The Old Country

During my childhood, I recall visiting my grandparents house, which happened to be right up the gravel road from my parents home. My grandfather and my father farmed together and my mother was a homemaker who constantly tried new recipes on us, her little guinea pigs. There were three of us, all girls, all born within a seven year time span with me being the youngest. As we happily rode our bicycles the eighth of a mile to Grandma and Grandpa's, we wondered what sort of sweet treat Grandma would give us in an attempt to spoil our supper. Most treats were tasty, however we had to suffer through our share of "salad cookies" (Cookies with fruit/vegetables in them). Sometimes while grandma was spoiling our supper, grandpa would come in from the field smelling of peppermints and diesel fuel and share his stories about the Old Country, Sweden; the country where his father (my great-grandfather) was born. When my great-grandfather was a young lad, his family moved to the United States in search of opportunity and prosperity, and settled a family farm in the Midwest. Grandpa's stories always fascinated us and we were eager to hear more. Occasionally when we'd visit, grandpa would be sitting in the living room, listening to a record of a man teaching him to speak Swedish. He was brushing up on his Swedish Kansas farmer accent (Think Swedish Chef)

"You goo forr zee meety bolls,
you stay-a forr zee Sveedeesh Cheff!"

so he could take grandma to visit long lost relatives who still lived there. They ended up traveling to Sweden/Norway twice together, enjoying the company of our relatives, as well as taking in the beautiful scenery, including FEE-Yords (Fjords), mountains, lakes and beautiful countryside. They would always bring back Swedish chocolate bars for us!
 

Several years ago our Swedish relatives, Uno and Ingela (father and daughter) made a trip to Kansas to visit so the rest of us were able to meet them. Uno spoke very little English and Ingela spoke some, and was able to translate for her father. We were simple farm girls and found this all fascinating!

Sometime after grandma passed away, grandpa decided to make one more trip to Sweden, considering he was getting up there in years and didn't know how much longer he would be able to travel. Again, he had a great time visiting places where his ancestors had lived and again, he brought home chocolate!

During my grandpa's 98 years on this earth he lived life to the fullest and enjoyed every opportunity to travel and see new things.

One day, I was talking to my dad about things and he mentioned how he regretted not taking my mom to Sweden while he still could. I half jokingly/half seriously commented, "Well, dad, you could always take us three girls!" to which he responded, "OK, let's do it!"