Man on Motorcycle - Sepia Saturday 676

 

Man on motorcycle, 1930s. Photographer unknown.
 digitaltmuseum.se

In last week's post (for Sepia Saturday 675), I started going through a kind of CV of my grandfather Gustaf's life and career put together by my dad with help of Gustaf's old cash-books. 

The last entry mentioned last week was that in September 1930 - besides getting married - Gustaf also then had expenses for getting a driving license. 

I stopped there, because I knew what this week's theme was going to be... 

1932, 23 July: First instalment on a motorcycle, 150 kr. After that he continued to pay 50 kr/month for it, with the last payment in February 1933. So in total it seems he paid 500 kr for it. I tried an online converter to estimate how much that would be today and got the answer around 18000 kr (SEK), which in turn would be around $1665 or £1325. My guess is that he probably bought the mc second hand. 

I can't recall ever having seen a photo of Gustaf on or with a motorcycle (or even just a photo of the motorcycle itself) and until fairly recently I did not know that he ever had one. I think I first saw it mentioned in a memorial article, written by a former colleague of his, 100 years after his birth (and 35 years after his death)  - that in the early years, before he had a car, he used a motorcycle in his job as journalist, to get around and interview people in the countryside etc. (I think it wasn't until 1947 that he bought a car.)

The cash-book shows that Gustaf continued to work for the newpaper BN (Borås Nyheter) until spring 1938. In May 1938, he started a new job at the bigger newspaper BT (Borås Tidning). There is also a document from 1940 indicating that he was "headhunted" for that job. 

During the winter 1938-39 there are expenses recorded for "modernisation of the house". This is again something that I cannot recall ever having seen documented in photos. Checking the cash-book itself (I still have that), it seems to have included the change of heating system by installing a coke-heated furnace in the cellar. I know that originally, they had an iron range in the kitchen and a tiled stove in the living room (and I assume the same in the separate flat upstairs, where Sally's mother, sister and brother-in-law lived during the early years). I'm also not sure they even had running water installed from start. (If they did, it would have been cold water only.)  

In my own childhood there was also a WC and a bathtub in the cellar. I don't when that was installed. Even in the 1960s it was still no fancy bathroom with tiles or anything, it was just a rather big room with grey concrete walls and floor, and the WC against one wall and the bathtub against the other. In the summers my grandparents still used the "outhouse". (I didn't like either of these alternatives, because the outhouse smelled, and the stairs down to the cellar were steep and scary, and it was cold down there...) 

Returning to the cash-book, that also shows a regular income of 'rent' from January 1931 through June 1939 - which indicates that it was not until then that Sally's sister Hildur and her husband Olle moved to a house of their own (only a few minutes walk away). So I guess the modernisation of my grandparents' house probably also included getting rid of the upstairs kitchen and turning the house in to a home for one family only.

The photo below is probably the earliest one I have of Hildur's and Olle's house. It strikes me now that it may even be from a "housewarming" party of sorts? In the summer of 1939, my dad was 8 years old.

My dad to the left, and next to him  Olle. The next three are friends of the family;  then Hildur (with a scarf on her head and wearing an apron). Another friend, and then Sally and Gustaf.

Linking to Sepia Saturday 676