Episode Eight: Not the Stork

December 15, 2022

* Music Credits *

Wendy Marcini, Elvin Vanguard / Lost in Translation / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com

Wendy Marcini, Elvin Vanguard / Broken Conversations / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com

Sugoi / Late Night Friends / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com

These Old Bones / Old Country Serenade / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com

Bjorg is 17, and before we know it, she’ll be getting on the ship for America. Today’s episode includes a few stories before that took place. 

Starting with sex and reproduction! As my grandmother will explain, these topics were not discussed at home. Kids were told a made-up story about how babies came into the world.

Bessa: The midwife had this black bag. And we were told that that black bag held the baby. She’s coming with the baby. For years, to the day I went on a boat to come to this country, I thought the baby came in that black bag.

And Gerd, she thought the same thing. She was told that – who was it that was going to have twins? Oh, Tia and Tonnes. They were twins. And when the midwife came – that’s our neighbors. When the midwife came to that house and got my sister, older sister: How can there be two babies in that bag? 

So everybody believed in the black bag, not the stork. We had the black bag that came with the babies. 

Kristen: But didn’t you see animals being born? 

Bessa: I never, ever. They kept us from that. I never saw a cat being born or a calf. Never – I never questioned. Kristen, I swear to you, when I was on the boat, I had my 18th birthday, I had no clue how a baby was made. How a baby was born. All that stuff was kept from us. 

Now, I walked an hour with Papa Jon and a cow to take the cow to the bull on top of the mountain because she was in heat and I didn’t know what was going on. So we take the cow up there, and he says to me, Now you go in and have a cup of coffee with Anna, the old lady in the house, And I’ll call you when we go back home. And they went and did their business with the cow. And the only thing I remember going home after that was done – We have to walk slow. Why do we have to walk slow? We’re going downhill. Never an explanation. And a few months later, we had a calf. Did I know? No. 

Kristen: And you never questioned it? 

Bessa: No. No. I never questioned why the rooster was laying on top of a hen. I did say that to Mama one time. She said, They’re just playing. 

Everything was kept a secret. 

Kristen: It was like a forbidden thing?

Bessa: Exactly. Sex was something you didn’t talk about, or show. 

Kristen: But you have a million kids. 

Bessa: Yeah. Didn’t talk about it. You had nature on school, but there was nothing in the books that would say, this is how it’s done. Yeah, we came a long way. 

Narration

While Bjorg didn’t have the information she really should have had, she was soon becoming an adult, almost ready to turn 18.

Bjorg’s life would change soon. Her mama told her that she was going to America. So Bjorg traveled by bus and by train to Oslo to get the paperwork ready for her immigration. 

On her way home on the train, Bjorg has an unexpected encounter with her boss. This is the man she cooked and cleaned for. Bjorg gets off the train and is about to connect on the bus, when she runs into him. They were both traveling back to the house – where he lived and where Bjorg worked. 

Bjorg: So he says to me, I didn’t know you were going to be on this train. I knew you were going to Oslo. I didn’t know you were going to be on this train. I said, Yeah. I said, I’m on my way back home.

He said, I’ll tell you what. I’ll buy you coffee at the coffee house, the farmer’s coffee house. I’m saying, oh, boy, this is really nice. And he took me in there and he bought me coffee and a waffle, and we talked.

Now we have to get on bus number two. We get off on the bus station. I became air. Nothing. 

He had a car waiting for him. He got in the car. He went to his house. I had to walk to the house. That was the status that you are not supposed to be seen with your help. I had to walk. 

Kristen: How far? 

Bessa: Oh, not that far from here, to – a quarter of a mile with my little suitcase. But it was normal, Kristen. I knew what to expect

Narration

When I picture this, it makes me a little sad. Even though she seemed to accept that this was how things were. She was working hard and doing well. And yet her boss wouldn’t be seen with her in the town he lived. Well, soon enough she would be moving on with her life.

Meanwhile, Bjorg and Endre spent their free time together. By the way, their relationship wasn’t too physical beyond kissing. Fortunately, given that Bjorg never had the “birds and the bees” talk.

Bjorg and Endre planned a camping trip into the country on his motorcycle. 

Bessa: He had a motorcycle. And one day I asked Mama, I said Endre and I would like to go on a tent tour. She said, Okay. I said, We’re gonna go up in the the country. And he’s got a tent and he’s got the stove. We got everything. And Mama said, Go ahead. And off we took. 

Kristen: Just camping all over?

Bessa: Just camping, wherever we stopped. And, but we, we had one place we wanted to go to (says a name of a place in Norway in Norwegian)  because there was a nice big river. And we put the tent up and he said, Let’s go to fishing, go down to the river. And we caught trout – bare hands. We would corner them, got them. And then we would fry them in a pan. And that’s how we ate food. And we had some canned food with us. 

And, um, just flew over those mountains on that – and he had a big bike.
 

Narration

Next time, we have a special Christmasy episode. Then after that, you will hear about the journey Bjorg had on the ship to America. You won’t want to miss it!