On the Beach Again - Sepia Saturday 772

 

The original size of this photo is only 5.5 x 8 cm, and I had no idea who the people were. Having scanned and enlarged it, I think the woman and the man to the left are probably my grandmother's sister Hildur and her  husband Olle - the same couple that we also saw on a beach in my post for Sepia Saturday 770 - but then in swimsuits! I'm not sure about the identity of the man to the right, but because of other photos in the same envelope, I think it may be their friend Evert (cf my post for SS 768). From the background scenery, it looks to me like the lake could be the one close to where Hildur and Olle, and my grandparents Sally and Gustaf, lived after they got married (1930-). (But there may of course be other lakes offering similar scenery that I'm not familiar with.) 

Linking to Sepia Saturday 772

Svenska: 

Orginal-fotot är endast 5,5 x 8 cm, och i det formatet kunde jag inte känna igen personerna. Efter att ha skannat och förstorat fotot, tror jag att kvinnan och mannen till vänster är min farmors syster Hildur och hennes man Olle - samma par som också ses på stranden i mitt inlägg till Sepia Saturday 770, men då iförda baddräkter. Mannen till höger tror jag kan vara deras vän Evert (från Tvärred), som kan ses i gruppfoton i inlägget för SS 768. Från bakgrunden här tror jag att sjön kan vara Öresjö i Fristad. Som gifta (1930-) bodde Hildur och Olle, liksom mina farföräldrar Sally och Gustaf, på nära gångavstånd till en strand där.

On the Beach - Sepia Saturday 770

 

"You can't beat a picture that gives you more questions than answers."

(Alan Burnett) 

The prompt for this week's Sepia Saturday made me think of this photo, which I have so far hesitated to publish - not because I don't know who the couple are, but because I do, and therefore still have a hard time imagining them ever willingly having posed for a photo dressed only in swimsuits - and yet they both look fairly comfortable doing so here! 

The couple are my grandmother's older half-sister Hildur, and her husband Olle. They were both born 1892. I am pretty sure that the beach is the one by the lake only a few minutes walk from the house that my grandparents Sally and Gustaf built in 1930. Sally and Gustaf got married in September that year, Hildur and Olle at New Year, and they then moved into the upstairs flat in the same house. (Later on they built a house of their own very close by.) 

I would date this photo to the summer of 1931 - simply because I can even less imagine "Aunt Hildur" agreeing to pose in a swimsuit before they got married... In my own childhood, late 50s/early 60s, I never saw neither Hildur nor my grandmother on the beach, or ever dressed in anything else than skirts that went well below their knees! 

And I've never seen a photo of my grandmother wearing a swimsuit either. The closest to that is the one below, also from the lakeside, with her wearing her long hair down, but dressed in what to me seems to be a long bathrobe. As I know from an old letter that she had her hair cut short in October 1929, I would date this photo to the summer of 1929. She later let her hair grow out again, though - and didn't cut it really short again until she was in her 70s. (Even in my childhood when she let her hair out at night, it was as long as in this photo. She wore it rolled up at the back in the daytime, and in a long braid at night. And I remember her telling me once that my grandfather liked her to keep her hair long.)

But... I think it is probably also Sally you see in the background of of the first beach photo, fully dressed in hat and all. And it strikes me now, that if that photo is from 1931, she would that summer have been rather heavily be pregnant with my dad (born towards the end of August). So probably even less willing to pose in a swimsuit for that reason... 

No doubt it was my grandfather Gustaf behind the camera with both photos, whenever they were taken.

Linking to Sepia Saturday 770

People Wearing Hats - Sepia Saturday 769

From an envelope marked Tvärred (the name of a place where friends of my grandparents lived; cf my previous post for SS 768), I pick this photo as the closest match for today's Sepia prompt:

The photo is rather blurry, which may be one reason why it never ended up in one of the albums. I imagine they took it because they themselves found it rather funny that they were all wearing hats! I would date the photo to around 1927-28, as it includes (I think) my grandmother's older brother Carl, who died in September 1928 (which makes the preceding summer the latest possible time for it).

No 3 from the left (the man with the biggest hat!) + the man furthest to the right, must be the brothers Evert and Anders Andersson (also featuring in last week's post).

  

No 1 from the left must be my grandmother's brother Nils (born 1902), and I think the woman next to him may be his future wife Carin. Just like my grandparents, they did not get married until 1930, but had been "dating" for a few years before that (I'm not sure exactly for how long). 

As all seven people are holding on to one another here, the relationships between them are not all easy to sort out just from this photo, though!

No 4 is my grandmother Sally, No 5 (I think) her older half-brother Carl, No 6 her sister Hildur, and No 7 I think is their friend Anders. And behind the camera was most likely my grandfather Gustaf. (I know from at least one other photo that he and Sally were officially a "couple" before Carl died, even if they did not get formally engaged until 1929, and married in 1930.)

Linking to Sepia Saturday 769