From left to right: Me, my twin brother, our sister and our younger brother.
The four of us were born within 2.5 years and our mother was about 25 when this photo was taken.
We lived in a small apartment without hot water, bath or central heating. Life was tough.
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It’s a really cute photo, Christer! Life is easier now for mothers, we have almost everything, they don’t have to struggle with washing and heating water for a bath and so on. We have more opportunities now but I think that doesn’t make us happier.
Thanks for your comment, Brigitta. You are right, life is much easier in a lot of ways today. We take it for granted to have a hot shower in the morning and nice temps in the house day and night. But there are other challenges today. Life can be stressful and very demanding. Many young people in Sweden suffer from psychological issues and medicate for it. Still, I don’t envy my mother, having 4 small children at age 23.
What a lovely photo Christer. I can only imagine how tough life was back then especially for your mother at such a young age without all the labour saving devices we have today. I remember comparing the disposable nappies my daughter used for my grandson to the terry towelling variety that I’d soak for hours in a bucket and then wash and rinse by hand whilst praying for good drying weather. Your mother certainly had a lot more to contend with. Thanks for sharing.
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I am surprised that you didn’t also have disposable nappies for your child/ren. They existed when my children were small, at the end of the 70s. But I remember that there were young mothers who wanted to live in a more traditional and nature friendly way and imagine that you chose that lifestyle. My wife and I even had a dryer, so we weren’t depending on the weather to hang laundry outside. Thanks for your kind words, Linda.
I don’t remember disposable nappies being around in the early 70’s Christer, maybe I missed out! They would certainly have made a lot of difference to my day. When my second daughter came along at least I had a spin dryer!
This is a wonderful picture of four beautiful children. You and your brother do have some different personality traits that already show in your faces. All of you have the most expressive eyes! Your mother was worked off her feet, for sure, but also blessed with lovely children. Thanks so much for sharing this family treasure with all of us.
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What a great input, Juma! Thanks a lot! It’s interesting that you can see such differences between my brother and me already at this tender age, when most people couldn’t see any differences at all. You might have some psychic talent? The reason I put the picture here at this specific moment was that I have been immersed into my childhood for quite some time now. Last week, I finally finished a story in 16 parts, about 32,000 words in Swedish, where I wrote down stories and memories from my first 7 years. One of the main reasons for doing it, was that I wanted to give some kind of testimony to my grandchildren, some of which I might never see. Digging myself back to that time as an archeologist, I could see more clearly that my twin brother and I, in spite of looking very much alike, had some important differences from the start. He was more courageous and successful, while I was more fearful and shy. I missed out on some things because of this and became more sensitive and vulnerable. My brother studied economy and became an employee for the Swedish government, working with aid projects in… Read more »
Thank you so much for your wonderful autobiographical comment, Christer. It is like sitting down with you for a cup of tea – or many cups! I’m not psychic, but there is definitely a difference in your mouth and your brother’s mouth. His is more determined, I would have said stubborn. He also holds himself a bit differently. Your eyes and general demeanor seems less determined, and more dreamy. It’s easy to see which one would be the writer and the spiritual seeker.
On a different note, I had no idea your Wings story was biographical. It was an incredible story when I thought it was fiction, but now it takes on an ever deeper meaning. How wonderful that you two found each other and had several years together. I’m sure she was an important part of shaping the man you are today. I’m so sorry about her death. I’m glad you have found a life now that allows you to write, to contemplate and to be the person of depth and sensitivity you’ve always been. You’ve become such an important part of this community of writers.
Your photo reminds me so much of a similar one of my cousins although there were five of them, four girls and a boy. Similar hairstyles and clothes and seated much the same. We live on different continents but some things are not much different.
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I guess it was some kind of fashion at that time to do this kind of photos with children all over the world, just like there was a dress code and a popular hair style that was prevalent everywhere. And they would frame the photos and put them on the wall or on a shelf where they would stay for ages. So you were not exposed to that?
We had photos, too, but being the eldest and with only one sibling I didn’t have a group photo like yours and my cousins. There is a photo from a little later on with my brother and I, he looks cute but I am at an awkward age, chubby, super-short unflattering hairstyle only serving to make me look even chubbier and an ugly dress. How I despised that photo! My parents had it displayed prominently as did my grandmother and I often begged them to take them down! My Mum is in care now but that photo still sits on top of the bookcase in the unit she shared with Dad. I have never learned to like it or having my photo taken 🙁
It’s amazing that your mom still is hanging on to that old photo! It could be that she misses that time and that your photo symbolizes a part of her life that she still cherishes. Too bad that the photo wasn’t flattering to you, and that they didn’t take other and better photos of you later, but this is often the way things were at the time. It’s interesting how humans want to freeze a moment in time, frame it and then get stuck to it. Sometimes, they seem to prefer it to the present time.
