Childhood

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.

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.

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 »

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?

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.