As recalled by Ida Magdalena (Almstrom) Eckberg and recorded by her son-in-law, Vivan Richmond, the husband of Ida's daughter Anna. Written in about 1960.
"Grandma Eckberg was born Ida Magdalena Almstrom to Ingrid and Andre Almstrom near Shifarp*, Scona, Sweden, on October 31, 1883, and here she lived until 1904, when she migrated to the United States. It is of these years that the following is written. (*This is the way Ida pronounced the name of her hometown)
Sweden at that time had three classes of people below royalty. Her parents were of the middle class as her father was a craftsman and owner of a bit of land. As she recalls, it was about the size of a city block. Here was his home and his tailor shop. Andre was a master tailor and had from two to as many as seven men working for him. Ida's maternal granddad, Pere Oloson, was a shoe cobbler. In his shop he made leather shoes, but these were rather costly, so most people wore wooden shoes that were less expensive. Her paternal granddad was a retired teacher who kept busy as a clock and watch repairman. This granddad lived nearby, and Ida spent many hours with him. He taught her to read and write and do some arithmetic before she was old enough for school.
Ida's early childhood was quite normal, and her main toys were dolls. She recalls having as many as fifteen, and her mother predicted that someday she would have either a large family or none at all. As she grew older, she had to assume her place in the family and share in its work. Her dad farmed his bit of land and wasted not an inch of it. He raised wheat, barley, rye, and potatoes as well as all kinds of vegetables. He also raised two pigs and kept two ewes. This meant that she had to learn to garden and to take care of animals. This early training was to prove valuable to her later as she went out to seek employment.
The small grain was harvested by hand and threshed by flail, saving the straw for thatching roofs. The wheat and rye was ground into flour for baking, and the barley and the potatoes were used for for pig feed. She recalls that the potatoes were cooked, and the barley meal would be stirred in with the potatoes to make a mush for the pigs. Eating potatoes were raised on a farm that had better soil, and the rent for this ground could not be paid in money, but had to be paid in labor, so a master tailor would sometimes be a manual laborer. Her dad would also harvest grass and hay from ditch banks or other low places and pay for it in labor.
During her youth, Ida learned many things. Besides her school lessons she learned to cook, bake, knit, and weave, and to handle wool from the sheep to the garment. To get wool ready for use was quite a job. First the wool had to be clean. To do this she washed the sheep sometimes as many as three times to get it clean. Then the sheep had to be kept clean until it was dry. Next it was sheared, and the wool was washed again--this time in very warm water to get out all of the wool fat. The wool was then ready to card by hand; then it was spun into yarn on the spinning wheel. The size of the yarn depended on what it was to be used for; it was made small and tightly twisted for weaving, left looser for knitting.
In addition to her other duties, Ida also learned to can vegetables, preserve fruits, and cure meat for the family's food supply.
When Ida was fourteen, she was allowed to work away from home to earn money during summer vacation. She also sought parttime employment when she was fifteen, but at sixteen her schooling was over, and she took work full time. Many girls at that time hired out as either domestics or farm hands. Ida chose the latter and found a job on a farm near the Sea of Baltic.
Her employer had two boys and two girls. One girl did house work, and the other one had been schooled on the loom. This girl had a fine loom and was always busy, weaving not only for her family, but doing custom work as well. She worked with wool and linen, using as many as twenty-four harnesses. Evenings Ida would help her, and in this way she learned to weave many patterns on this multiple-harnessed loom.
Ida's work was outside the house doing farm labor, and many times she did more than the hired men. She would get up at four in the morning to milk the cows. In Sweden the farms had no fences as we know them here, making it necessary to stake out all livestock or have them herded. Her cows were staked out on the banks that sloped down to the Baltic Sea about a mile from the farm, so she would hitch up one horse to a cart and drive there, milk the cows, and drive back. By the time she returned, the men would be up, and she would help them with the rest of the chores. Then she would be off to the field for the day's work.
This farm had about 160 acres, and they raised wheat, barley, rye, and the cash crop, sugar beets. This work kept three laborers busy most of the time. The beets were planted by hand, tended with a horse plow, and weeded by hand. They were dug by hand, and of course the tops were cut by hand. Only during her last year was the threshing done by machine--before then it had been flailed by hand. The machine was only a cylinder powered by horse power, and the bundles were held to the cylinder until the heads were threshed off; the straw was always saved for roof thatching.
