Shopping at Sears

If I need or want to buy something I go online, search for the item wanted and compare prices at different locations, which can vary greatly. Free shipping? almost a necessity.  I don't care to spend the gas money to go to the store just to "look around". And the mall? A dreary, dark, place that seems to be marketing to the ever present packs of loud, rude, tattooed teenagers. Not for me anymore. I have no loyalty to any particular business or store. It was once very different.

When I was a kid, shopping was a family outing, an experience, an adventure. And that adventure was

SEARS.

My Dad worked for Marshall Fields for 30 years but Fields was "for the rich folks".  We were what they called in the day "working middle class" and Dad only allowed us to go to Fields for the employee Christmas party or only if we shopped exclusively in the bargain basement using his 20% employee discount. No, for us, our family and neighbors it was Sears. "Our" Sears was the flagship store on Six Corners in Chicago. We shopped as a family and that meant the entire family went, like an outing. Grandma and Grandpa went with us.

We loaded into the car dressed in our Sunday best. Entering from the parking lot, the aroma of roasting nuts filled the air around the candy counter. Grandpa generally bought a paper cone of roasted almonds with cinnamon. I can still see him in my mind today. He wouldn't shop because that was "lady stuff" but he found a spot at the bottom of the escalator where he would munch his almonds and people watch, nodding to the folk as they cruised down.

A family friend had what my Dad referred to as "a real good job" at Sears selling home improvements so whether we visited Sears we had to go and "say hello" to George.  Of course any appliances we needed we always bought at Sears. I remember in particular that by the vacuum cleaners they had a display that mesmerized me. A beach ball floating and spinning high on a jet of air. It never fell down! Magic, to my young eyes.

Summer? Sears was "air-cooled". One of the few places to air-condition on a stifling hot Chicago August day. A fellow had a cart and sold hot dogs in the parking lot. I was going to get one when I grew up cause Mom wouldn't buy us one from a cart. She thought the guy might have dirty fingernails. Winter? Christmas decorations in the large display windows and everywhere throughout the store.  I can still smell those little log cabins that burned Christmas incense out its chimney that could be bought at Sears each Christmas. When the Sears Christmas catalog came out we kids would circle what we wanted Santa Claus to give us. Our gifts may not be what we circled but it most certainly came from Sears.

We were loyal to Sears because Sears had everything we needed and wanted and I mean everything. Clothes, linens, shoes, toys, tools, tires, appliances (I"m sure I am forgetting something) and hey a Hillmann's grocery in the basement.The Sear's catalog had even sold kits for houses built in the Chicago area in the 1930's. Sears' Craftsman tools were famous for their absolute guarantee. Once Grandpa found an old rusty screwdriver in the alley and seeing a Craftsman logo returned it to Sears and got a brand new one! My husband, at 17 and a new driver, bought his car insurance from another young fellow standing at an Allstate booth, trying to build a base of customers at Sears. Years ago when my husband and I bought our first home it took our last penny. We proudly moved into a home that was basic beyond basic. No lawn or landscaping, unfinished lower level, no screens or storm windows, no air-conditioning and no appliances. We operated out of an ice chest and a crockpot. Sears bailed us out by giving us our first credit card which we used to purchase a stove and a refrigerator.

Mom predicted the end of Sears when they opened on Sundays. She actually cried, "Oh it's awful and so worldly and wrong for a place as great as Sears to be open on a Sunday, the Lord would not approve."  Sears was still on top and making big money for years after they opened on Sundays but that was then and this is now. Goldblatts, Montgomery Ward, Wieboldts,  Marshall Field,  and other "department" stores are long gone while Sears remains but she seems to be fading fast. Since 2010, Sears has gone from more than 3,500 physical stores to 695 in the US. "Our" six corner Sears in the Portage Park area on Cicero and Milwaukee may now be the only remaining flagship store in Chicago proper.

Just a few weeks ago we drove into Chicago from our suburban home to attend the funeral of a family friend. We passed right by the six corners Sears. I didn't go in. I don't want to go there and NOT see Grandpa at the escalator or "say hello" to George.  Rich, our Allstate agent since my husband turned 17, died some years ago. We now get our insurance from a nameless reptile on the internet. And the floating beach ball I loved and remember so well? Turns out it wasn't magic after all but science. I found that out on the internet too. Check out this youtube →The Dancing Beachball = Bernoulli's Equation.  

Sears was then and this is now.  Nope, I didn't go in.

Here are some interesting Sears-related sites 
→SEARS HOMES OF CHICAGOLAND
→THE HISTORY OF SEARS   
→SEARS WIKIPEDIA
and
→THE DANCING BEACHBALL



Update 2018 - 
....The last flagship Sears in Chicago
....Our family Sears on 6 corners
....closed.

