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Being born in the midst of five children, a little old-fashioned, may not cause special tensions to develop, for example as a result of jealousy. Moreover, when I was born into WWII with all the constraints, narrow-neck, poverty, rationalization, blackout, etc., from the outside, we were hardly “curling children” in the sense that we toppled ourselves in possibilities, those maybe? The most loving toy in winter was the large, worn-out wooden box with building blocks. The LEGO of the time.
The game was LUDO. Later came Tekno, which appealed to become an engineer. Out we played in the sandbox or plowed courtyard with a tablespoon. Skipping rope, a scooter with stick, swing and ball game up the wall. Summer evening, drift ball 500 m could be played to each side on Rugårds Highway. Where, partly because of the fact that there is a lack of transparency, it’s not The war, but also because the car was not usually privately owned (a tough, cigarette-smoking lady, Marie, drove Caper’s driving) was not traffic at the end of the day.
You always gathering in winter in the kitchen. Here there was heat from Stove. Bricks were put in the oven and then packed in newspaper taken to bed. Heat canisters are filled with hot water for the same purpose.
Early on, we learned to participate in the “farm” feed animals, work with vegetables, sew tobacco leaves on a leash, and hang the bundles across in drying houses. Lock chickens against the Fox in the evening. Horses had to be watered and cow’s grazing moved. They also had to go home to milk and be inside for the night.
Throughout childhood, the character changed with more and more orchard. From the marshes had to be laid out iron pipes for strawberry watering, then the watering itself had to be cared for.
Strawberries had to be picked from very early mornings. Then came berry harvesting (currants, blackcurrants, gooseberries), then plums, and finally pears and apples. In the autumn and during the winter, branches were dragged together after pruning. Apples stored in a well-built fruit house had to be kept frost-free using kerosene stove. For replanting, it became fun to learn to graft, as well as possibly. hedgehog grafting, where whole trees were converted into new ones a single season. In general, for the whole of childhood, we children were an asset. Home from school, to dress for help. Hang on the little grey “Ferguson”, long before both legs could simultaneously reach both pedals (clutch and brake). Yes, there were accidents in agriculture back then. A load of peat from Jutland arrived every now and then. Illegally, grain was driven to be milled in the dark of night.
The childhood home has a workshop with good hand tools. Many a fine Christmas present was made here. Otherwise, it was the local blacksmith who helped with all the repair. The childhood years were marked by harsh winters (1942/43 and 1947), so there was a lot of skating, but also snow shoveling in groups?
How we got clothes on the body is not remembered, but there came a sowing lady, Gudrun, a few days now and then. As many children remember childhood in the countryside back then, it was a long series of good warm summers and fine winters. Everything was just nature. Sunsets with church bells ringing were lovely.
In an as yet unpolluted or regulated nature, a fresh boy could collect bird eggs, fish, bath in creek swings, etc. Over long summers, 2×11 km bicycled to Varbjerg to swim almost every night.
As in settler countries, which are most concerned with Australia, poverty did not open up to thinking about relationships between women and men. There was just hard work and the woman was a “breeding animal” who provided labor.
During a five-hour drive in Vietnam from my work in HaLong Bay to Hanoi over various rivers with french lady Francesse, I asked her about life in the beautiful Banana High here and there in extensive rice paddies? She just laughed at me: -dear Svend, it’s hard work from early morning to late at night. No room for “love”.
Both my and Hanne’s grandmothers both ended up in “madhouses”, probably because of the fact that they were noting a position to do so. Sexual difficulties were male/female. As a young person, my own grandmother had not to have the one she loved. Jeppe Åkær’s “hose-critter” in mind.
Every year, my mother looked forward to the week when my father was cycling in his FDF scout work. Then she enjoyed her time in the sun lounger with her Samojdespids dog, King. For Denmark, my childhood was the beginning of a great break-up. 53% had been released from farm/ agriculture. Later, this figure should fall to today’s 3%. Everything had been rationed, during WWII even marked by many surrogates. But then “came a boat with bananas” again! Some even got a “dollar convertible car” to drive in. (officially from “rich uncle in Amerika”).