If there was a demand for linen, the farmer would plant flax; to process this flax into linen required many operations. It had to be handled very carefully so as to get the most straw. Ida recalls the work it was to get this straw ready to weave. First it had to be soaked in water until it was soft; then it was held over a round wooden pole and beat with a flat board. This separated it into fibers, and it then had to be carded and spun into thread.
The grain that was to be used for flour was ground at a local mill that was powered by the wind. Baking in the Swedish home was a big job. It was done in an oven that was built like a fireplace with a metal door. To ready an oven for baking, a fire was built in the oven, and when it was hot enough, the fire was removed and the oven cleaned of all the ashes as the bread would be put into the oven without any pan. The radiant heat would then bake the bread. Wood from the timber to the north was used for the fuel. All timber in Sweden was under the control of the army, and the standing army kept the timber replanted and designated the trees that could be cut. When a tree was cut, no brush was wasted. The whole tree would be brought home, and all was used for fuel, even the twigs were tied in bundles for kindling. Ida never went to the timber, but she did help to work up the wood at home.
Because the family lived close to the sea, fish was a major part of their diet. Each day when the fishing fleet returned to the wharf, peddlers would buy their daily stock of fish and begin their rounds to their customers, often using a wheelbarrow to haul their wares. Ida recalls that a wheelbarrow was also used by a lady of the village to peddle sweet rolls and other fancy baked goods once a week.
Ida's life was not all work--she did have some fun. In the evening after the day's work was done, the young folks would sometimes congregate at a crossroad to have a dance. One of the kids would usually bring an accordion or a mouth organ for music; other times they would just clap their hands for rhythm. When the fellowship was over, they would start home, and as each one came to his home, he would drop off, and the rest would go on.
Every once in awhile on a Sunday or a holiday, Ida would join her friends for a day of sailing on the Sea of Baltic. Some boy would borrow his father's boat, and the girls would pack a tasty lunch for the all-day excursion.
Once a year all would go to town for a big celebration that was like a carnival, a public sale, and an athletic event all in one. Ida would have to rise very early on this morning to finish her chores before they left for the festival. This would be one time when she could spend money foolishly on sweets, trinkets, or whatever caught her fancy--just like anyone would do on a midway in the United States. And of course there would be music and dancing far into the night. This was a day to be long remembered as she went about her many chores.
To Ida, as it was to all of her people, Christmas was a very special time of the year. Baking and other holiday preparations were started long before the end of December. On Christmas morning Ida and her family and friends would walk over a mile to attend church before breakfast. The church would be decorated with greenery and lighted with many flickering candles. It was a beautiful sight on that early winter morning. After this service they would go back home for a special Christmas breakfast. Tables were laden with special Swedish delicacies. After breakfast the group returned to church for a Christmas service filled with inspirational music and the message of the newborn King. After this service family and friends gathered for food and fellowship on a day filled with devotional readings and prayers. Another religious service was held Christmas evening--the faces in the choir loft were aglow with Christmas spirit, and the reminiscence of the flickering candles in the giant overhead candelabra enhances Ida's vision of Christmas devotions in Sweden. Following a very religious observance of Christmas Day, the family would rejoice in feasting and merrymaking until well after New Year's Day--celebrating the twelve days of Christmas.
In her reflections of her youth Ida holds many fond memories--being spoiled by her paternal grandfather, (she was his favorite), wearing wooden shoes to school in the winter and having snow fill up any part of the shoe that her foot didn't, evenings helping the two girls where she worked with spinning and weaving and talking girl talk about clothes, parties, fun at the corner, and of course boys.
Her favorite memory picture must be a beautiful one--the fishing fleet putting out on the Sea of Baltic. It would leave in the late afternoon, the boats spic and span riding on the bluest of water, their white sails filled with a south west breeze gleaming in the last rays of the setting sun. Too bad Grandma Eckberg can not put this magnificent picture on canvas so that others could share the beauty of her homeland."