Swedish American Genealogist

Volume 26 | Number 1 Article 10

3-1-2006 Going Home Lennart Pearson

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Recommended Citation Pearson, Lennart (2006) "Going Home," Swedish American Genealogist: Vol. 26 : No. 1 , Article 10. Available at: https://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/swensonsag/vol26/iss1/10

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center at Augustana Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Swedish American Genealogist by an authorized editor of Augustana Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Going Home

A young boy’s experiences onboard an Atlantic liner

BY LENNART PEARSON

In the late fall of 1946, when I was of the entire pier – twenty-six letters twelve. Nanny was a professional in the eighth grade, my mother repeated in blue, green, and red. It cook. She had provided Scandinavian decided to take me with her to was a scene of noisy confusion. cuisine for some of the finest families to visit her aging father. The Outside, taxicab drivers were blow- in New York such as the Vanderbilts war was over and the Swedish-Amer- ing their horns, porters with hand and Hattie Carnegie, the fashion ican Line was once again carrying trucks were hustling those who had queen. Coming to the passengers across the Atlantic, so she just arrived, and hot dog vendors for the first time in 1910, Nanny had put her name on a long waiting list were hawking their indigestibles. returned almost every summer to for tickets. After some months, she Inside the shed, policemen helped Sweden to see her relatives. This was was told that space would be avail- newcomers make sense of the signs to be her twenty-eighth trip; she able on the S.S. Gripsholm, sailing as people shouted across barricades would cross the Atlantic thirty-four Friday, December 6th, and arriving in various languages. Parents were times in all before she retired. She in Göteborg () ten days tugging at cranky children, teen- had an imperious way about her, and later – just in time for Christmas. agers were eyeing other teenagers, perhaps her instincts about human My recollections of packing are officials were stamping anything nature had been too much shaped by hazy. I recall my mother putting handed them, travel agents were the hard hand of experience. She things rather ingeniously into a selling tickets, and wispy old ladies knew well, for instance, that much wardrobe trunk of the type that in hats and gloves were protecting could be accomplished by a well would have been standard equip- their handbags from purse snatchers placed “tip.” Not everyone appre- ment for transatlantic travelers a and pickpockets. Just beyond the ciated Nanny as much as I did, but decade earlier. We also had a steamer commotion, through the open walls certainly, everyone who knew her trunk, a couple of suitcases, and a of the shed, I could see the portholes also respected her. 16mm movie camera that my father of the gleaming white and Two other passengers that turned had bought in 1941. gangplanks leading into the ship. up on deck were religious celebrities, A number of people from church Gustaf Landmer and Einar Ekberg. Leaving New York had come down to the dock to see us Landmer was an evangelist and Ek- The S.S. Gripsholm, which to my off, including the pastor who consid- berg was a gospel singer. Whether eyes was simply enormous, was ered it his Christian duty to say fare- they traveled together regularly as docked at Pier 97, at the west end of well to members of his flock but who a Swedish version of Dwight L. 57th Street on the Hudson River. The also enjoyed the excitement of such Moody and Ira D. Sankey, the nine- pier itself was a long drafty shed in departures. We were all properly teenth-century American evangel- which several thousand people were dressed for the occasion. I even had ists, or whether they found them- all trying to figure out what to do a hat with a brim which I wore un- selves together on this particular next. There was baggage every- der protest since I always hated hats sailing purely by coincidence, I do not where. Movable picket fences sepa- (and still do). We were not the only know. On board ship, however, they rated passengers according to wheth- passengers from church. There was did team up to hold religious services er they were traveling First Class Nanny Paulson, a redoubtable wom- in Swedish on several evenings in one (blue tags), Cabin Class (green tags), an in her sixties, and a good friend of the lounges. Ekberg sang and or Tourist Class (red tags). Trunks of my mother. Although she had Landmer preached to a generally and suitcases were to be checked in never married, she had a surprising- receptive audience. by last name, under large letters ly good instinct for things that were Once on board, we all posed for strung on overhead cables the length of interest to a boy just about to turn pictures on the upper deck and