Parental Responsibility
Believers or not, I do believe that all children have the right to pray and have evening prayers? It doesn’t do much damage and then you’ve covered the Bible’s Ten Commandments or the SevenWorld Commandments.
The prayer sounded as follows:
I am tired and go to bed,
closes my eyes two.
Father see in love,
To my little rest down.
Have today I dear God,
Sinned against your commandments,
Be gracious to me, be good to me.
Erase it for Jesus’s blood.
To threaten to be put to bed if you’re naughty is a misunderstanding. The bed should be a nice place!
A certain good DK book: The rural woman describes hard toil, which all sorts of inventions after the “war” have worked to mitigate. Kosan gas, Tasso mixer, Ferm washing machine, Gram refrigeration and freezer machines, local freezers houses, etc. appeared. Out came Ferguson tractor, Dronningborg combines harvester, milking machines, etc. to so the concept of two farm laborers also disappeared.
Denmark, like other Nordic countries, was exposed to large-scale emigration to NEW countries by “unfit” young people or simply as a result of potato failure (Ireland). In the settler countries, the woman’s lot was even harder. Just think of the phrase: How the West was won! Life itself could be at stake. My maternal parents were a trip “in Alaska to dig Gold”. Must have sailed through New York and coming ashore on Ellis Island?
A half-uncle stood 100 years ago on the quay in Aalborg, awaiting the first ship to Brazil or Australia. It was Brazil, where we then have relations with the strong national associations, that were created there by the first generation. Our family speaks Danish yet in the third generation.
Migration to Great Australia was particularly tough, due to geography and climate. Subsequently, life as a settler in inner Australia mentions. Tasmania was opened up from well over 1820 and the very “mainland” the large island the size of America, 4,000 x 4,000 km a little later from 1840. The book: The Birth of Australia (ISBN 0 72700972 9) describes in the chapter: “On The Land”, The Peasant Family From:
The Birth Of Australia:
Since the farmer could rarely afford to hire laborers, he relied on breeding a large family to relieve his physical burdens. To the wife’s other problems, therefore, must be added the fact that she was practically always pregnant or nursing new babies, often in filthy conditions which meant that half of them died and the effort had been wasted to that extent.
Breeding of farm animals out more efficiently than that. Nevertheless, some very large families survived. In the healthier climate of the Darling Downs, for instance, Six selectors could boast of seventy-six living children between them, an average of thirteen per family. Some exceptional mothers in the area bore eighteen living children. Children were put to work from the earliest possible age, collecting firewood, gathering eggs, minding new babies, driving stock to water, breaking up clods left after harrowing the fields, sowing seed, acting as scarecrows, picking up mail, digging the garden, and so on. Every selector’s child had to take his turn at milking: to be kicked out of bed at four in the morning to milk cows, and to be kicked right through the day till nine or ten o´clock at night doing this, that and everything. As the sons grew older many continued to toil on without wages, on the unwritten understanding that one day they could inherit the farm. If the property was not an expanding one, which was the usual story, younger sons could only look forward to joining the itinerant labor force or going to work in town or city. This pattern continued well into the present century: in 1946 more than 80 percent of wheat farmers were the sons of wheat farmers. Only half had been paid any wages during their life, and even these received only a few shillings “pocket money” on reaching their twenties…..
Den stille barndom
At blive født som den midterste af fem børn, der lidt gammeldags facon er godt spredt, kan måske medføre, at der ikke udvikler sig specielle spændinger f. eks som følge af jalousi. Når så jeg
ydermere blev født ind i WWII med alle de begrænsninger, smalhals, fattigdom, rationalisering, mørklægning osv., udefra, var vi næppe ”curlingbørn” i den forstand, at vi væltede os i muligheder, tværtom måske? Kærligste legetøj om vinteren var den store, slidte trækasse med byggeklodser. Den tids LEGO.
Spil var LUDO. Senere kom Tekno, som appellerede til at blive ingeniør. Ude legede vi i sandkasse eller pløjede gårdsplads med en spiseske. Sjippetov, løbehjul med kæp, gynge og boldspil op ad væg. Sommeraften kunne der spilles drivbold 500 m til hver side på Rugårds Landevej. Hvor der, dels pga. Krigen, men også fordi bilen ikke var normalt eje (en skrap, cigaretrygende dame, Marie, kørte Kaperkørsel) ikke var trafik sidst på dagene.