Who are these ladies?

A photo taken on a 1937 visit to Norway. It is not the best quality but I do recognize the little boy as my uncle Arnold Sevald. My great grandmother Gunhild is all the way on the left and my grandmother Dagmar is behind Arnold in the white dress. I really wish I knew who the other two ladies are? Gunhild did have three sisters; Helene Marie b. 1871, Olava b. 1878, and Valborg b. 1887
Any ideas?

Gunhild, ? , Dagmar, ?
Arnold
Skien, Norway 1937

update: The woman between and behind Great grandma Gunhild and Uncle Arnold is Margot Skaugen Øvald. She is great grandma Gunhild's daughter in law, the wife of grandma Dagmar's brother Finn. In 1937 Finn, Margot and their son Nils were living upstairs of my great grandparents on Vinjesgate in Skien. Thank you Arild!

The streets were NOT paved with gold.

In 1984 I traveled for the first time to Norway to visit my grandmother Dagmar. At that time I was not all that curious about my ancestry. Grandma, however, sat me down and showed me photos of the family prompting me to write the names on the back of the photos. She told me one story after another and my interest began to grow. The stories were of a large loving family. A family that had lived in the same beautiful area of Norway for as long as anyone could remember.  Looking around me Norway seemed like a lovely place to live. The most obvious question was...why? Why Grandma did you leave Norway? How did you come to that decision and what was it like? As well as I remember some 30 years later, this is the story she told me.

_____________________________________________

"It was not my idea but Paul's. When we were young Norway was not how it is today. People were poor and life was hard. For decades already many Norwegians were leaving for America where they said: "the streets were paved with gold". Letters arrived often, from those who had left, bragging how well they were now doing, sending photo postcards of their smiling well-dressed families posing in front of their home or with their new car.  Paul and I were never foolish enough to believe that the streets were actually gold but we were young, hopeful and it seemed like a good adventure. Paul was totally swept up in the America fever and I was totally swept up by Paul. Our courtship was pretty quick. I had broken up with my boyfriend and stormed off to Oslo. Paul, who was my boyfriends' friend, had always had his eye on me. With his friends' approval, he followed me to Oslo. Not as tall or good looking as my old boyfriend but he was such fun. He danced so well and told jokes and best of all..he thought I was the most beautiful girl in the world. I would have followed him to the ends of the earth." And then she laughed. "I guess that is exactly what I did!"

"We returned to Skien and married when I found myself pregnant with Gerd, my first baby. Paul talked constantly about America and saved money for the ticket. The plan was that he would go first and I would stay here, near my mother, with the baby. He would surely send for us. He had an aunt in Chicago who he would stay with. There were lots of good paying jobs in Chicago, they all said, He left when Gerd was 15 months old.

Paul sent money. It does not seem like much now but at the time it seemed like a fortune. I had some doubts and fears about leaving but Paul wrote letters and sent photos. He and his friends were dressed so fine. They must be rich in Chicago!

1923 Chicago, Illinois: Paul and friends 

At the end of 1923, the tickets for Gerd and myself came. Just a few weeks before our boat sailed Gerd died. She is buried in a paupers grave at Nordre Gravlund, I don't know exactly where. I had just one small suitcase and I took the train to Oslo. The agent helped me get on the boat. Paul had bought us cabin tickets! I did not know at the time but with cabin tickets, I did not have to go through the embarrassment of being looked at by the doctors on Ellis Island. I had some money that I hid under my skirt and although many others got very seasick, I was lucky and did not. I was afraid though. I thought I would never again see my mother and I worried what would happen if Paul was not there to pick me up. Right then I wished I was home and I didn't even care that I was about to be rich.

Chicago was not what I expected. Our apartment was in his aunts' basement. We had just a bed, a chair and a rug that the Salvation Army had given Paul. The pictures he had sent were taken in a studio. At the studio they rented the clothes, hats, and shoes just for the picture! Paul worked long hours in a Chicago brewery, fishing rats out of the vats of beer! I had to work too. I was so ashamed because married women never had work back home in Norway. I worked as a maid for a rich Danish family on the Gold Coast. I could not tell her I was married or that I had had a child or I would be fired. Chicago was loud, dangerous, mean and dirty. We lived in a neighborhood that was a mix of poor immigrants. At night the men would go to the Norwegian clubs where they would smoke, drink and do who knows what. Paul loved it in Chicago. I did not.