Swedish American Genealogist 2006:1 17 engaged in the customary bon voyage sation of the ship’s engines. The in Swedish (gaffelbitar) and in Ger- rites of hugs and goodbyes. water was calm and beautiful, and man (gaffelbissen), were really quite through the windows of the dining similar. My mother confirmed that The ship sails room, we could see the shoreline of the was closely At 12:30 p.m., thirty minutes before Long Island perhaps four or five related to German, but was not able the ship was due to sail, the ship’s miles off the port side. to come up with a Swedish cognate horn signaled visitors to disembark. for rollmops. Clearly, there was more It was an unforgettable sound, ear- Delicious food! to be learned about than I shatteringly magnificent as it echoed The table steward began to bring out had picked up during the war years, back across the Hudson River from the various luncheon courses, includ- when all Germans without exception the New Jersey shore. With a pang ing Scandinavian delicacies that had been regarded as “the Enemy.” of sadness I said good-bye to my fath- were familiar to me from home: an Later in the afternoon there was er, not realizing that the moment was assortment of cheeses, pickled her- a lifeboat drill. We were each as- far harder for him than it was for me. ring, and lingonberries. Scandina- signed to a particular lifeboat, which A few moments later, I could see him vian cuisine – Swedish, Norwegian, meant that when the alarm sounded, and the pastor emerge on the obser- Danish cooking – is unique, in the everyone gathered at designated vation platform at the end of the pier, same way that there is something points on one of the upper decks. In waving. In those days it was custom- special about Chinese, French, and our group there were perhaps twenty ary to throw rolls of narrow stream- Greek cuisine. Not everyone is fond people. I was puzzled by the fact that ers from the ship to those on shore, of smoked eel, cheese made from I could see no lifeboat from where we the thin strip of paper being the last goat’s milk, head cheese, or lutfisk were standing. It was explained that link broken as the ship was slowly (boiled stockfish previously soaked in the lifeboat was immediately above nudged from the dock by the at- lye), but almost everyone can find us, and that in an emergency it would tending tugs. The ship began to move something to savor at a smörgåsbord be lowered by the crew for access very, very slowly backing out into table, especially when it is followed through an open window. This was the Hudson River. The figures on the by coffee and Danish cookies or a slice not reassuring. I had read all about pier grew smaller and smaller until of raspberry tårta (cake) covered with the Titanic, and I could almost hear they were no longer identifiable. As real whipped cream. a ghostly band playing in the back- the tugs withdrew and the ship’s own Nothing that was served up during ground, “Nearer My God To Thee.” screws began to turn, a faint vibra- the ten days of this crossing was too tion indicated that the ship was exotic to be sampled, and the greater Our temporary home moving under its own power. Then the variety, the better I liked it. Some Our particular cabin was on D-deck, the pier slipped behind us, and the portly German people seated at a which was about at the waterline bow of the ship pointed east out nearby table commented very favor- since I could hear water sloshing on toward the Atlantic. ably on the food, and one grand- the other side of a porthole that had I was fascinated! The harbor was motherly traveler pointed out to me been tightly closed with an inner alive with barges, ferries, garbage that the words for “herring tidbits” metal cover. There were two decks scows, tugboats, oil tankers, freight- ers, and everywhere, sea gulls. The sun was bright and the air chilly, and I was reluctant to leave the upper deck. Fortunately, all meals on board were served in two sittings, and we had been assigned to the second sit- ting. That meant I could remain on the upper deck until almost 2:30, by which time the Gripsholm had already passed the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island and was well out beyond the Narrows into Lower New York Harbor. I had heard a great deal about seasickness from my mother who knew herself to be a poor sailor so I expected the ship to begin tossing just as soon as it left port. When we sat down to eat lunch, however, the only thing I felt was the faint pul- M/S Gripsholm in 1952.

