustaf, is also included: standing furthest to the right. (Makes me wonder who was behind the camera!)

1940

In the photo from 1940, my dad is hiding behind a taller cousin...

1941

In 1941, my great-grandmother Selma is no longer in the picture. She died in March that year (five months before she would have turned 80). With the photo enlarged now, I notice that Gustaf is actually included in this photo, too - right in the middle in the back row.

1942

A smaller gathering in 1942, it seems - but all the boys present. My dad still the only one with glasses. I'm not sure who is who among the others, or who the fifth one is - but probably "a cousin of the cousins", on their mum's side. 

1948

Skipping forward to 1948, and who knows what the teenage boys were up to... The girl must be cousin Marianne, now 10 years old. My grandmother Sally behind her, holding a cat. The woman to the left of her I think I recognise as a "friend" rather than relation.

Happy Midsummer to all my fellow "Sepians"!

PS. After having finished this post, I find that I've used the same photos before on this blog, in a post from 2023, entitled Nils, the Bus Driver - for Sepia Saturday 681. (99 Sepia Saturdays ago!) 

Linking to Sepia Saturday 780