Man samledes altid om vinteren i køkkenet. Her var der varme fra Komfur. Mursten blev lagt i ovn og så pakket i avis taget med i seng. Varmedunke fyldtes med varm vand til samme formål. Tidligt lærte vi at deltage i ”bedriften”, fodre dyr, arbejde med grøntsager, sy tobaksblade på snor og hænge bundterne op på tværs i tørrehuse. Lukke høns inde for Ræven om aftenen. Heste skulle vandes og køers græsning flyttes. De skulle også hjem at malkes og være inde for natten. Hele barndommen skiftede karakter med mere og mere frugtplantage. Fra moserne skulle lægges jernrør ud til jordbærvanding, så skulle selve vandingen passes. Der skulle plukkes jordbær fra meget tidlig morgen. Så kom bærhøst (ribs, solbær, stikkelsbær), så blommer og til sidst pærer og æbler. I efteråret og hen over vinteren blev der slæbt grene sammen efter beskæring. Æbler opbevaret i velbygget frugthus skulle holdes frostfri vhja. petroleumskamin. Til nyplantning blev det blev det sjovt at lære podning, okulering samt evt. pindsvinepodning, hvor man på en enkelt sæson ombyggede et helt træ til ny bæring.
Generelt gjaldt for hele barndommen, at vi børn var et asset. Hjem fra skole, at klæde om til hjælp. Hænge på den lille grå ¨Ferguson”, længe inden man med begge ben samtidigt kunne nå begge pedaler (kobling og bremse). Ja, der skete ulykker i landbruget dengang. Et læs tørv fra Jylland ankom nu og da. Illegalt blev korn kørt til maling i nattens mulm og mørke.
Barndomshjemmet have et huggehus med godt håndværktøj. Her blev lavet mangen en fin julegave. Ellers var det lokal smed, der hjalp med al reparation. Barndomsårene var præget af strenge vintre (1942/43 og 1947), så der var megen skøjtning, men også sneskovling i snelag. Hvordan vi fik tøj på kroppen, huskes ikke, men der kom en sydame, Gudrun, et par dage nu og da. Som vel rigtig mange børn opfattede barndom på landet dengang, var det en lang række af gode somre og fine vintre. Alt indimellem var jo blot natur. Solnedgange med kirkeklokker var dejlige.
I en endnu ikke forurenet eller reguleret natur, kunne en frisk dreng samle fugleæg, fiske, bade i åsving osv. Hen over lange somre blev der cyklet 2 x 11 km til Varbjerg for at svømme næsten hver aften. Som i nybyggerlande, her tænkes mest på Australien, åbnede fattigdom slet ikke op for at tænke på relation kvinde/mand imellem. Der var bare hårdt arbejde, og kvinden var et ”avlsdyr”, der sørgede for arbejdskraft. Under en fem timers kørsel i Vietnam fra mit arbejde i HaLong Bay til Hanoi over diverse floder med Francesse spurgte jeg hende om Livet i de smukke bananhøje hist og her i udstrakte rismarker? Hun bare lo af mig: -kære Svend, det er hårdt arbejde fra tidlig morgen til sen aften. Ingen plads til ”love”.
Såvel min som Hannes farmødre endte begge på ”galeanstalter”, vel pga. seksuelle vanskeligheder mand/kvinde. Min egen farmor havde som ung ikke måttet få den, hun elskede. Jeppe Åkærs ”hosekræmmeren” in mente’.
Min mor så hvert år frem til den uge, hvor min far var på cykeltur i sit FDF-arbejde. Så nød hun tiden i liggestol med sin Samojdespidshund, King. Min barndom var for Danmark starten af en stor opbrudstid. 53% havde fået dagligt udkomme i landbruget. Senere skulle dette tal falde til 3 %. Alt havde været rationeret, under WWII endda også
præget af mange surrogater. Men så ”kom der en båd med bananer” igen! Nogle fik endog ”Dollargrin” at køre i.