18 Swedish American Genealogist 2006:1 even lower, E- and F-decks, and while nied on a portable organ. Sunday din- makes it hard to keep one’s balance, I suppose it was an advantage not to ner was especially nice. It was a and in heavy seas, it is possible to be be quite that far down, the stairways buffet table with all kinds of deli- thrown from wall to wall in a cor- and corridors were equally narrow all cacies, followed by Baked Alaska for ridor, or even clear across a room. though this part of the ship. The dessert, which was for me another The pitching of the ship as it plows cabin was tiny, with barely enough first. On the menu, there was a daily forward through the waves creates room to turn around. It made me instruction about the six-hour time a feeling of compression as the floor want to spend as many waking hours adjustment that we needed to make pushes up against the soles of one’s as possible elsewhere, which is as the ship traveled east. Each day, feet followed by decompression as it precisely what I did. Since it was easy we were to advance our clocks a mod- suddenly drops away, producing a to slip under or past various ropes est twenty or thirty minutes so that sense of light-headedness and a loss and barriers without being noticed, we would arrive on local time. of gravity, especially disconcerting I soon discovered that the more Once out on the high Atlantic, the when going up or down stairs. Since desirable parts of the ship were for days settled into a routine of sorts. the eye perceives an enclosed space Cabin Class and First Class passen- Many of the passengers would rent as stable, these discrepancies can gers. Still, even in 1946, the es- a deck chair and a blanket after produce dizziness and nausea, a sentially egalitarian spirit of the breakfast and spend the morning discomfort further aggravated by the Swedes was such that markers of taking in the sea air and snoozing in incessant creaking of the walls and class seemed to be only halfheartedly the sunshine up on deck. Those who floors. In daylight, I found it helpful observed. At any rate, my own con- felt more energetic played shuffle- to be up on deck or to stay near a science was no more than minimally board or, in one of the enclosed areas window or porthole where I could see troubled as I roamed about the ship of the deck, ping-pong. I recall the bow or the stern of the ship quite freely on my own. playing games with some of the child- dipping up and down against the ren on board, but nothing more horizon. Shipboard events particular than that. Below deck, in By the middle of the week, the sea On the second day out, as the ship a caged hold not being used for bag- was rougher, and certain deck areas was approaching Newfoundland, I gage or freight, the crew had laid out had to be roped off. For several days, noticed an unusual number of fishing some tarpaulins to provide an indoor my mother stayed pretty much in the trawlers in the area. The sea was area where children could tumble cabin while I was personally more very calm, and by afternoon, as fog about – a kind of playpen about comfortable upstairs. Food was less closed in, the ship began to sound its thirty feet square. The space was appealing than it had been, but I foghorn at one minute intervals. It dirty and unappealing, and the tarps missed no meals and felt rather in- was a bit spooky, and I could only smelled of mildew. Since the ship was dependent having the table to myself. hope that those on the bridge knew nearly two city blocks long, it was a When the dishes on the table began what they were doing and that the bit of a walk from the cabin to the to slide around because of the rolling ship’s radar was in good working or- rear deck. One had to go through a and pitching of the ship, the table der. long, narrow corridor past some steward would pour some water on In one of the hallways, a map was doors to the engine room that also the tablecloth to hold the dishes in posted showing the progress of the happened to be near some ventilators place. If it got really bad, the edges trip, and each morning we could see from the kitchen. It was very noisy, of the table could be pulled up about how much of the distance had been and the odor for about a hundred feet an inch so as to keep things from covered in the previous twenty-four seemed to be a mixture of machine falling off entirely. When that became hours, usually somewhere between grease and tomato soup. I found that necessary, not many passengers 250 and 350 miles. Beside the map the best way to avoid being nause- showed up to eat. was a posting of world news as it had ated was to hold my breath while been received in the ship’s radio room passing through that immediate Boring evenings during the night, along with a listing area. Evenings were rather boring, except of shipboard events scheduled for the perhaps for the lounge lizards, who day. Seasickness took advantage of the tax-free oppor- On Sunday morning, for example, Some passengers, including my tunities of the mid-Atlantic to drink anyone who wished to attend Divine mother, suffered from seasickness, a like Vikings. On several evenings, Service in the first class lounge was malady that originates in a discrep- music was provided by a rather sorry welcome to do so. The service of ancy between what one senses and band. When the band was occupied worship was conducted by the ship’s what the eye can see. The brain has elsewhere, presumably playing in the captain, who read the “Order for to interpret two types of motion: side- upper class lounges, a noisy barker Morning Prayer” of the Church of to-side (rolling) and up-and-down presided over a kind of horse-racing Sweden, the hymns being accompa- (pitching). The rolling of the ship game, in which small model horses