1928 Chicago, Illinois
Arnold and Grace Sevald

Time passed and I had your uncle and your mother.  In 1929 I took the children back with me to Norway. But it wasn't the same. It wasn't my home anymore. We went back to Paul and Chicago. Paul had grown tired of drinking and dancing and dedicated his life to God and our family. We had a nice apartment in a Norwegian neighborhood and Paul had a good job now.  We had made many friends. Chicago was our home now. And it was a good one."

_____________________________________________

I remember my grandmother as a bold tough and determined woman, a real force to be reckoned with. But once upon a time, a hundred years ago, I envision a poor scared young woman who had just buried her baby, standing alone on the deck of the Bergensfjord.  For two weeks she must have looked out across the vast ocean ahead of her clutching her small suitcase and praying her husband would be on the New York dock to meet her.

Thank you, Grandma,
I love you.

Garnesmordet...What about Ole?

A few weeks ago I blogged about the GARNESMORDET or Garnes murders. Only two survived that horrendous night; my great X3 grandmother Anne and her young uncle Ole. I can see why Anne survived. It would take a particularly brutal person to kill a baby lying in her cradle and besides an infant cannot witness to the identity of the thieves/murderers. But Ole? The story he gave was that stabbed a few times the criminals left him for dead and when they left the room he hid. Hearing him rolling out of bed and scrambling for cover, they returned but in the dark could not find him.

So Ole was the lucky one? Depends on how you look at it.

👍16-year-old Ole survived the Garnes murders of 1806.
👎 but Ole suffered the loss of his father, two brothers and a sister.
👎He also lay for weeks recovering from his "disfiguring" wounds and blood loss. (Remember no antibiotics, pain meds or blood transfusions back in the day). Do you think someone stitched him back together? Ouch.
👍Ole recovered from his wounds, inherited a properous family farm, married Martha Jonsdatter Storvuku in 1809 and started a family.
👎In 1811 the entire farm burned to the ground. Four servants living on the farm were killed and Ole's wife Martha was seriously burned trying to save them.
👍The farm was rebuilt, prospered and Ole and Martha had 6 kids who have many descendants in Verdal today.
👎In 1843 Ole, coming home from an auction, attempting to cross the river Stenselven, drowned.

It was said he beat the killer's hand and fire but water took him down.

Norwegian Digitalarkivet (click here to go to original record)

Well, that's life I suppose. Sometimes you're lucky 👍, sometimes you're not 👎.

Like Mom always said, "who told you life would be fair?"

my 5th great Uncle

Ole Pedersen Garnes

b.1790 Garnes, Inndalen, Verdal, Nord-Trøndelag, Norway

d. 25 April 1843 Inndalen, Verdal, Nord-Trøndelag, Norway

*click on document to enlarge for easier reading*

Great Aunt Magda Sevaldsen

Great Aunt Magda Sevaldsen

Anna Magda Sevaldsen was my grandfather Paul's younger sister. Born 1906 in Hadsel, Norway her birth wasn't recorded until 1909 in the "dissenters" portion of the birth register. Even though she spent quite a few years living in the US, I never met the woman but I got a distinct impression that my grandmother Dagmar did not like her. She made a few vague negative comments about her that ended with her sucking in her breath and shaking her head.  Sisters in law often are just basically good folks that have nothing in common with each other but family ties throw them together in a way that irritates them both. Now, I do wish that I had known her.

Two cousins of mine in Norway, whose judgment I would trust, thought very highly of her. I have recently met through Facebook another remote cousin whose sister was a friend of hers and she told me that Magda was quite an intelligent lady and a poet. Another cousin by chance met Magda's daughter in, of all places, Hawaii. That daughter gave him four books of poetry written by Magda which he generously passed on to me. I am now in the process of translating them with the help of my old friend Google. Meanwhile, I googled Magda herself and find she was fairly well known in her area of Norway. Works she had written were included in the yearly Verdal books. Upon her death, she was eulogized quite kindly in the 1999 Verdal yearbook. 

Even those you love, admire, and trust dearly can be wrong sometimes. Magda seems like she was a free thinker, an artistic, imaginative woman with a very forward thinking, romantic view of the world.  Conversely, grandmother was a solid, "let's make a plan and get down to business" kind of a person. She had strong opinions about most everything. Dependable and constant. I loved that about her.  Magda and my grandmother were probably polar opposites. It is no wonder they weren't close. I loved Grandma but I wish I had known Magda also. Maybe for very very different reasons I would have loved her too. 

My Great Aunt 

Anna Magda Sevaldsen

b. 2 Nov 1906 Hadsel, Nordland, Norway

d. 22 Jan 1999 Verdal, Nord-Trøndelag, Norway