SWEDEN:

Jamjoslatt

US:

GREEN:

February 15, 1982, interview with Mrs. Hulda Shoden at the Swedish Home at 20 Bristol Avenue, Staten Island, for the Immigrants on Tape Project at the Statue of Liberty. Mrs. Shoden, could you tell me when and where you were born?

SHODEN:

I was born in Sweden in a place that called Jamjoslatt.

GREEN:

How do you spell that?

SHODEN:

J-A-M-J-O-S-L-A-T-T. Double T

GREEN:

Double T. And when?

SHODEN:

That was the 29th of October, 1893.

GREEN:

Eighteen ninety-three. What was your home town like? What do you most clearly remember about it?

SHODEN:

Well, I tell you the only thing was that we had a little place in the country. And it was every-- we had every – and a very nice life. And that little place we had everything, we planted everything that we could to eat so we -- when we -- we were never eat really very serious time of not having enough to eat because there was always enough on the – on the little land that we owned -- to eat, like potatoes and all the vegetables.

GREEN:

Did you farm?

SHODEN:

Pardon me?

GREEN:

Did you farm?

SHODEN:

No, not farm, but it was just enough to--. My – my father didn't want to farm. That's why we could have had a big farm, but my father was not interested in farm work. He wanted to work

GREEN:

I see.

SHODEN:

And as I say, he was building railroads.

GREEN:

I see. So now tell me, we're talking about your mother and father, tell me about your mother and father. And you were telling me about his work. Tell me more about your father's work. And also anything else you can tell me about the other members of the family, brothers, sister.

SHODEN:

Yes. Well, my mother was a wonderful woman. If it hadn't been for my mother, we many times would have been probably dead. But, you know, she was, she could do anything in this world that was worth doing to see that her family was taken care of in the right way. You know, she could weave?

GREEN:

Weave!

SHODEN:

She wove the – the cloth for the – for the dresses that she made for us, and even the suits that she made for – for my father. And what she didn't have enough to do in her own – as she took -- in the spring she took, she took what do you call, contract on land of beets, sugar beets, or something like that. And she – she ma — she took a contract to take care of all of that. And so she had all those children working, and I was little and we worked. And we was so happy to go with my mother to do all this, you know. And then sometimes it was sugar beets, that was to a different part of the country.

GREEN:

Excuse me, your father worked in the railroads.

SHODEN:

And my father, he worked in -- on the railroad. Because he wasn't interested in farm work.

GREEN:

What kind of work did he do in the railroads?

SHODEN:

Well, he -- they were building railroads. There was no, that was arly. That was early, you know. In Sweden there was no railroads yet and they were putting up the railroad.

GREEN:

Oh, he was a worker.

SHODEN:

And he was on a little island they called (?) and they put up one railroad there together. Of course, there was a gang of them. Was not only my father, but it was a whole lot of men, you see. And then they had wagons, railroad wagons, that they put full of sand, whatever they needed for, and whatever they needed for the railroad. And so and so. That's where he made a living. And then he came home begins or so on, so he was home once in awhile.

GREEN:

Did you have brothers and sisters?

SHODEN:

And then we were eight of us altogether.

GREEN:

Eight?

SHODEN:

Eight, yes. We were two brothers and six sisters. And the oldest sister got married when I was only, I wasn't quite seven years old when she got married. And then, but then she got to be a widow five years later, and she came over here.

GREEN:

She was the first to come.

SHODEN:

No. I had an aunt, she came over here in 1883. Of course, she was born sixty-five, so she must have been seventeen years old when she came. Sixty-five, seventy-five and then eighty-five would have been twenty, but she came over eighty-three. And this is my aunt that came over.

GREEN:

I am now looking at a picture, Mrs. Shoden has shown me of her aunt in the

SHODEN:

Eighteen eighty-three. attractively done. Very Attractive.

SHODEN:

(?). And then she came back to Sweden in 1904, but besides her

GREEN:

Pardon me. Excuse me, Mrs. Shoden.

SHODEN:

Pardon me?

GREEN:

Her name? Your aunt's name.

SHODEN:

Anna Andersen.

GREEN:

Anna Andersen.

SHODEN:

She was never married. She had a man in Sweden, but they idn't click, so they never got married.

GREEN:

Maiden aunt.

SHODEN:

But she never did get married.

