(G.003.3 - Postcard previously posted on this blog 2012-02-29)
It struck me recently that there must be postcards in my inherited collection which, although I've posted them on the blog before, I did not link to Sepia Saturday. So I decided to go back and look among those for some image to repost for the current Sepia theme. (Actually interesting for myself as well, as I've both learned and forgotten a lot since I started this blog nearly 12 years ago...)
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| Falköping. Storgatan. (Main Street) |
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| Lindgrens Bok- & Pappershandel (John Swedmark) Falköping. Sommar-filial vid Mössebergs Badanstalt. Lindgren's Books & Stationary - Summer Branch at Mösseberg Spa * |
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| The sign on the building to the left says "Coats Shop" |
To: Gustaf Ekman, Storegården, Fristad
From: Oscar Ekman, Odensberg
Obg. 5/10 -01
K.B.! [Käre Broder!] Tack för brefvet! Äfven tack för alla besvär, samt det jag kan få hjälp till erhållande af sågspån. Skall vidare släpas --- [?]. Gerda är som Ni kanske kanske redan vet nu åter uppe o kry, roligt nog! Hälsningar! Oscar
Odensberg 5/10 –01
Dear Brother, Thanks for the letter! Also thanks for all the trouble and for what help I can get to acquire sawdust. Must also be [transported...?] - As you may already know, Gerda is up and well again, I'm happy to report. Regards, Oscar
A postcard from October 1901, about a year before Gustaf and Gerda (brother and sister) both emigrated to America. Oscar was their older brother, manager of a country store in Odensberg, owned by his brother-in-law Brynolf (married to their sister Emma, and running another store in the village Floby, where they also lived).
Falköping is the nearest bigger town to both Odensberg and Floby.
Oscar’s handwriting is not all easy to decipher, but comparing the information on this card with another card written the same month, it seems that he was doing some kind of work that required sawdust as "filling"(?), and is asking his brother (and perhaps also their father) for help with that. At the time, Gustaf was staying with their father Samuel and his new family (baby Sally - my grandmother - not yet two years old). At the end of the message Oscar adds that Gerda is up and well again – as they might already have heard. (She was probably staying with Emma and her husband in Floby.)
Both Gustaf (23) and Gerda (20) were probably feeling rootless at this point in time - sometimes staying at their father's farm and sometimes with their older siblings, depending on where their help was best needed. No doubt this contributed to both of them deciding to seek their fortune in America instead.
Linking to Sepia Saturday 690 - On the Street
That must have been unsettling, being rootless. Do you know why he wanted sawdust? Was that to keep ice?
ReplyDeleteKristin, I really have no idea what he wanted the sawdust for (the messages on the postcards give no real clue) - but now I'm starting to think you may be right. When I first read this card, I did not know yet that Oscar was a shop-keeper, so I think I assumed he wanted the sawdust as insulation for a house or barn. But now knowing that he was the manager of a country store, an ice house (or cellar) sounds like a plausible project. So thanks for the suggestion! :)
ReplyDeleteGlad to help. :)
DeleteGreat to have some ideas of their lives just before they immigrated. And I agree about use of sawdust for an ice house, as it is a likely use of it.
ReplyDeleteBarbara, yes, I've found it rather helpful that Gustaf started collecting postcards even a year or two before he emigrated.
ReplyDeleteIt does really sound like Gerda & Gustaf were trying to find a place where they belonged when they emigrated to America, and it would have taken a good bit of courage to do so, I would imagine!
ReplyDeleteGail, no doubt it did. There were quite a few people in similar situations back then who took the same chance, though!
DeleteIt's a fine photo but from what I can see on Google maps street view, the Storgatan has changed a lot since 1901. I agree that sawdust for ice would be useful for a shopkeeper who sold ice or kept perishable food like fish. When I was a boy my grandfather took me to a large icehouse in his boyhood hometown in Minnesota. It was filled with huge blocks, 2 - 3 feet thick, that had been cut that winter from the local lake. All were packed tightly and covered in sawdust.
ReplyDeleteThere is another use for sawdust that I learned when I lived in London. Butchers there used sawdust on the floor of their shops or in the big market stalls. In the London business directory there was a just single purveyor of sawdust. I presume it was not random mixed sawdust but shavings from a specific timber suitable for soaking up the blood and gore.
Mike, somehow I do associate icehouses more with America than with Sweden - but I suppose we must have had them too! (The image that always pops first to mind for me is from the TV series based on Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie...) And yes, I know I've read about sawdust used for cleaning floors, too.
DeleteThanks for re-posting these for us. Your supposition that rootlessness may have prompted Gerda and Gustaf to make a bold move to the U.S. is a good one. I also agree with the idea that sawdust may have been needed for an ice house. My dad grew up in "ice house" territory in the Adirondacks in New York State, and that's how sawdust was used.
ReplyDeleteMolly, thanks for reading. Cf. my replies to Gail and Mike above!
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