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Very nice and lovely pictures, Christer. Among the four children, you are the most handsome for me. And you are so lucky Christer that you saved a picture of your childhood. Me, I don’t even have a picture of my childhood. All my pictures then were ruined.
I’m sorry that you lost your pictures, Lotchie, but actually we have something in common there. I have moved many times during my lifetime, and in the process my childhood pictures disappeared. This is a photo of a picture that my mom had hanging on a wall.
Thanks for the nice words about my looks. As you know, making a square photo into a 500×500 pixels distorts the proportions. I might have gained something in that process.
You’re welcome, Christer. Yes, you’re right. There are changes in the photo after changing into 500×500 pixels. But it is still lovely for it holds back the best memory we had in our childhood – that makes the picture more wonderful and lovely to treasure.
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This is a beautiful picture of you and your siblings. I can only imagine how tough life was. We are so privileged now. I do hope you still had some happy times during your childhood.
As I wrote to Juma, I just finished a long story about my first 7 years. It was a mix of sadness, shame, fear, and limitations, but also some good and happy memories. More important, I tried to look at it all with a great deal of humor. I think the process of remembering and writing was a good self-therapy and can recommend it to people who have had a traumatic childhood.
Thanks for your kind comment, Daisy.
What a lovely photo Christer. Like Juma, I too can see the differences between you and your twin. Do you still have contact with your siblings? I’m an only child, so you get photos of me posing with guinea pigs rather than with other children. I probably got on better with the guinea pigs anyway, no wonder I turned out like I did ?. Thanks for sharing, and the insight into the inner Christer ?
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Thanks for the comment and for the question, Carrie. I actually talked to my sister in Sweden today, over Skype, and also stay in touch with my twin. Sadly, our younger brother passed last year from a heart attack, but we weren’t that close and only talked on the phone a couple of times a year.
As far as I understand, older siblings are supposed to take on the role of guinea pigs in families. There must have been some misunderstanding of this rule in your family, since the guinea pig came after you. Anyway, I’m glad that the two of you got along. I can imagine happy childhood photos of him and you on your mother’s bookshelf. Maybe there was less rivalry and competition between you than siblings in general experience?
I have a picture of me trying to shove a carrot into the guinea pig’s mouth. We appear to get along quite well. Actually, I believe the guinea pig came before me, and was probably liked better too!
It just goes to show you Christer, what happy times and sad ones too, a family photo can open up. I have some photos of the family that stretch back in time, and it made me think, why would they want to be photographed in such a serious manner, never smiling and looking so untouchable? It come as no surprise to me that you and your brother/s and sister, were all so different.
I have never come across brothers or sister who were Identical in their make up, in fact a couple of years back my brother had a get together in his parish hall, to celebrate an occasion, and I was talking to one of his friends – who asked really quite seriously, why are you so different to your brother? I had never thought of myself as being the same, it still puzzles me to this day, why he should think it so strange?
You all looks so peaceful in the photo, but I bet it took your Mother hours to get you all washed, hair combed, and ready, even to get you all to sit still long enough to have the photo taken ?.
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After reading your comment, Eric, I try to visualize my mother, 25 years old, in the morning and in that old, rough apartment, bathing, dressing, combing all the four of us to get us ready to walk downtown to the photographer with us. Although her days were so filled with hard work, she took the time, the effort and the money to get a series of pictures to treasure as we grew up and she got older.
You are probably right about the patience it took to have us seated like that. I think the photographer had some kind of toy animal to get us focused on when taking the photo.
It was a big thing at the time to have a picture taken. My parents never owned a camera, and only much later did studio photos become more relaxed, showing something more truthful than these nice facades.
Christer it is such a nice thing for you to share your family photo. It’s also nice to see your twin brother. I could remember you made mention of him when commenting on my micro story, “Identical”. I also have an old picture of my elder brother and I. I think I might likewise share it though we aren’t that close. He’s a very indifferent person. I agree to what Juma said. You’re indeed a person of depth and sensitivity. I’m glad to share this platform with you. Thank you for sharing such upclose and personal stories.
I think all of us in this virtual family have some kind of bond in the way that we are pretty sensitive. We probably also all have a willingness to dig deep into matters, memories and such. The willingness to write probably means that we often are more introverted than extroverted, more sensitive than hard-skinned. You might have noticed such a difference between you and your older brother.
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That’s very true Christer.
Yes Thompson – I agree with you and Christer – the Voice Club is a special place for special people!