In the Beginning ......

When I decided to write some of my memories I had a hard time deciding where to start. At first I was going to start at our birthdates, then start where we went to school, etc. And finally realized that the proper starting date would be the birth of our parents. After all, that was the basis beginning and the logical starting point.

In Helen's case it was her mother born in 1881 and her father born in 1879 in Washington County ME. though Helen's family tree can be traced back to the Pilgrims coming to America in 1620. Helen's grandfather was a Swedish Sea Captain who settled in East port ME. In my case it was my mother and my father both born in Sweden in 1879. They were next-door neighbors in a small town of Höganäs, Sweden.

My mother was an only child and my father was from a family of 10 children. As a child my mother spent most of her time playing with the many Ebbesons next door. She told me one time that of all the Ebbesons, she liked Arvid the best. They weren't sweethearts, but she said he would always stand up for her if there was any teasing or scuffles, and she liked the feeling of having a "big brother" around. He was always good to her.

My mother's mother died in child birth and her father brought her up alone with the Ebbesons as next door neighbors. Her father died when she was about 10 years old and as the custom was then, her nearest relative who lived in the Stockholm area, was expected to take her into his home. On the day he was to arrive in Höganäs to get her she was waiting next door for him at the Ebbeson's house. She was all packed and was sitting in Mother Ebbeson's lap when she started to cry. Mother Ebbeson asked her what was the matter? She replied, "I don't want to go". Then she asked "what do you want to do?" and she replied "I want to stay here with you." So when the uncle arrived to take her Mother Ebbeson told him she wanted to stay with her and where she already had 10 children, one more wouldn't be a problem, and could she keep the girl with her family. The uncle was pleased with this, because it would be best for the child, as he and his family had never met her, and it wouldn't be easy for the child to be moved to a completely different life among strangers. So my mother grew up next door in my father's home. Although my mother was an only child she had a step brother 20 years older than she. He had come to America years earlier and she really didn't know him. So when my mother was fifteen years old, he made arrangements for her to come to America and join him in Denver Colorado.

So my mother left the Ebbeson family and came to America. During the time she was in Denver, she and my father corresponded and I guess that absence brought her close to my father and a romance ensued. My father had been planning to come to America because he was interested in electricity and automobiles. He had friends in Bangor who had gone there from Sweden so he and his brother Karl came over together. Karl got work up in the Maine woods, as a lumber man where my father Arvid got work with an electrical contractor who was wiring homes and public buildings in Bangor. My mother came east from Denver and was reunited with Arvid and these childhood sweethearts were married in Bangor ME. 

My father had been hired as a helper by an electrical contractor who was in charge of wiring the public buildings in Bangor, the City Hall, the Library, schools, etc. but he couldn't speak

English. He worked with a wiring crew. At the end of the first week the boss man felt he couldn't keep Arvid on because of the language difficulty so he put a pink slip in his pay envelope to terminate him. The next Monday morning Arvid showed up for work and went with the crew he had been with the first week. The boss man checked Arvid's pay envelope and found the pink slip was still in it and the pay for the first week's work was also in it. So they agreed to keep him for the second week. At the end of that week they put another pink slip in his envelope along with his second week's pay. The following Monday morning he showed up for work again and he stuck with the crew working all week. This was repeated on the third week and the fourth week. At the end of the fourth week the leader of the work squad which contained Arvid went to the boss man and told him that young Arvid was really learning well. He was a good worker, seemed to be a natural for the work, and even his ability to understand directions had improved and the squad leader wanted to keep him on. He said young Arvid was doing more work than any of the crew and showed great potential. So they agreed and removed the 4 pink slips. When asked later why he hadn't taken the pay envelope each week, he explained the best that he could that in Sweden you had to work a whole month to be paid. Each month was a separate pay period. He had never known that a pay period in America was a week. It's a good thing that he never knew he had been fired. He explained as best he could that he didn't feel that anyone had earned anything in only a week.

So even though he was fired four times he stayed on the job, continued to improve in his use and understanding of English, and in a short time he was put in charge of a wiring crew of his own.

This started his electrical career. He went from wiring buildings, to automotive electrical. He

opened his first business as a battery specialist charging and selling automobile batteries. From that he expanded to service all electrical automotive systems. He hired a man to work with him on batteries, then another man on ignition, and so on. If it was electrical he could fix it and could service it. He enlarged his business to a larger building added more men, and was a dealer for Delco and Auto-lite batteries and all automotive electrical components of Delco-Remy. Auto-lite starters, generators, spark plugs, etc. and so on and he also was a wholesale dealer and had a traveling salesman working for him.

He became involved in heavy equipment, using magnetos. When powerful earth moving equipment was being used he was always available to repair any breakdowns in the electrical

systems. He was instrumental in the establishment of the first radio station in Bangor Maine. He became a radio dealer, was the agent for Atwater Kent Radios which was the leader in radios, until Philco became the leading radio manufacturer. He was cited by the business men in Bangor as being an electrical genius. And his format schooling ended at the age of 14. The end date of public education in Sweden. 

Then came the depression and he had to downsize his business. He was able to keep most of his people working for him and he was unable to keep his traveling salesman. He was told by Delco-Remy and Auto-Lite that if he didn't keep his salesman on the road he would have to forfeit his franchises.

So I offered to work for him part time, so I could continue my music teaching and that worked out good for him as a stop gap measure, because I volunteered to work the first year at no salary, just expenses.

All this part about my mother and father and their childhood in Sweden is based on my memories of my parents talking to me about their childhood at various times and also of my hearing them tell these stories to my brothers and sisters. Some of the details that I have written may not agree with the memories of my brothers or sisters as to how they remember the stories but to me, my memory is clear and I write it as I remember hearing about it years ago. The details may not be the whole truth but the details are my truth as to my memories about how I remember hearing my parents tell of their childhood.