Swedish American Genealogist 2006:1 19 advanced across the floor of the awed by the size of the propeller when everyone had eaten their fill, lounge according to the roll of the shafts, and by the sense of power in the table could have fed as many all dice. This provided players with the ship’s engines, but I was also glad over again. Even now, all these years opportunities to bet on their favorite to get out of there. later, I cannot remember a more horse. One is continually amazed at All through the voyage, a few impressive meal. the ingenuity of human beings when seagulls had accompanied the ship, it comes to indulging their vices. swooping and diving whenever the The Swedish The fixtures on board were rather ship’s waste, which included a old-fashioned. Bathroom doors had considerable amount of food, was archipelago little turn locks with red or green dumped overboard. Toward the end On Monday morning, I was up early. indicators on the outside that said, of the week, I noticed that the num- The Swedish equivalent of New Ledig (“Available”) or Upptaget ber of seagulls had greatly increased, York’s Ambrose lightship was Vinga (“Occupied”). The device is common and then on Friday morning the word fyr, a very old lighthouse that marks in Scandinavia, and one wonders went out that land was in sight. the entrance to the archipelago of why something so simple and so Göteborg. Once past Vinga fyr, the helpful has never been widely mar- Land in sight! ship took on its harbor pilot and continued to sail slowly up the well- keted in this country. Instead of a Sure enough, on the starboard side shower, it was possible to arrange marked channel toward the city. of the ship, I could see the rocky coast There were many small, rocky is- with the bath steward for a hot tub- of northern Scotland. Seasickness bath if one didn’t mind sitting in sea- lands with little red cottages, and supposedly ceases as soon as one can here and there we could see people water and feeling sticky afterwards, see land, so my mother was tempo- though presumably clean. waving at the ship. At midmorning, rarily back among the living, but only we entered the river (Göta älv) on temporarily because the North Sea Tour of the ship which Göteborg is situated. On the in December is known for its rough- left were the shipyards of a thriving Nanny Paulson never suffered from ness. By Sunday, however, land was shipbuilding industry (Götaverken). seasickness, and she was a good again visible. This time it was on the I could see huge cranes and gantries, companion while my mother was port side of the ship and it was the vessels in dry-dock for repair, ships being miserable down below. Nanny coast of . That night we at various stages of construction, as had arranged a ship’s tour for several attended the traditional “Captain’s well as the usual tug and barge of her friends and she invited me to Dinner.” It was the last evening meal traffic found in a major seaport. The go along. It was fascinating. We saw on board ship, complete with whist- signs and advertising billboards, the whole ship, including the bridge les and funny hats. Since it was however, were all in Swedish. with all the controls, and I even got nearly Christmas, the table was to meet the ship’s captain and first spread with an incredibly lavish mate. Our guide took us up to the smörgåsbord. The centerpiece was a Göteborg harbor radio room where the wireless was roast suckling pig complete with a Presently I spotted the pier up ahead crackling and the teletype machines red apple in its mouth. One could go where the Gripsholm would dock. It were clattering away. back repeatedly, as indeed I did, and was festively decorated with bunting Outside, on top of the radio room, cages had been specially built for some rare silver-blue foxes and for some thoroughbred mink that were also on the way to Sweden. They were fed canned chicken and cereal during the voyage and apparently did not suffer much from seasickness. We went through some of the crew’s quarters that seemed incre- dibly cramped and uncomfortable even by comparison with our tiny cabin. We climbed down metal lad- ders until we were in the engine room where the heat and the noise were very intense. It was hard to imagine anyone working under such con- ditions, but of course someone had to attend to the machinery. I was Vinga lighthouse outside Göteborg. 20 Swedish American Genealogist 2006:1 and banners, and on top of the pier, being smuggled into Sweden. As soon In the morning, we had a few at about fifty foot intervals, were as she was clear of the checkpoint, things to do before we could head for Swedish flags – a yellow cross on a the seaman relieved her of the bag. the train station like changing mon- blue field – waving in a brisk wind. With an exchange of winks, he ey. I went with my mother to a Swe- Below were hundreds and hundreds thanked her and disappeared into dish bank, where she changed some of people waving and waiting for all the crowd. It was the payoff for the dollars into crowns. I was much 1,350 of us to disembark. tour! impressed by the number of times a While the ship was secured by rubber stamp had to be applied to a noon, it would be another several Friends meet us piece of paper before the transaction hours before we could get off because To my surprise, two friends of my was considered complete. First Class and Cabin Class passen- mother met us on the other side of gers were the first to disembark. the barricade, Martha Johansson On the train home From the upper deck I watched the and Signe Johnson, who had re- Eventually, we got to the central booms hoisting the baggage and turned to Sweden several months railroad station where a whole new mailsacks out of the holds of the ship. earlier. Martha was an attractive world invited scrutiny. Freight cars Somewhere in the giant nets swing- redhead, probably in her forties, who were unusually short and stubby. ing through the air from the ship to wore her hair in braids pulled up on Passenger trains had signs on each the shed were our trunks. A cabin her head somewhat like a garland. individual coach indicating its even- steward helped us get our small suit- Signe was short and plumpish, tual destination. There were no cases upstairs to a hallway where a probably in her sixties. Both had steam locomotives; everything was wide door would fold back to allow worked in the United States for electrified. Our first destination was the gangplank to be emplaced. After wealthy families, and they now the town of Markaryd, and then, the a detour through one of the lounges shared an apartment in Göteborg. tiny community of Hannabad, where where various officials checked our Since it was mid-afternoon, they my mother had grown up and where papers and our passports, the mo- invited us to have supper with them her family still lived. The passenger ment finally arrived. We passed and to stay the night. Out on the coaches had compartments that down the gangplank and I was in broad cobblestoned street, it sur- openedon a narrow corridor along Sweden! prised me to find that the blue street- which the conductor could come by Unlike New York, where the pier cars of Göteborg consisted of two to collect the tickets. We had the was perpendicular to traffic, the connected coaches, powered by pan- compartment to ourselves, with seats Swedish-American Line pier in Gö- tograph, and that they could turn facing opposite each other and a teborg was parallel to the street. In corners just as easily as the single folding table in between. My mother other respects, the interior of the streetcars did back in New York. It wrote some postcards for mailing shed seemed much the same though was very cold and starting to snow. back to the States while I rode better organized. To find our bag- The daylight was turning to dark- backwards observing the changing gage, we looked in the proper area ness, and a warm apartment was landscape and noting the names of under a large “P,” and there it was. welcome. The apartment house, in an stations where the train stopped: When we had assembled everything, older part of town, had a certain Kungsbacka, Varberg, Falkenberg, we collared a customs inspector who faded elegance, and looked much the and then, Halmstad, where we had asked a few questions and then way I imagined older houses might to change trains. slapped an official looking stamp on look in Paris or in Prague. The apart- each piece. ment itself had high-ceilinged rooms I speak Swedish! Nanny Paulson was also in our with ornate moldings, and was nicely area, and I distinctly remember that I have two vivid recollections of the furnished. One unusual feature was layover at Halmstad. First, I remem- when she found a customs inspector a quarter-round tile fixture in one to check her bags, he took a long, ber buying a bar of chocolate at the corner of the living room that went kiosk and thinking to myself that it squinting look at her, and then said, from the floor to the ceiling and “Oh my, are you back again?” To exit seemed grainy compared to Ameri- extended about two feet out into the can chocolate. Second, I remember, the shed, we found a porter who room. It was a kind of central heating wheeled our things past a checkpoint at my mother’s urging, going up to a unit – called a kakelugn – for the railroad official who was changing where another inspector applied a various apartments that provided crayon to the sticker affixed earlier. signs on the platform and asking him radiant and continuous heat. It was in Swedish when the next train Nanny was carrying an extra suit- not something familiar from my case, as it turned out, on behalf of would be leaving for Markaryd. I do previous experience, but it worked not know whether I was more sur- the crew member who had taken us very well. I was to make many such on the grand tour of the ship. The bag prised to hear myself actually saying discoveries during the next few something in Swedish or getting an had a sticker just like all the others months. but was full of American cigarettes answer that confirmed I had really

