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torsdag 27 april 2017

Schooldays - pondering on how my world looked 1979

Part four of schooldays will be right here with links to the others. I will add pictures, just wanted to get started!!

Before I start this I will do some digging and see what I can find about those days and the places that are now long gone.  In Sweden we mostly graduate from high school at 19, but some programmes went on for four years and in those days, just as now, people came and went, took time off, went to the states to study or work or just plain dropped school altogether and started working at 16.  It was much easier then, today every line of work demands many years of studies, if you have no head for books, you have to be very strongheaded, determined and naturally skilled to get a job. It helps if you have connections too. If not you will be set aside, perhaps even have to retire at 25 because your health grows bad when life comes to a halt.  Money is scarce, you have to depend on savings, parents, social wellfare aso.  I see it from time to time, but also some young people are quite good at getting odd jobs and constantly have a positive outlook on things.  Some are not. 

1979 there was still lots of work to find, second generation of immigrants from Hungary, Yugoslavia and Italy were firmly established. We also had a large amount of people from Finland, some arrived here during the war, as children, some established themselves in the decades to come. That is why we have whole communities where the finnish language is spoken by 50% of the population. We have sisu-radio and sisu-tv and many congregations advertice for bilingual ministers and deacons, swedish-finnish.

We now got used to Chinese restaurants and pizza-bars, panpizza as well.  Hamburger bars could be found all over and downtown was a proper paradise for teenagers with no money, at least I never had any, unemployment and failing health made the following years tough for my mother, the block where we lived had started to decay, people were moving, mums best friend Eva moved to Stockholm with her husband and her children, leaving us in a vaccuum.
My hometown had begun it's change, old blocks torn down, new, modern , anonymous buildings took their place, the areas with 8-16 storey buildings with small apartments, started to pop up every where in the outskirts. It started already in the 1960's.

I applied for the most popular schools, the one with most prestige was Latin School, but there was also St Peter High School.  My oldest cousin, wanting to become a physician, finished at Latin School and went on to the University in Lund.  But I was accepted at Pildamms skolan. If you remember the great park where I spent much time, partly because of the outdoor theatre, you may also recall the ponds once dug out by prisoners .  Those ponds gave name to my school, but first it was called St Johns.  The more modern school was built close by in the 1960's, very close to the church where I started to sing in choir.  It housed about 2000 students, a huge establishment . I knew absolutely no one and was terrified!


10 kommentarer:

  1. 1979 phew! It started out as a good year amongst several excellent years for me. As I was engaged on a government contract that rolled on and on.
    Though little did we know what terrors awaited us a two years down the road.
    It is not good to look back. Much better to live in the Now and look forward to the Morrow than revive the pains of yesteryear which are now dead and gone .

    SvaraRadera
  2. In 1979 I was living in my first lodgings. My family were and are great believers in fledglings learning to fly and leaving the nest and making their own way in the world.

    My grandfather always said a man should pull himself up by his own bootstraps. And so we've never produced any of life's shirkers.

    Nowadays fully grown grown men and women masquerade as music, philosophy and art students of all stripes taking one course after another in order to basically stay at home, have no offspring of their own, and to be supported and have their bottoms wiped by their luckless hardworking parents.

    SvaraRadera
    Svar
    1. Many, I have to add, are even worse and can think of nothing better to do than hang around street corners and collect their dole money. My father travelled hundreds of miles on his motor bike to find work. The idea of making an effort seems obsolete today. They want everything done for them from cradle to grave in too many cases.

      Radera
    2. Well, I didn't mean to start an argument here, but the worries about the young generation go way back to Aristoteles if I'm not mistaken, my austrian friend!
      Whatever we may think about the pampered generation, they have been here before and will pop up again. Just look at the very pampered northkorean leader, too much pampering creates unhappy adults.
      But regardless of that, jobs are not that easy to find now, we have actually developed them out of reach. Technical revolutions soon will make it possible to live life without live nurses and doctors, my mother worked as a telephone operator, a kind and helpful voice , totally forgotten and unwanted today.
      But yes, in our home, we encourage the girls to try themselves and be independent, we teach them to believe in themselves and be observant of other peoples abilities as well. Respect, selfesteem and empathy. Thank you for the good comments you give me, Gwil!!!

      Radera
    3. Maybe I make clear that I'm not Austrian. If I wanted to be an Austrian subject I have been informed by Austria that I would have to renounce my British citizenship, my Welsh birthright, which is something I would never ever do. Strange thing, eh?

      I must congratulate you and your country. I just saw that Sweden came 2nd in the Reporters Without Borders Freedom of the Press List 2017 and North Korea came 180th.

      I think the world population is going to increase to 20 billion and most of these will be poor and that we have to help them to learn to stand on their own feet in their own countries, so there always be plenty of jobs to be done somewhere in the world.

      Thanks for allowing me to post comments here. I am always interested in your replies!







      Radera
    4. Hey, I am quite aware that you are no more an austrian than I am, I'm just teasing you!! The fact is that I enjoy having you here making your comments although we seldom agree and you do have a somewhat different outlook. I'm pleased to know we came second, North Korea is also ranked 1st amongst countries dangerous to live in as christians. Taking laurel after laurel, heading for world championship I reckon. The only feet they are standing on seem to belong to others. Wishing you a great weekend, my dear welsh friend!

      Radera
    5. I think The Donald has a secret weapon. Since he came to power nearly all the North Korean rockets have mysteriously exploded in flight. Obama should have dealt with this problem years ago. Very weak.

      Radera
    6. Trump said: "I would prefer not to discuss . . ." in answer to reporter's question as to why N Korea's last four rockets launched had blown themselves up. I think that's a good answer.

      Radera
    7. Hmmm. Be that as it may, the Obama administration had other severe problems to take care of, as I recall it. If Trump has a secret weapon up his sleeve he must have hidden it there for some time, the missiles started failing before he took his vows, no? I am glad if he puts a stop to it, in a good fashion, so that as little harm as possible comes to the korean people. It's a small part of the world altogether, they could use some peace so that they could get rid of pollution and get the country back so north and south could unite again. Or is that just a dream??

      Radera
    8. I think one or two fell out of the sky before he came on the scene, but some almost reached Japan.

      A dream or a nightmare?

      The marching masses in the north remind me of the German Nazis and their Führer worship.

      Radera