GREEN:

Now you've already told me what your home was like. It must have been very pleasant out in the country. We had a lovely school. looked?

SHODEN:

Well, it was a small, little house, but a very happy house. ur mother was such a wonderful woman. She made everything so pleasant not only for our own family, but for everybody else that came in. And she always had enough, if anybody came to the door to beg for something to eat, we always had enough for another one. And it was really a wonderful life.

GREEN:

Now we're talking about your growing up. Could you tell me who, what person made the deepest impression on you besides your mother? Any other, a teacher, a friend, and how did they do it?

SHODEN:

Well, you know, I am that way that I've always liked people all my life, you know. And when I was younger, I didn't see anybody I disliked. I just like everybody, but, of course, I loved my mother more than anything else in the world.

GREEN:

Oh, I can understand that. That is very interesting. Did she, was she your first teacher or did you go to a school?

SHODEN:

Oh, I went to school. I started school when I six years old.

GREEN:

Six years old!

SHODEN:

Yes, I was seven until October, and I started school in September. And I wasn't seven until the 29th of October the same year.

GREEN:

What were your favorite subjects to study?

SHODEN:

Pardon me?

GREEN:

What did you enjoy studying the most?

SHODEN:

Oh, I liked everything. And I was very happy in school, and I seemed to go ahead in my class very, very fast. I don't want to brag about anything, but that's the way it was. And I'm just telling you what I remember of my schooling. I was so fast in school that when I came to the last class, the fourth class, well, then I was too young to leave school so the teacher wouldn't let me leave. He says, you got to go another year in this school. Of course, I can't let you out; you're too young. And so then I went another year in his class. But then I was still young, and he said, you have to go. Well, we called it (?) this school in Sweden, but it's really like a high school here. So I went two years in that, but, you know, the books were so expensive that, you know, we couldn't afford to go in that school because it was too expensive. So, of course, I'd done, so the, you know, I done a little work and now we had a nursing school where we, for plants, where we planted woods, trees for woods, and you know, the planting the woods. And, you know, we got so when we'd plant, go up a little bit, you know, the farmers bought the plants. And us children that worked in that plant school, we had to go and plant them for the farmers that wanted them. Of course, they paid for that, so we could get paid, too.

GREEN:

Oh, that's so interesting! Now you already told me that you got the idea of coming to this country because you had a sister here.

SHODEN:

Yes. That's right.

GREEN:

When did you get the idea?

SHODEN:

Oh, when my sister left, I had the idea.

GREEN:

You wanted to go with her.

SHODEN:

Yes. You know, the older sister, of course, then I had no. Of course, she was much older than me, of course. She was thirteen.

GREEN:

But you were close to her.

SHODEN:

Always close family. We were a close family, and we always liked and loved each other. came? Of course, maybe your sister told you something. What did you expect the country would be like?

SHODEN:

Well, I tell you, we had letters from my sisters and my aunts. And my aunt had a lot of cousins here, too, that came at the same time that she did. And we had a lot of letters and so on, you know, from America that it was so wonderful here. And, of course, I did find it wonderful here when I came here. I must say that because, you know, I was always a happy-go-lucky person and I loved everything that was nice. Of course, everything that was nice, I really liked.

GREEN:

Excuse me.

SHODEN:

And I loved my people and I never had any trouble with people because they never hurt each other. In those days when I came over here, it was so lovely. We could go out and we never locked our door. We were never afraid of anybody was doing us any harm.

GREEN:

Certainly g\has changed. Excuse me, please. Why did your aunt come here?

SHODEN:

Well, my aunt she came here to make a living, like I did, too.

GREEN:

In what way, how?

SHODEN:

In whatever way we could find work that we were suited for.

GREEN:

What sort of work did your aunt do?

SHODEN:

Well, when I came here, you know, I was with my aunt, I was with my sister. She was marred again, you know, my older sister that was a widow from Sweden. She was married again. And she lived on 79th Street and East River Drive. And my younger sister that came over before I did, she came over 1907. And my other sister came over in 1906 after she became a widow, my older sister. And when I came, well, I was with my sister for about a, I should say, about a month. Well, I came in September and I didn't go to work until November.

GREEN:

We'll get to that later. Excuse me for interrupting you. Now how did you feel about leaving Sweden? And how did your friends and the family you left behind feel about your leaving?