Swedish American Genealogist 2006:1 21 been understood. The part of Sweden that is south of Göteborg at one time belonged to , which ac- counts for the fact that southern Swedish is marked by a distinctly “Southern drawl.” So, in the broad accent of the province, the man looked straight at me and said, “Ahhrr-ton och fyrtio-fyra (18.44),” or, 6:44 p.m. My mother was much amused by the exchange. By lavish praise, she convinced me to think it really was worth the effort to try to speak Swedish after all, I was going to be there nearly a year. She was not wrong. When the train arrived in Marka- ryd, we were met at the station by my Uncle Andrew and my cousin, Allan, who was about my age. The snow-laden branches seemed to father”), my grandfather. Reunion four-mile ride by taxi out to Hanna- sweep the ground in greeting. It was was heady stuff. The tears flowed bad was memorable. It was totally incredibly beautiful and I knew that freely, and everyone was talking at dark, and there was about a foot of somewhere at the end of the forest, the same time. snow on the ground. Once the village a welcome was awaiting us. I could tell my mother was very, of Markaryd was behind us, I could I was not disappointed. The woods very happy. only see what was illuminated by the eventually opened out into the headlights of the car. The unpaved, hamlet of Hannabad where I could snow-covered road was barely visi- now see a few lights here and there, Contact information ble, though the driver seemed to and then the car stopped. We were Rev. Lennart Pearson know exactly where every turn was at my Uncle Andrew’s house. Aunt 402 Chestnut Street supposed to be. We rode uphill and Gerda, a slightly younger version of Clinton downhill, over little bridges, and my mother, welcomed us and intro- SC 29325 through a deep, deep forest with duced us to her two little girls, my E-mail: [email protected] enormous evergreen trees whose cousins, and to Morfar (=“mother’s The Bridge Conference in Karlstad in September 2006

