Romatikk and Love

Among a collection of old magazines at the local

history center in Horten, I saw this copy of a magazine

I read more than 45 years ago. "Romantikk" - romance -

is the name and a similiar magazine was called Love.

Of course this kind of litterature was considered real

thrash, so most of us did not get the money nor

the permission to buy these magazines.

But one girl in my class bought both Romantikk and

Love, and brought them to school so that her friends

could borrow them from her, secretly of course, during

the breaks.

She would hide the magazines under her sweater to

keep the patrolling teacher unaware of what was going

on.

But one day disaster struck! We had a very strict

head teacher who now and then would inspect the

pupils as we marched , two and two, class after class,

to our classrooms. As we passed this stern teacher,

we had to greet him, the boys by bowing their heads

and we girls by what we called "neiing".

Imagine our class walking in, my friend with a bunch

of romantic literature under her sweater, and there he

was , the head teacher. My friend instinctly put her

two hands to her side and folded her one knee slightly,

the correct way for girls to be politely greeting a grownup,

- and the magazines slid to the floor, just in front of the

head teacher!

What a scandal!

My recollection of her punishment may not be right,

because I was not there, but as I remember being told,

she had to take the magazines to the schoolyard and

burn them.

True or not true?

The website for the local history center http://www.lhs.no/

A chance meeting around a school table

At the local history center in Horten, they also

have a little classroom where this table was

standing.

Two young boys, perhaps 13 or 14 years old,

were there talking to each other about what they

saw. "We had a table like this at school two years

ago", said one of them.

I could not resist asking them if the table they were

talking about also had the hole for the ink bottle

and the carved out part to put your pencils in.

They said yes, so I told them that I had used

tables like that in my school 50 years ago, and that we

now and then used the ink bottle, but not all the time.

Imagine our joint surprise when another visitor,

80 years old, told us he had had the same kind of table

when he went to school 70 years ago, though their

tables were double, for two pupils.

The website for the local history center http://www.lhs.no/

Learning how to sew by hand

In fourth grade at my village school, the girls had

sewing classes. Imagine how strange it was for me

to see some of these exhibits at the local history center

in Horten - just the kind of projects we had to do

and in the same materials!

I still do not understand why, but we had to sew

everything by HAND!

Then the year after, in fifth grade, we started

cooking classes, only the girls.

But two years later a political decision had been made

and from then on both girls and boys took the

cooking classes.

The website for the local history center http://www.lhs.no/

Local history in Horten

Last Sunday I went with the local history club in Moss

(Moss Historielag) to visit a local history center in

Horten, the town on the other side of the Oslofjord.

It is located near the Photo Museum and the Marine

Museum that I have visited a few times during the last

few years, though I had not even seen that this

center had opened in 2007.

Part of the exhibition are rooms furnished in the style

of my childhood.

Like this kitchen

and this livingroom.

I felt as if I was 50 years back.

First I thought : "There should be something like this

in Moss too", but then my second thought was :

"Good that Horten made this center, we can crosss

the fjord with the ferry and see their center."

The website for the local history center http://www.lhs.no/

So when in my life did interesting things happen?

A friend in my other country brought up the idea

that I may have many more interesting things

happening in my life here in Norway than when

I lived in my other country.

I was thinking about this last night before falling

asleep, and feel very strongly that I have had very

interesting things happening all my life.

My life in my other country was a wonderful row

of meeting fascinating people, learning things, having

experiences I can only be very grateful for.

It was an incredible life.

BUT

in my other country I never wrote a blog like

this, so most of what happened to me is only in my

head and heart, if I still remember it consciously :-)

My friends only got to hear about some of it -

here and there.

My other country is a very special country,

with a mixed population hard to imagine,

with nature so different from Norway,

with a history hard to understand.

That country, my other country, has so many

private citizens who have opened their homes and

their hearts to me for so many decades.

I am, sorting out box after box of personal

documents, trying to keep some of my "paper life"

in chronological journals.

Just imagine if I one day tried to recreate 40 years

of living in my other country in blog form.....

Torderoed - a work in progress

Last year our guide Arnulf Johannesen showed us the

White Room where the ladies would withdraw now

and then from the dancing and the entertainment.

He said that the expert Viktoria Brand had established

the original color scheme of the room and that she had

found part of some amazing old wallpapers with 18

different colors, printed in France, with an English tax

stamp. From this Viktoria Brand would now make

reprints to be put up in this room.

So this was my last visit in August 2010, more or

less of that same corner. Different colors - the right

colors - but the wallpapers will only be ready next year.

I find this exciting!

This year's visit at Torderød = Torderoed

Every year I go to see what is new at Torderoed, the

mansion here in Moss.

These are the photos I took during my last visit.

If you are in Moss during the summer keep a

Sunday at 15.00 free and join the tour.

It is interesting and amusing, well worth the

around two hours you will spend there, and it is

even FREE.

This season's last tour will be the coming Sunday

August 22nd,

My earlier postings about Torderoed

http://rediscoveringnorway.blogspot.com/2007/07/moss-torderoed-gaard.html

http://rediscoveringnorway.blogspot.com/2009/07/dancing-in-ballroom-at-torderd.html

http://rediscoveringnorway.blogspot.com/2009/07/torderoed-torderd.html

http://rediscoveringnorway.blogspot.com/2009/07/torderd-collage-made-in-2007.html

http://rediscoveringnorway.blogspot.com/2009/07/little-bit-more-about-torderd.html