SHODEN:

Well, you know, I left Sweden. I left and the last thing I know I was waving to my mother in the window. But I was crying all the way until I came to (?). That's where we took the ferry over to Copenhagen. And from Copenhagen we went over to England. And we took the ship there, Lucitania, from England to New York. And on that ship was the former President Teddy Roosevelt. He was on the same ship with us coming over. And didn't take long; it was a fast ship. It didn't take long to come over here because they were fast in those days, those English ship, Lucitania and Valtania. My sister came over with the Valtania, the one that was three years older than me.

GREEN:

You were just a young girl; how old were you?

SHODEN:

I was sixteen years old.

GREEN:

You were all alone?

SHODEN:

No, yes, I was all alone, but we had--

GREEN:

On the ship, I mean.

SHODEN:

On the ship, no. We were four together. And we were--

GREEN:

Friends?

SHODEN:

Friends because two of my mother's friends were over to visit in Sweden. And my mother asked if they'd take care of me. So that's how I got along because we had to sign the papers because otherwise I could not go on because, you know, you were too young. So they had to sign a paper.

GREEN:

So you had company. That was helpful.

SHODEN:

So we had company. So they were taking care of me. But we had more fun out of me because I was lively and I made them all laugh. So we had a good time all the way over, the boat. But I was never seasick. And I had one of my friends was so seasick that she didn't know where she was from the time she got on the boat until we landed in New York.

GREEN:

You must have been very excited.

SHODEN:

She was.

GREEN:

You must have been very excited and happy. Were you?

SHODEN:

Me? Yes, I was so because I didn't, and they'd send me down to the kitchen for four because we're going to have coffee in the state room. And they'd send me down in the morning for four oranges and things like that. But I was so funny. I couldn't even understand me if, even if I didn't say it right.

GREEN:

Did you speak English?

SHODEN:

No, I didn't speak English. But they made me speak English when they'd send me down to the kitchen to get (?).

GREEN:

So you began to learn English on board ship.

SHODEN:

Yes. I learned all the names of the food and things like that. And I was quick to learn, I must say, not bragging. That I don't want to do. But that's the way it was, and I have to say it the way it was because I have no trouble whatsoever with language or anything else.

GREEN:

Oh, that's so interesting! Now what was your first look at America like? What time of the year was it?

SHODEN:

I came in September. And where we landed from the ship, there, whatever took us over to New York. Let me see, I can't think of that now. It must have been a ferry that took us over from Ellis Island.

GREEN:

Yes.

SHODEN:

To New York. And then from New York, we took an elevator. It must have been the Third Elevator because I don't think the Second was built yet. It must have been the Third Elevator

GREEN:

Probably.

SHODEN:

Got off at 79th Street. And then we walked to my sister's home. And I was happy. It looked lovely to me.

GREEN:

Was it anything like you thought, the letters that they sent, told you about?

SHODEN:

Well, I thought everything was so large here, you know, the buildings were so high and so. But it was not so many tall buildings at the time when I came. They all came up after. But everyday, all the people seemed to be nice. Peddlers on the street selling their wares and so on. And I thought everything was lovely. I didn't find any fault with anything. I was just happy to be here because I know my sister and they seemed to be all right. And they had everything they wanted and everything was nice.

GREEN:

Excuse me. Who met you at the ferry?

SHODEN:

My two sisters.

GREEN:

Oh, you had two sisters here.

SHODEN:

I had two sisters. One just three years younger than me, and the other one was the widow, the oldest one was the widow. She lost her husband in Sweden. Still had three children there. And she got married here again. So that's who who we came to, to live. But my sister lived with her all the time, my younger sister, the one Well, she was not my younger sister to me. I mean my other.

GREEN:

They all lived on 79th Street?

SHODEN:

And then from 79th Street my sister moved over to Bronx. She got a bigger apartment there. So my sister always wanted to stay with her because she worked in a , what do you call, a lunch, take a lunch. And so she had to have somebody to stay with, so she stayed with my sister. She lived with my sister, so she worked right there.

GREEN:

How long had it been since you had seen your sisters?

SHODEN:

Well, it was three years. See, my first sister came over i 1905, the widow. And my other sister came over 1906, three years before me. So it was three years before I seen my last one that went, and four years the other one. And, of course, my aunt, I hadn't seen since 1904.

GREEN:

You must have had a big family reunion.