In late September, Wednesday 27th tinations vary from the Nobel Mu- tainments and transportation during to Sunday October 1st there will be seum in Karlskoga to Mårbacka, the conference. Lodging is extra and an intersting congference being held home of famous author Selma Lager- available in various price ranges. On in Karlstad, Sweden, the capital of löf to the Viking Ship Glad of Gill- the web site it says that the con- the County and Province of Värm- berga to the gourmé inn at Gryt- ference fee should be paid by 1 June, land. The conference is organized by hyttan. Two excursions also go to but it will still be possible to register the Kinship Center in cooperation Dalsland, to The House of Straw, the during the summer be. with the Swedish Council of America, Acqueduct at Håverud and many Documentation of the conference who wants to broadens its contacts other interesting places. will be sent to the participants within with modern Sweden. The conference is open to anyone, one month after the conference. The conference language will be who is interested in meeting with You can find more details at English. Swedes, active in preserving and www.swedishcouncil.org/ There will be several social events showing local history, as many of the conference.htm but also a number of workshops, 24 participants will be active in local or at in all are planned. Their topics range historical societies (hembygdsföre- www.emigrantregistret.s.se/ from genealogy through folk cos- ningar). conf-en.htm tumes and wood carving to Swedish The conference fee is $400. The Välkomna! You will see your SAG food, and life in modern Sweden. costs include the conference, all editor there! On Friday there will be a number meals from Wednesday dinner of excursions, ten in all. Their des- through Saturday banquet, enter-

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