Sommar Halsningar!

Do you ever find it strange how things seem to happen coincidentally? Since my last post involving my musings on time in Sweden, which stemmed from pulling some old yarn out of a box, I have been traveling down memory lane more than usual, I guess. Thinking about the experience I had back then and how it has followed me through my life. Yesterday was my birthday and as I was getting ready for work I wanted to put on a necklace, so I chose to wear the plain gold chain that was my 18th birthday gift from the Sohlberg family back in 1971. I hadn't been in Sweden with them for very long at that time, I think I went there in June, so this would have been a little over a month later. But they had a little birthday party for me, and presented me with this necklace, which was something commonly worn by the girls I had met there. I was very surprised and pleased, it really made me feel special. I wore that necklace continuously for a very long time after I left Sweden, because it made me feel a connection to that special place and time as I went about my everyday life. So wearing it yesterday took me back in time again. When I came home from work, Bob told me I needed to go listen to the phone message from Brita, and I replied that I had talked to her during the day so I probably was caught up on whatever she was calling about, which was to wish me a happy birthday. Well, he stressed that I needed to hear the message, so I took myself to the machine and pressed the button to listen to the 2 messages. First, there was Brita. Second, there was Brita--this time with a Swedish accent! Brita Sohlberg! How fun, and serendipitous, to hear her voice. I am sad that I wasn't home when she called, and I don't know how to contact her. I had even pulled out my box of letters from 1971 and 1972, the ones that I wrote to my parents while I was in Sweden. I'm so glad they saved them, this was before phone calls overseas were affordable for anything but a special occasion, so we wrote a lot, and it is like a journal of what was happening. Here's a little excerpt from a letter I wrote July 1971:

"We walked to the Vastra Bodarne station and got on the train. I think we took the slow train that stops at every little station on the way to Goteborg. I'm getting used to riding trains now. One day we were talking about the trains and buses and they couldn't believe that I had never ridden either one. We walked around a lot and looked in lots of different stores. I bought some blue denim so I can make a bag now to carry all my junk in. I bought a new film, too, 20 color slides. We stopped in a park awhile and I had a Coke, the first one in a long time, and bread and butter. That sounds kind of funny. We went to the library and I got to read the New York Times which was really nice and they have quite a few books in English."

So, flash ahead 38 years and I'm still making bags! What goes around comes around!