SHODEN:

Well, we had a, you know, meeted together and my sisters had friends so we were all together in the family. So we had a little party when I came.

GREEN:

Oh, that must have been so pleasant. I guess you didn't have time to be homesick.

SHODEN:

Well, I tell you, I did cry a little bit, you know, when I first came out where I was working I used to cry a little because I was lonely. But then we had a Swedish newspaper, it's still in effect, Noltsttelnan.

GREEN:

What is the name of the newspaper? How do you spell it?

SHODEN:

Noltsttelnan, was the name of

GREEN:

How do you spell it?

SHODEN:

N-O-L-T-S-T-T-E-L-N-A-N. And then after a while it came to be Svea after, Noltsttelnan Svea. So it's S-V-E-A. In fact I have the name here.

GREEN:

Mrs. Shoden is showing the interviewer a copy of the Sweden language newspaper which describe-- It's in English or Swedish?

SHODEN:

This is in English, I think. Is this in English?

GREEN:

It's in English.

SHODEN:

Yes.

GREEN:

Oh, and here is a picture in the paper of Mrs. Shoden.

SHODEN:

Yes.

GREEN:

Receiving flowers and greetings from Swedish relatives. And on all the pages of this Swedish newspaper, there is news of all sorts of cultural activities and here's a section on Rhode Island news, and here's a section on West Hartford news. And this would be a great help to any Swede wanting to keep in touch with your culture. Than you for showing to me.

SHODEN:

Well, I think I still have another.

GREEN:

Oh, you have to keep this.

SHODEN:

I'll show you another one with my picture. I put that one away. Here. You see, here is another one. I think that's in English.

GREEN:

Yes.

SHODEN:

That's when they came here to see me in the home.

GREEN:

Thank you so much. Now you've already told me you first lived with your sister.

SHODEN:

Yes.

GREEN:

And could you tell me about all the places that you lived in this country until now?

SHODEN:

That I visited?

GREEN:

No, that you lived in.

SHODEN:

Well, I've lived in Europe all my life.

GREEN:

Well, you lived on 79th Street and then you

SHODEN:

Then moved up to the Bronx. But then, you know, I went out to Morristown, New Jersey, in my first job. And then that was in November. I landed here in September.

GREEN:

Excuse me, please. What was your first job?

SHODEN:

My first job, I was kitchen maid up here in that

GREEN:

In Morristown?

SHODEN:

In Morristown. The cook was Swedish. The others were all Irish, so I had to speak English.

GREEN:

You must have learned quickly.

SHODEN:

It came just as easy to me then. Of course, you know, they made me, if I didn't want to ask, if I didn't ask in the name in English for potatoes or vegetables, what they had on the table, I wouldn't get it. So I had to learn English very quickly.

GREEN:

Excuse me please. I'm going to turn the tape over. SIDE 2

SHODEN:

Now I, so I begin when I--

GREEN:

Well, tell us some more about your work in Morristown.

SHODEN:

In Morristown, yes. Then I was a kitchen maid there and some would cook and I've cause the others were Irish. And I had to learn English right away. Otherwise I wouldn't get nowhere. (Chuckle) It comed. I have no trouble because I was young. And it seems to me it came to me natural; I didn't have no trouble to talk it. Of course, it wasn't so perfect to begin with. But after a while I could speak pretty good. And I could travel for miles down to New York all by myself to see my sister. Of course, you see, once a month we could go to New York for two days. And I walked all be myself. I took the train be myself and I got off in New York. And when I wasn't sure which way I should go, I could always ask. I could ask people if it was east or west I was walking. And I could get to such and such a number. That was before my sister had moved to the Bronx, of course. She still lived at 79th Street for a year after. But then she moved to the Bronx. Before I came back from Morristown, she moved to the bronx. And then the cook came in. I think we left Morristown, and the cook left Morristown, too. Didn't want to stay any longer. So she put me on the elevator and told me what street to get off of to get to my sister's place, and I did all by myself, no trouble. I got there. Don't let me see if I can remember what happened right away (?). I think I was off then. I didn't bother to take any other job or anything, but my sister was working in a big (?) up there in the Bronx, the sister that came three years before me. And so she says, take a job with me. But, well, I didn't think that wasn't interesting to me. I didn't like that exactly. I wanted to do something else. So then I worked mostly in tea rooms, like there was Ellis Raft.

GREEN:

Oh, of course!