Forældreanvar:
Troende eller ej, mener jeg, at alle børn har ret til at bede og få bedt aftenbøn? Det gør ikke stor skade og så har man dækket Biblens ti bud eller etikkens syv Verdensgældende (Commandments). I min slægt lød
Bønnen som følger:
Jeg er træt og går til ro,
lukker mine øjne to.
Fader se i kærlighed,
Til mit ringe leje ned.
Har i dag jeg kære Gud,
syndet imod dine bud,
Vær mig nådig, vær mig god.
Slet det ud for Jesus blod.
At true med, at blive lagt i seng, hvis man er uartig, er en misforståelse. Sengen bør være et dejligt sted!
En vist nok god bog: Landbokvinden beskriver hårdt slid, som alle mulige opfindelser efter ”krigen” har arbejdet på at mildne. Kosangas, Tasso røremaskine, Ferm vaskemaskine, Gram køle- og frysemaskiner, lokale frysehuse, osv dukkede op. Det var da også helt nødvendigt, da begrebet kokke- stuepige forsvandt. Ude kom Ferguson traktor, Dronningborg mejetærsker, malkeanlæg etc.
til så begrebet to karle også forsvandt. Danmark var som andre Nordiske lande først i århundredet udsat for stor emigration til NYE
lande af ”utilpassede” unge eller blot som følge af svigt i kartofler (Irland). I nybyggerlandene var kvindens lod endnu hårdere. Tænk blot på udtrykket: How the West was won! Livet selv kunne være på spil. Mine mor-forældre var en tur “i Alaska at grave Guld”. Må så have sejlet via New York og kommet i land på Ellis Island?
En halvonkel stod for 100 år siden på kajen i Aalborg, og afventede første skib til Brasilien eller Australien. Det blev Brasilien, hvor vi så har relationer til de stærke nationale foreninger, der skabtes der af første generation. Vores slægt taler dansk endnu i tredje generation.
Migration til det store Australien var særlig hård, grundet geografi og klima. Efterfølgende omtaler Livet som nybygger i det indre Australien. Tasmanien blev åbnet op fra vel 1820 og selve ”fastlandet” den store ø på størrelse med Amerika, 4.000 x 4.000 km lidt senere fra 1840.
Bogen: The Birth of Australia (ISBN 0 72700972 9) beskriver i kapitlet: “On the Land”, Bondefamiliens Dagligdag.
Fra fødslen af Australien:
Da landmand sjældent havde råd til at ansætte arbejdere, satsede han på avl af en stor familie at lindre hans fysiske byrder. Til hustruens øvrige problemer skal derfor tilføjes det faktum, at hun var næsten altid gravid eller ammende nye babyer, ofte i beskidte forhold, hvilket betød, at halvdelen af dem døde og indsatsen var på denne måde blevet spildt. Opdræt af husdyr blev udført mere effektivt end det. Ikke desto mindre overlevede nogle meget store families. I det sundere Darling Downs klima, kunne f.eks. seks nybyggere prale af 76 levende børn mellem dem, et gennemsnit af tretten per familie. Nogle ekstraordinære mødre i området fødte atten levende børn.
Børn blev sat til at arbejde tidligst mulige alder, samle brænde, samle æg, passe nye babyer, drive kvæg til vands, brække klumper op tilbage efter harvning af marker, så frø, agere som fugleskræmsel, afhente post, grave haven, og så videre. Hver nybyggers barn var nødt til at tage sin tur med malkning: blive smidt ud af sengen kl. fire om morgenen for at malke køer, og at blive sparket dagen igennem indtil kl. ni og ti om natten med at gøre dette, et og alt.
Efterhånden som sønnerne blev ældre, fortsatte mange med at gå videre uden løn, på grund af den uskrevne forståelse af, at de en dag kunne arve gården. Hvis ejendommen ikke var en ekspanderende en, som var den sædvanlige historie, kunne yngre sønner kunne kun se frem til at slutte sig til omrejsende arbejdsstyrke eller tage arbejde i en by (som i Danmark?). Dette mønster fortsatte godt ind i det nuværende århundrede: i 1946 var mere end 80 procent af hvede landmænd således sønner af hvede landmænd. Kun halvdelen var blevet betalt nogen løn i løbet af deres liv, og selv disse modtog kun et par shillings “ommepenge” langt op i tyveårsalder.
itsmesvend 