November 24, 2022
* Music Credits *
Arthur Benson / Have you Tried the Key / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com
Josef Falkensköld / Crayons / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com
The Fly Guy Five / Meet Me at Montmartre / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com
Josef Falkensköld / Two Hands / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com
Narration
As I mentioned last time, grandmother’s friend Borgny and her family moved to Drange during the war. Well, these two girls became the best of friends. They had many adventures, and today you’ll hear one.
It’s about how the two friends learned how to make candy while they were seriously missing sugary treats during the war. It’s also about how they learned to get sugar, which was hard to find in those days.
Then, you’ll find out about some sweet, happy changes in Bjorg’s family.
Bessa: What we did in Norway, which was very bad, we shouldn’t have done this. We decided – because sugar was very tough to get and Mama would guard it like gold because she needed for baking. And so did Borgny’s mama. So we decided to take one teaspoon and put it in a bag. Not every day, but every chance we could get to the sugar.
And when we had enough – like a cup, we would go up in the woods and we had matches with us and we had a coffee can with us, and we would put the sugar into the can, light a little fire and put the sugar in. Oh and we also had some oatmeal. And we sat there and we were going like this so the smoke wouldn’t – they couldn’t see the smoke from the house. Cause they would think there was something wrong. When that sugar melted and we put the oatmeal in, then we would take a stick and swirl like this and hold it up. And it gets stiff right away, you know, melted sugar and it’s very hot. And then we’re dipping. We made lollipops.
If there was a little bit left, we would just pour it out on a rock or whatever and it got hard. We would just crush it and pick it up. We made our own candy.
And it was so delicious. It was so – But. But we couldn’t do it too often because Mama would notice – they couldn’t get sugar.
And then up on the mountain in Klungland, there was an old bachelor. Well, to us, he was old. He lived alone and we would go up to him and say to him, We’ll clean your house. If you can give us some sugar. And he would say, Okay, so we cleaned his house and he let us make the candy in his house right on the stove. He said, There’s sugar there in the night table. He was hiding the sugar too. It was in the night table. It wasn’t in the kitchen.
Bessa: And so we, oh, to this day when Borgny and I talk about that, we laugh. So we made – and the candy was called Knekk.
Kristen: So when the war was over, did she move back to Lista?
Bessa: Yeah. That was a sad day for me when they left. It was very sad.
Kristen: What do you remember about that?
Bessa: I know I cried.
Narration
Borgny had family and friends in Drange, and my grandmother said she visited after they moved away.
This isn’t the last you’ll hear of Borgny, because when Bjorg immigrated to the US, she and Borgny reunited in NY. They lived together and even worked together. We will get to that!
We’ve talked about Bjorg’s friends and their importance in her life.
Bjorg was close also with her family. A couple of things that you should know from around this time:
Remember that her Mama was single after Ivar left. During the war, she found love again: Jon, who lived nearby.
My grandmother remembered them playing cards together with friends at night in their living room – even with the soldiers right there. She said the soldiers didn’t bother them. Her mama and Jon would have a long marriage and several children together.
Before the war was over, Bjorg had a baby sister: Reidun. My grandmother told me about how excited she was to finally have a little sister – she was about nine years old when Reidun was born.
Bessa
They told me that the midwife was coming. And you kids are just going to stay there. My aunt – Mama’s sister was there. Well, anyway, Reidun was born in the middle of the night. I was so excited the next morning when they told me I had a sister. A little sister.
Narration
Next time, we’ll talk about what it was like when the war was over, and Bjorg’s genuine excitement over bananas, and real soap.
Thank you for listening to Bessa’s Story! Thank you to our sound engineer, Kalyn Pedde. Please subscribe on iTunes or Google Podcasts. The next time you’re on iTunes, would you please leave a rating and a comment? Thank you!