SHODEN:

I worked there for a few years. And the Merry Lisa, that's another one, (?) and then I worked in tea rooms. And then I lived with a friend one time, a friend, another friend of mine had a room.

GREEN:

A friend from Sweden?

SHODEN:

Yes, oh, yes. She was also from Sweden. She was from Goteborg in Sweden. And we had a (?) together there for a little while. And I went to work in the Merry Lisa then. And I don't know the name where she was working. But anyway I was there for quite a number of years. Yes, then I was out in, then I went out to New Jersey again as a cook because I had a friend of mine, she wanted to go out there, too. So she was out there. She took a place as a houseworker and we worked together. And while we were out there, that was 1914, I think. Then I met my friend's brother and he was to become my husband, but many years later. This was 1914 I met him, but we didn't marry until 1926.

GREEN:

He was Swedish also?

SHODEN:

And in the meantime I went back to New York and I worked in those tea rooms again. And sometimes I even had private jobs like, you know, I can't even remember. I can't remember all of those things completely.

GREEN:

Excuse me. please. Your husband was Swedish too?

SHODEN:

Yes, he was Swedish. He's a Swedish captain. I can show you his license.

GREEN:

A sea captain?

SHODEN:

Sea captain. I can show you his license. He was a

GREEN:

How long had he been in this country?

SHODEN:

He came in 1907. No, he came over in 1906, I think. Here is his captain's license.

GREEN:

Mrs. Shoden is showing me her husband's captain's license. Jonas A. Shoden, his license in the U. S. Merchant Marine, United States Coast Guard. This is his license dated August 1954.

SHODEN:

Every five years he had to renew the license.

GREEN:

I see. A master of steam and motor vessels, any gross tons,any ocean.

SHODEN:

That's right.

GREEN:

He must have sailed all over.

SHODEN:

Yes. Well, you see, he was a lieutenant senior in the Navy in the First World War. And then after he was--

GREEN:

The United States Navy?

SHODEN:

Yes.

GREEN:

He was already a citizen.

SHODEN:

He was already a citizen. He was a citizen in 1911. So he became, after he was, after the war, First World War, was over, he went to school for his captain's license. And then he went to the Merchant Marine after the Second World War. You know, he stayed in for a few years. He was affiliated with his brother-in-laws, (?) but, yes, at that time he was brother-in-law. With this brother-in-law's carpenter's business. So then he stayed ashore for a few minutes. And, of course, during Depression, too. So there was not many ships and not many in the line of carpenters either. So in 1936 we took a trip to Sweden, him and I, on our ten year's anniversary because we got married in 1926.

GREEN:

Why did your husband come to America from Swede in the first place?

SHODEN:

Well, you know, like so many others, you just had America fever, and that was all there was to it.

SHODEN:

And he made out good.

GREEN:

Was he a seaman before he came here?

SHODEN:

Pardon me?

GREEN:

Back home in Sweden, was he a seaman before he came to America?

SHODEN:

That I couldn't say what he was over there because he was only a young boy coming here, you know.

GREEN:

I see.

SHODEN:

I guess he was only about seventeen or eighteen.

GREEN:

Oh, I see.

SHODEN:

So, but he went right away to the sea, he loved the sea. So in the summertime he was on the sea. And then in the wintertime he worked for the telephone company as a lineman because he didn't want to go to sea in the wintertime. But then the telephone company said if you're not going to stay here all together, you can't come back next year, if you're not going to stay with us altogether. So then he stayed on the water all the time. And so then, of course, he went, after he got his captain's license he was out on a big merchant ship, you know. So I didn't see him then for about three years. He was away and a captain of that ship for three years.

GREEN:

Oh my!

SHODEN:

So you see that's why (?) we didn't get married before 1926.

GREEN:

Oh, that must have been a happy occasion. Did you have a Swedish wedding?

SHODEN:

I had no wedding at all. We went to Long Island to get married so nobody should know it. (Chuckle) He didn't want anybody to know.

GREEN:

Oh, I see. I don't want to get too personal. Excuse me. Was there any way that you tried to keep alive the Swedish culture, traditions and customs and holidays in your home in America? Be specific about this.

SHODEN:

Oh, yes. We always did.

GREEN:

Tell me maybe about the holidays.

SHODEN:

We always had our holidays spent like we used to spend them in Sweden.

