Chapter 30
A Trip To Sweden

In April 1985 I had been considering visiting Sweden. Eva Augustsson who visited us in 1979 wrote to some of us and invited us to come and meet our many Swedish cousins. When I wrote to her, she said if I could come in late June she would go home and supervise some plans as she would then be on holidays. It took several weeks to get a passport but even that was accomplished by the end of May. Travel arrangements were made with Richert travel agency in Regina to fly by Air Canada and I left home on the 25th of June.

I left Regina at 2:00 p.m. on June 26 for Toronto. I had a small problem with my luggage. Marilyn Lee came to my assistance, she was on her way to Toronto as well. Our seats were too far apart to visit but it was almost amusing and thoroughly pleasing to see an acquaintance on short notice. It was no picnic locating my luggage on one level, then have to go upstairs or down stairs. I had forgotten which line to get in to present my ticket for overseas connection and boarding pass. At least I had lots of time. The flight to Heathrow didn't depart until 10:30 p.m. After I was sure I had my bearings and knew what area to wait in. I had a light supper and just sat down to wait. This was on Tuesday after the Air Canada-India flight had been blown up off the coast of Ireland. Airport officials were trying to be cautious and at 10:00 p.m. an announcement on the loud speaker said passengers for Heathrow were to regroup and go through the x-ray again. By so doing we were 30 minutes late out of Toronto. I haven't any idea where we were out over the Atlantic when I looked out the left side of the aircraft and could see daylight coming at 2:30 a.m. Toronto time. It was a very short night of darkness, less than 6 or 8 hours. As a result of being late out of Toronto, we were still late getting into Heathrow airport. When I reached the aisle for Scandinavian Air services, I was told my flight was gone and the clerk, who was very pleasant and capable, said he'd get me the earliest flight possible. I was to continue to Sweden on a British Airways aircraft but I would have to wait an hour. So I shaved and cleaned up as much as one can in an airport and then traveled by small bus to a British Airways airport. I was directed to a certain number stairway where many others were going the same way. The directions given and service were perfect and my luggage was also transferred. It was exciting traveling on British Airways to Sweden as I believe a lot of the employees were Scandinavian. They served a meal and suddenly we were over Sweden.

Red tile roof, trees and water everywhere. It was lovely coming from hot, dry Saskatchewan and grasshoppers. It took awhile to get through Swedish passport officials and claim my luggage, then go up to a ground floor waiting room. There was Eva and Lars, her boyfriend. I was only two hours late, it was five o'clock in Stockholm.

My arrival in Stockholm was on Wednesday afternoon. We toured a lot of the city including museums, government buildings, we saw a lot of the city from a tourist boat, some of the city travel was by underground railway of which there is more than one level. It was amazing to see how clean the city was, there were no slums any place. At that time gasoline was $1.00 a litre. Farmers were getting $8 a bushel for wheat. Meals were not high, I didn't think, and the food was really excellent everywhere.

The cousins I stayed with lived close to the east coast, I guessed it to be 150 miles south of Stockholm about three hours of driving 50 to 60 miles per hour. We had lunch at a McDonalds restaurant before we left Stockholm. Eva's parents, Erik and Elsie Augustsson, lived in a small town, Fliseryd by name. They had been growing 10 or 12 acres of strawberries (jordgubbe) for several years and they just started to ripen less that a week after I arrived. It is a work intensive industry, especially so during picking time. The first small load was picked by 10:30 a.m. on a Saturday, some by hired pickers, all girls. Erik and I drove to Oskarshamn with 30 twelve carton baskets. They were worth $300 Canadian.

Our travels included glass factories and tourist areas, and one day we went over a three mile long bridge to the Island of Oland, the 0 is pronounced as (ooh). Here we saw the summer home of the King and Queen and family. The grounds were beautiful and I never before saw such big trees. One day Erik and I drove out in the country to see (what they call) the woodlots. I saw many white pine trees that were two feet in diameter, also some oak and a few spruce. The oak is used much in the finishing of houses and also in making furniture. We also visited a mill in Fliseryd that produces whole wheat flour and another part of it grinds grain for livestock. Both mills use stone grinders and are powered by electricity, the dynamo is driven by a 8 or 10 foot water wheel. It has been in operation more than 200 years. Two men do most of the work, even bagging the products. So the volume is not great. We much enjoyed noon lunches and evening suppers at different family homes, quite often there were ten or twelve adults. There were no small children among the families that I visited with One day Eva and I went quite a ways to an area called "Krisdala". This is where our Grandpa and Grandma Truman were born and grew up. A distant widow cousin lives in a house over a hundred years old that Grandma grew up in. Some of the lumber in that house was hand sawn and planed. The house is in good condition. it has a stone fireplace that could still be used. On two occasions Eva's mother Elsie and a cousin Guneila Karlsson, were along, those days we had lunch along and we pulled off the road close to a lake and sat on stumps or a rock and enjoyed our lunch. It was a bit disappointing to not be able to talk directly with the older people. Very few Swedes over forty years of age know any English, however nearly all of them under 40 years of age speak fairly good English having taken four years of English in school, mostly in grades 4, 5, 6 and 7. They do not use English at home. I was fortunate to have one near to translate all our conversations.

Erik, Elsie and Eva were gracious hosts. I was completely comfortable with them all the time. Eva works for the Welfare Department of the Swedish government, having been employed there seven or eight years. Her office is in Oskarshamn which is about 12 miles from Fliseryd. Oskarshamn, by the way, is an ocean port, bordering on the Baltic sea. Lars and his father, Bengt Elmborge, are dentists and were setting up a clinic of their own that summer. They were not working at dentistry while I was there and for much longer afterwards. We all had supper at their place one Saturday evening. They live in the town of Hogsby. Lars and his dad Bengt were going to Stockholm to buy furniture and other things for their clinic and Eva came along to see me safely on the way home. All too soon my return flight was due after 12 days. We drove to Stockholm on Monday afternoon, my flight was at 9:15 a.m. on Tuesday. We left downtown Stockholm after 7:00 a.m. and the traffic was like any other morning traffic for the first ten miles. Arlanda Airport is 20 miles out of Stockholm but we were soon out of the city and arrived in good time. Saying good-bye to loved cousins and friends was a tearful experience. After all we may meet again and we may not. I enjoyed their company and being in Sweden so much, I can easily say it was the most lovely experience of a lifetime. The red roofs and green trees along the canals that are so easily seen from 1000 feet in the air soon faded away. I will ever be thankful that I went to Sweden while I was in good health and could enjoy it so completely.

Traveling home was the longest day of daylight hours I will ever experience. I woke up in Stockholm at 5:00 a.m., and I think it was 1:00 p.m. when my flight left Heathrow. These are local times. From there on I lost track of hours but arrived in Regina about 8 or 9:00 p.m. and the sun was still up. I didn't get to bed in Regina 'til 11:00 p.m. Considering a time change of 7 hours between Stockholm and Regina, I had been awake most of the time for 25 hours. I did sleep a little between Heathrow and Toronto.

Many of the sights enroute, people I met and places I traveled were recorded in photos I took. I also collected a number of picture post cards and information on many areas and tourist attractions. I treasure family photos we took while visiting in Sweden.