Oral History Interview with Inger Frelander Minnesota Historical Society
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A TESTIMONY OF PRIDE: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF INGER FRELANDER The following are excerpts taken from interviews with Grandma Frelander--Inger Margrethe Jensen-Frelander--by her grandson Chad C. Barthelemy on November 29, 1986 and January 6 and 7, 1987 at the Virgil and Gloria Strom (Grandma's son-in-law and daughter) residence at 9118 Emerson Ave. So., Bloomington, Minnesota. Frelander [Side one of tape one] C: Let's start out Grandma, by having you tell me aboutInger your origins in Denmark. Society I: My grandma from Copenhagen, Denmark waswith born 75 long years ago in Copenhagen, Denmark. I lived in an orphanage for about a year and a half before someone fell over me (laughter) and decided to take me along home. I was sick. I wasn't able to walk. I wasn't Historical able to stand. I wasn't able to do anything, I had rickets so bad. And they doctored with me for about. .. oh, for all ofinterview a year. They wrapped my joints with bandages from my neck down. history Carol: Who's they? Minnesota Oral I: My foster mother. .I should say my foster mother, because the one that did it. And they, and it all settled in my teeth. Rickets always settles someplace, but instead of me becoming a crippled, all it did was settle in my teeth and decayed my teeth-that was all, no big deal. Later on in years that was remedied. Whereas had I been a cripple that would not have been remedied, see. So I could do anything like anybody else. Well anyway, I went to school in Denmark, of course. I had started the third year that we were going to America. Carol: When you say your foster mom you mean Grandma Jensen, don't you? I: Grandma Jensen. That's right she was my foster mother, Grandma Jensen. Carol: When did they adopt you? Frelander I: They adopted me when I was about a year and a half old. I was born in 1911. They adopted me in 1912-at the end of 1912. No, no, they didn'tInger adopt me until I was 9 years old. Right. They didn't adopt me until I came to America. TheySociety could take me along to this country. They couldn't take me out of Denmark.with I was just a foster child before then. Yes. Right. Definitely. Actually I didn't know that they weren't my parents until I, you know, maybe said something a little bit cocky to one of my friends and she says, "Don't be Historical so smart, you don't even have any parents," she says [laughs]. [Still laughing] I ran home to find out what that was allinterview about. [Laughter] And I found out that yea it was true, but, ah, they were the only parents I knew. But I used to go shopping up town with my mother and I washistory always--kind of a slow poke I guess. I was always looking to the back of me, rather than the headMinnesota of me. I always stumbled on something in front of me [laughter],Oral because I never looked where I was going. But anyway, that is neither here nor there. I found out we were going to America one bright day and I flew to school to announce to the whole class that I was going to America. And I don't remember anything else being done in that school day. That took care of it. And I don't remember much from there on except that some friends of ours, oh, whom we had gotten acquainted with from America were the ones that we were going to go to over here in this country and he became friends with a friend of ours and married her and the little girl that, that they, that 2 she had was a friend of mine. So of course I became reacquainted with her after we came back, came to America. Carol: Who was that? I: Johanna. Johanna Larsen, her name was. But, I guess, I don't know about her that much because she moved far away .. .long ago. Carol: You knew her here? Frelander I: I knew her in Denmark. I knew her here too. Sure, Ingerwe were together when I came here, too. Sure, because we were going to farm with this fellow.Society Actually, that is, we were going to, he was going to help us get started.with It was a different story when came to this, kind of, what we figured was going to be the white slavery where he had figured he was going to get a family now with a half grown daughter and almost a full grown son, Historical that he was going to make hay with the whole family. He had a big farm. He didn't have the farm he said he did, but heinterview just rented it. But we were supposed to run it. And Dad says, "No." history Carol: He thought he wasMinnesota going to be set up on your own farm. Oral I: But he didn't. So here we were stuck in a strange country and the money, after it was converted into the English dollar, it amounted to $127. And we had no, we didn't have any language, we were language barrier. We didn't understand English. We didn't understand anything. We rode to Rosendale where we got to know Alan Jensen's and they were a big help; they were Danes. 3 Carol: Could you back up? Do you remember anything of the trip from the ship in New York to Minnesota? I: Oh, yes. When we first left Denmark, you know, 4 o'clock in the morning, we went to the dock. A taxi came and picked us up. And we went to the dock and, oh, bordered the ship. Helligalar-- was the name of the ship. It was a Norwegian ship. I was a Norwegian liner. C: Was it named after anyone? Frelander I: No, it wasn't the name of anybody. It was the name ofInger the ship, but it's a Norwegian name. It was a Norwegian ship. And I only remember one personSociety that was there to wave good-bye. And that was my Aunt Viola. And withI wondered what Fred was doing on the other side of the ship, why he wasn't there to wave good-bye, but he wasn't interested. He was over on the other side exploring already you know. And after we got to New York I Historical found out she was my real mother. That was a bummer. You know I thought "good interview grief." Here I was, that they told me that before I got way over here. I wrote to her 3 times, but I never got an answer back. She had cut the ties and that was it. But anyway on the way over here. historyMinnesota Carol:Oral Did you see a lot of her then before when you that she was your aunt? I: She used to come and visit me. I always called her my Aunt Viola. She used to bring me things. I used to wonder you know--I wasn't that old--I used to wonder because it. I bothered me. She'd bring me things but she'd never bring anything for Fred. That kind of bothered me, because I liked Fred real well and I thought he should have some gifts when I was getting something why wasn't he getting anything you know. But of course, you 4 know, not being that old I accepted whatever I got [laughs] and said "thank you." She also had a little boy, my brother. He was fours years younger than I. And a little rascal. I loved dishes and he promptly picked then, broke them all. He was a little rascal. His hair was pure white. He was what they call an albino. His hair was pure white. But I don't anything about him. But anyway we start out over Skaderak, Kategat, and up into the northern sea. When we got into the North Sea we couldn't see shore any more. We passed Norway we saw the beautiful pines up there. We went in between Sweden and Denmark and then up passed Norway. It was beautiful up there--the fjords. We saw the fjords. After that we got into the open water and the we saw nothingFrelander for days. I think what they said it took seven days to cross the ocean. And then of course, I'll back track. We were traveling as third class. There was 1st, 2nd, andInger 3 rd class and of course we were not well enough off We paid our own fare. That was the 3rd fare.Society with Carol: What part of the ship were you on? Historical I: That was the lower. As you talk about the Titanic, we would have been the first to go down. We would have beeninterview the first to drown, because the second floor and the top floor, where the rich people were on the top floor and they are usually the ones that get going first, get out thehistory first. Then the second class. Of course, us kids were all over the ship. We were roaming all over.Minnesota We played all over and, ah, there were two Swedish girls that didn'tOral make it into, because they didn't have enough money. Their brother was supposed to meet them here and they were shipped back to, to Sweden.