GREEN:

Can you be specific? Tell me all about it in detail.

SHODEN:

Yes. For instance, now on Christmas Eve; we always had our Christmas on Christmas Eve and then we had our Christmas parties and things like that.

GREEN:

How? Tell me about them.

SHODEN:

Yes, Well, we got together and we had the Christmas food, you know, like we had in Sweden.

GREEN:

What kind, tell me?

SHODEN:

Like a smorgasbord, you know, on Christmas Eve and so on. On Christmas Day we didn't care whether we ate anything or not because we had had our, you know. And then early in the morning, around four o'clock in the morning we went to church for the church service. Of course, they had, in those days they had early church. and we had two church services in the morning.

GREEN:

That Lutheran Excuse me, Lutheran?

SHODEN:

In the Lutheran, yes. We called it the (?) we called it in Swedish. So we had to go to (?). So we had our company and we stayed up all night to celebrate the Christmas. And then early in the morning we went over to the church for (?) we called it. And it was very interesting. It's very nice. Then we came home and, of course, we slept most of the Christmas Day.

GREEN:

Any other customs you've kept.

SHODEN:

Then we had--I belonged, I joined all kinds of societies. And I was a leader in almost all of them. One time or another, I was president in the society.

GREEN:

Swedish societies?

SHODEN:

Yes. Well, yes. Everybody spoke, sometimes in Swedish and sometimes in English.

GREEN:

What were the names of these societies?

SHODEN:

Well, I tell you, I was, there was this one. And then the Swedish Fraternity of America, that's another one. And then I had a Swedish Service Society. And then I had the--and then we used to go to the Salvation Army and so on. And then I had the, then we started another one. That was (?). That's another one. But in the Swedish Services Society, that was a charity organization. And then another charity organization was the Kelman Home for Children in Brooklyn. And I was president in the Swedish Service Society for sixteen years. That was the last years, because, you know, then the Social Security came in and you see then they got the Social Security, help from the Social Security. Then if we gave them anything more, then, see, they wouldn't get the Social Security. So we didn't have any more people to do good for. So we stopped the Swedish Service Society after we had kept it up for fifty years. And then whatever money we had, it was over four thousand dollars, I know that we had gotten together that we were given. That we divided between all the charities here. The Red Cross got some, and the Cancer Fund, and the Swedish Home, this home, got two hundred and fifty dollars. And then there was another home in Brooklyn that got five hundred dollars and so on. We divided all the money until we got down to the last penny. And we gave some to the Salvation Army, some to the Swedish Church, and the American organizations, too, of course. The Red Cross, that was an American organization.

GREEN:

Were any of these charities to help some of the people who came over from Sweden, the immigrants who came over?

SHODEN:

No. No. This was, for instance, the (?) in Manhattan, I belonged. We were eight societies that took care of the Karman Home in Brooklyn.

GREEN:

I see.

SHODEN:

And I was president of the Kelman Aid of Manhattan and all the others, seven out of that there one. We were together, working for the Kelman in Brooklyn. And that was for children, you know, it was hard times. The parents had to work and they had to have help for the children. So they put the children in this home. That's how we took care of them, and that we did for a long time.

GREEN:

Now can you tell me, besides this charity work that you did, can you tell me about any contributions that the Swedes who came to America have brought to this land. For example, what have they taught Americans about to do? What do you think the Swedes have contributed to the building of America, the people who've come like yourself?

SHODEN:

We helped whatever we could help. If there was any organization that needed help, anything like that, we did help, whenever we could do. But those details I can't really remember.

GREEN:

Well, for instance, I mean, for instance, the whole idea of the smorgasbord is a contribution, isn't it? I mean

SHODEN:

Yes, it is.

GREEN:

Ideas of furniture, dress or art or something like that.

SHODEN:

Oh, yes.

GREEN:

Like what?

SHODEN:

Well, we tried to introduce the smorgasbord all over, you know, and things like that. And we had our Swedish customs. And when we had anything that we gave performances for, we were dressed in our Swedish costumes

GREEN:

Could you describe it?

SHODEN:

Well, there's so many different costumes, you see, in Sweden. very province has their own costumes.

GREEN:

What was you province?

