A letter from Sally to Gustaf, written on Monday before Easter, 1930. Sally, Hildur, Nils and Carin (Nils' fiancée) have been on long car trip. Sally does not mention the purpose of the trip (Gustaf no doubt knew that already) - the letter focuses on the troubles they ran into on their way home. But she does mention the name Hjelmsered - modern spelling Hjälmseryd - which is in the province of Småland, 140 km or so (~87 miles) from their home village, Fristad. This tells me that they had probably been to the wedding between Carin's brother Verner and his fiancé, for which an invitation was mentioned in an earlier letter - cf. my post for Sepia Saturday 665. Ulricehamn, also mentioned here, is a town around 35 km (22 miles) away from Fristad. (Distances approximate and may have been even longer back then, depending on the roads). The wedding is likely to have been on Saturday, with an overnight stay for them there, and then driving back on Sunday.
Storegården, 14 April 1930 [Monday before Easter]
My Darling,
Well, thankfully we're now back home again, after a long and difficult journey. Nils didn't get back home until this afternoon. He stayed the night on the other side of Ulricehamn, after the rest of us had gone home, and fixed one of the tires. You see, one tire got a puncture even before we reached Hjelmsered yesterday afternoon. And unfortunately we didn't have a spare one. Nils tried pumping it up several times, and that got us close to Ulricehamn, but that was it.
Nils then had to go somewhere to borrow a bike, and then down to Ulricehamn to get a cab to come and get the rest of us and drive us all the way home – i.e. Hildur, Carin and me. Nils stayed behind, spent the night alone in the car, and has today got the tire mended, and now he too is safely back home. Otherwise we're all all right - just very tired after all the hardships. Because of all the stops along the way we didn't get home until around 2 o'clock in the morning. It was the most difficult and despairing trip I've ever been on. Sitting on the road in the countryside in the middle of the night, far from home, and seeing no way to get back home really is despairing. When you get here, I'll tell you all the details if you want to hear them. Just now I'm just happy that we're all back home again.
I do hope you'll be coming on Thursday. I can't wait. Today Olle is going to get started on the well, he said last night when we got back. He was here with Mum when we got home, which was a blessing, as she was of course devastated that we were so delayed. And it would have been even worse if she'd been alone.
Signing off with lots of love to you, my Darling. Looking forward to seeing you on Thursday!
Yours, Sally
"Olle is going to get started on the well". This refers to the well on the property where Sally and Gustaf were building their house. Access to water was of course at the top of their priority list, before they got started on the house itself. Olle, Hildur's fiancé, was a carpenter, and built the well for them. I knew that already, because I also have the bill he sent to my grandfather for the finished job - dated 26 April. 1930.
I've probably shown this photo mor than once before, but it's one of my favourites: My grandparents, Sally and Gustaf, behind the well at the property where they're going to build their house!
Linking to Sepia Saturday 669
Storegården d. 14-4-30
Min Älskling!
Ja nu äro vi, som väl är, hemma igen efter en lång och besvärlig resa. Nils kom hem först i dag på e.m. Han har liggat ett stycke på den andra sidan Ulricehamn, sedan vi reste hem i natt, och lagat den ena av bilringarna. Du förstår att den ena ringen gick sönder redan innan vi voro framme i Hjelmsered i går e.m. Och så till all olycka hade vi ingen reservring med oss. Nils låg väl och försökte att laga den så att vi med tillhjälp av åtskilliga pumpningar kunde taga oss en bra bit ner mot Ulricehamn, men sedan var det också stopp.
Nils måste då gå till ett ställe och få tag i en cykel, och så ner till Ulricehamn efter en droskbil som hämtade oss och skjutsade oss ända hem. Det var bara Hildur, Carin o jag som voro med. Själv stannade Nils kvar, övernattade i bilen ensam och har i dag lagat ringen, så nu är även han lyckligt hemma. För övrigt äro vi ju oskadda, men så trötta efter alla strapatserna. Resan blev ju också, på grund av att vi fingo sitta så länge på vägen gång på gång, fördröjd, så vi voro ej hemma förrän vid 2-tiden i natt. Det var den besvärligaste och mest förtvivlade resa jag varit med om förut. Att sitta ute på landsvägen nattetid så långt från hemmet, och inte se någon utväg att komma hem är förtvivlat. När Du kommer hit skall jag i detalj återgiva händelseförloppet om Du vill höra på mig. Jag känner mig så lycklig över att vi alla äro hemma igen.
Nu kommer Du väl riktigt säkert hit på torsdag. Jag väntar redan på Dig. I dag skulle visst Olle börja med brunnskaret, sade han i natt. Han var hos mamma när vi kommo hem, och det var ju för väl, för hon var ju förtvivlad över att vi dröjde så. Och ändå värre hade det varit om hon varit ensam.
Slutar nu med hjärtevarma hälsningar till Dig min Älskling. Varmt välkommen på torsdag!
Din Sally
The days before cell phones! I'm sure the mother imagined all sorts of possible disasters keeping them from arriving home.
ReplyDeleteA nice photo of them and their well.
Thanks Kristin. A punctured tire can be bad enough even these days, but no doubt even worse before cell phones!
DeleteThis was another fine letter to share. Owning an automobile in earlier times certainly offered a family a modern means of transportation but it also introduced new anxieties that were different from a horse and buggy. I can think of a dozens of similar stories of broken down vehicles in my family lore. Just this morning my son set off on a 400 mile drive back to his home and I made him promise to call (or text, email) when he had arrived, so we still worry, just not as much. Tire punctures were once so common that many drivers carried several spares for a long journey, especially if it was over rural dirt roads. I hope my son knows where his spare tire is.
ReplyDeleteHope your son's drive went okay, Mike! I usually ask my brother to do the same when he's been here to visit - even though realising full well that something could just as well happen at any time in between...
DeleteEarly tires had an inner-tube, which could be patched, then reused often. Pumping it back up was common along the roads, not the high pressure that we now have for our tubeless tires. Ah, the anxiety of a mother certainly still can happen for expecting certain kinds of outcomes of her children...there are still many communication problems. Love the photo of your grandparents as young people with their new well. Life seemed so full of happy promises, didn't it, for them?
ReplyDeleteBarbara, I agree we probably worry as much still, in spite of our cell phones :)
DeleteLovely photo of your grandparents! And what an unimaginable journey Sally describes. I wonder how many more details she told Gustaf when she finally saw him!
ReplyDeleteMolly, so do I!
DeleteWell that certainly wasn't a fun trip home, but one they probably remembered with humor some years later. It's something most of us do - remember difficult times with at least some sense of humor. I guess we do it to make memories more positive in our minds which is actually a good thing. And as usual, I am enjoying, and feel privileged to be reading Sally's letters to Gusraf. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks La N. And yes, those kinds of accidents do tend to stick in memory, and if the adventure ended well, may also be looked back on with more humor. For me, reading about this, a family holiday in Britain back in the early 1970s including two punctures in heavy rain comes to mind...
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