Sepia Saturday 826: Stormy Weather at Varberg (Repost)

This is a modified repost of an early post on this blog, from 2012-02-21 .

Varberg: Hamnpiren i storm. / Varberg: The Pier in storm.
Publisher: Vilén & Johanson, Borås 

Varberg 6/8 (1903). Heartfelt thanks for the postcard. Yesterday there was quite a storm here. Rather beautiful to behold. Mother does not have to be anxious about us going out on the sea, because that is impossible. Otherwise we are quite well. Greetings G.J.

This is a card that seems to fall outside my own family history. My great-uncle Gustaf (in whose postcard album the card is found) probably got it second-hand later in life, from some friend who knew he collected postcards. In August 1903, Gustaf was living in America; but he returned to Sweden in 1910. This card was written by a  G.J. to an J.A. Johanson. My guess is that J.A. was the sender's mother, as it was common in Sweden back then to address your parents “in the third person” rather than using “you”. 

The card shows quite a magnificent picture of stormy weather at the pier in Varberg, a town on the west coast in the county of Halland. Varberg and all of Halland are well known for their "typical west coast" sandy beaches. In Varberg the coast changes from wide sandy beaches to rocky terrain that continues north into the Bohuslän archipelago.

Varberg is still a popular summer and spa resort for  people living further inland. Its reputation as a spa resort was founded in the early/mid 19th century. The railway line between Varberg and Borås was established in 1880. The town has an old fortress from around 1280-1300; now museum + hostel.

Below are my own photos from a visit there in 2001 - in not so stormy weather...

1. The Fort
2. The Pier
3. A beach beneath the fort, with an old wooden bathhouse

Linking to Sepia Saturday 826

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

On the Beach - Sepia Saturday 733

 

This is a photo from my great-aunt Gerda's album. Those who have been following this blog for a while may remember her. She was an older half-sister of my grandmother; and a lot of this blog was based on her postcards and photos. She emigrated to America in her youth, worked her way up as lady's maid and travel companion to wealthy ladies, and from 1928 onward ended up working for Estelle Manville-Bernadotte, married to the Swedish Count Folke Bernadotte (related to the Swedish royal family, acting as diplomat during WWII, and tragically assassinated in Jerusalem in 1948. 

Gerda's photo album is in no particular order and without notes about names or dates. My best guess is that this photo shows Gerda together with a great-niece of hers, in the mid/late 1940s - probably on holiday on the west coast of Sweden? To me the sand dunes look rather typical of beaches in the province of Halland. If my guess is correct, Gerda would be around 65-68 years old here. (She lived to be 92.) I know from postcards she wrote back in her youth that she loved to swim/bathe. 

Linking to Sepia Saturday 733