SHODEN:

My province was Blekinge and I had a costume from Blekinge. And I made it myself when I came over here because I didn't take anything like that with me from Sweden. So I made it myself. And that was a white blouse with a black velvet thing over without sleeves but the sleeves of the blouse, you know. And then I had a white skirt with kind of a light red border, wide border, on there. And then the apron was kind of a reddish-like chiffon like. And that was the costume where I come from. And that's the only one I can describe.

GREEN:

When did you wear it in this country?

SHODEN:

I wore it when we had any kind of a thing going on. For instance, we had, we put a play sometimes, you know. We out our costumes on and so on, just to show the American people and so what we look like.

GREEN:

Where did you get these plays?

SHODEN:

Pardon me?

GREEN:

Where did you get these plays?

HODEN:

Whenever we had, you see we had to rent halls for our (?). You know, that's a big order; that goes all over the world. We had to have a hall to meet in those. And in, sometimes we had a meeting one time and then we had entertainment the next one. So then we had all kinds of things. Then we dressed in our uniforms over there if it was occasion to use them. Whatever we were putting on, see. We didn't always use our uniforms. Sometimes we done some musical things. We had singing and Swedish dancing. When we had Swedish dancing, then we had our costumes on when we done the Swedish dancing to show the people what we looked like. And we really had a wonderful life, I must say, that our life has been wonderful in America. I have nothing against anything here because I have been happy since the day I landed here, except when my husband died.

GREEN:

Oh! Now let's talk about the young people, the younger children of Swedish immigrants today and also the younger people coming from Sweden today. Do you have any thoughts on what they're doing or thinking about?

SHODEN:

I tell you, the young people that come from Sweden today, they come here to work, to take a job and so on. And then they stay for a little while and they go back to Sweden again or something like that because that's all I know about them. But the young ones that was born here

GREEN:

They don't stay?

SHODEN:

From the Swedish that came here. They kept up with the Swedish tradition, most of them. There may be a few.

GREEN:

They do? They keep up with the Swedish tradition?

SHODEN:

Yes, they did. There were some of them, of course, that moved away from so and so. But the ones that was around their parents, they kept up. And that's why we have so many of those people that are still keeping it up. They still keep up the Swedish tradition because, but that doesn't say that we don't love America just as much. But we still keep on the Swedish tradition in order to let people see and understand what we really think of everything.

GREEN:

Did you see the movies, Bergman movies?

SHODEN:

Oh, yes, I did.

GREEN:

What did you think of--the reaction of people to live in this country about Sweden? Do you think it helped people understand Swedes?

SHODEN:

Yes, well, I seen, well, I think the american people, they like to go and see it just to get the idea what we really came from and what we really was interested in. And so on. And, you know, whenever there is a Swedish movie there was not only Swedish people that went to see that, but american people because they seem to like what they saw about the Swedish movies.

GREEN:

That man who made it was an artist.

SHODEN:

Oh, yes, of course, yes. And, you know, what's her name, Greta Garbo and all those Ingrid Bergman.

GREEN:

That's a contribution you made. (Chuckle)

SHODEN:

Yes. That's a contribution to America. Of course, you know, they really like those, you know, that wasn't only Swedish people that went to them, but the real american people.

GREEN:

Well, sure, there was Americans there.

SHODEN:

Yes, that was real American people because they wanted to see them. Of course, Ingrid Bergman, of course, she was outstanding in her work. And, of course, Greta Garbo was, too, but Greta Garbo was so secretly like, you know. She didn't want

GREEN:

I want to be alone.

SHODEN:

Yes, she wanted to be alone, you know. And that's the way she kept up.

GREEN:

Do you have any questions about the way the country and culture of Sweden is taught to the American students in the schools or in the universities today?

SHODEN:

No. I don't I think. You know what we do. I think some of the universities, I think, is trying to keep up like a Swedish tradition. Do you think so? Have you found it that way?

GREEN:

That the universities are trying to keep up?

SHODEN:

Yes, you know, we have some Swedish ideas, too, in

GREEN:

Oh, you mean, they're adopting the ideas of Swedish education here.

SHODEN:

Yes.

GREEN:

In what way?

SHODEN:

Well, in trying to put Sweden before any other country, something like that. I think I have it that way, that they prefer Sweden, you know, Swedish way of doing things than any other.

GREEN:

What Swedish way specifically? Name just one.

SHODEN:

In teaching and things like that.

GREEN:

Be more specific. How?

SHODEN:

Well, you see

GREEN:

Please END OF INTERVIEW