By Astrid Strausholm, Thisted

The telephone rings and a man says to me, " I have bought the house where you grew up. Come and see it."

So I went to see the old house after 25 years of its being in stranger's hands. Although there were many changes, it brought back many old memories.

The man who called is Niels Ebby Nygaard of Øster Jølby who saved our old home (it had fallen into disrepair). I was amazed at what he had accomplished. He says he has many more ideas for the place and I believe he will get them all done.

On the second of July, 1993, my family was invited to a reception and naming of the house. My father was a carpenter so they named the house the Carpenter's House. We were about 50 people assembled there. We sang, drank coffee and we talked. We had a surprisingly wonderful evening.

Nygaard received help from Pastor P. Østerby-Jørgensen in Galtrup. He had the church records and other old documents to find out what they could about my parents. They found that my parents bought the house in 1918 and also the dates when all their children were born. We were eight so that was a lot.

He also found that two to their great grandchildren from America were baptized in Galtrup Church. That day in 1962 my parents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary so there were many who came home from America for the occasion. That was a big day for all of us.

They did a lot of work to find out all that information. For me and the entire family, I want to thank Nygaard and P. Østerby-Jørgensen. Thank You.

You may not think much could interest a child growing up in the old house, so far from everything modern no electricity, no telephone, no running water in the house, no bicycles or cars. Just wooden shoes and house slippers. But I'll try to tell a little that happened around the four corners of our Earth.

To the east, there was an old, very low house on a little piece of land. Here lived our old bell ringer and grave digger for Galtrup Church for many years. His name was Kristiansen. He had a housekeeper, Ane Marie, who also was old. Of course, in my young eyes, that could mean they were about 30 years old. She came to our house every day for water (there was something wrong with their well). She would also come in to see my mother and they would share any news. Then we children would carry the water home for her. There probably wasn't much left in the bucket by the time we got to their home. But then she could come again the next day.

There was something in their garden that is like a dream to me. It was a hedge filled with little red gooseberries which are very sweet. Once every summer, she invited all of us children to eat all the gooseberries we could. Such a wonderful treat- and such a stomachache!

When we turned south, I thought it was the way to the whole wide world. We could see the traffic on the highway going toward Erslev and Nykøbing and there was a bus going to those towns. It was that way that my oldest sister walked with her suitcase in hand when she was just seventeen years old on her way to America. I thought it was very exciting. She had said good by to us children and told us to be good children. "I'll be back in five years," she added. It was closer to 35 years before we saw her again.

I couldn't very well understand at the time why my mother sat so quiet and cried while she followed my sister with her eyes as long as she could. My father was in his workshop where he could better hide out.

After that, four more of our family left for America, one after another. I also tried to get a permit to come to America. But it was stopped in the late twenties - no more could go over. My parents always talked about going to America with the two youngest children - but it didn't turn out that way.

When we turned west, it was especially Heides Vind (Wind) Mill that was very important for us. My father worked for Heides for 40 years as a carpenter. When my mother said, "Watch the Mill, children," she meant Heides' Mill and none other. If it stood still, then my mother got real busy making the dinner; it had to be ready when my father came home so he could get back to work on time. But if it was still turning, there was no rush. It was the Mill that made the pot on our stove cook.

To the north, we had the Galtrup Church which was very important to us. My mother cleaned the Church every week for many years. Naturally we children helped. If there was time, I got permission to go up into the steeple. It was very interesting. It was full of the birds - small church owls, falcons and other birds. Once, when I reached the highest ledge in the steeple, there sat an owl. It sat very still and looked me deeply in my eyes. It was sitting on a nest with young ones and it did not move when I came near. But then it was time to come down - I had to get down before Kristiansen would ring the church bell for sundown.

Kristiansen rang the bell twice a day, at sunrise and sundown, and also for services and walked back and forth to the Church each time. It must have been difficult many times. One Christmas Eve, I remember it snowed a great deal while we walked home from Church. No one thought much that night of that old man who had to walk home alone on that dark road in back of our house. It must have snowed for a couple of hours. We had started to eat dinner when he came knocking at our door. the snow was then a blizzard and he had lost his way. He came stumbling into our house all covered with snow. He had walked in front of our house and saw the light in our window. Just think if he had passed by and walked into our fields on that snowy night! My father got dressed and got his lantern out and walked him home. The next morning he had to be back to start the fire at the Church and ring the bell again for worship service. Where did he get the strength from?

When we had snow, we children had a lot of fun. We got our sled out that out father had made for us. We made snowmen and tunnels in the snow. We did not have long leggings or rubber boots. We had home-knitted stockings and wooden shoes - and we had fun and we were never bored.

For others to hear, it probably seems a simple childhood. But I remember it as a good time. I think also it may have been a healthy life. We had a good garden, a lot of green vegetables and lots of potatoes. Also, we had two goats. My mother milked them everyday. Before we went to bed, we had a slice of rye bread and a glass of goat's milk. How good it tasted!

We were not very old when we got a job to work for other people to help with housework or maybe take care of children. Every other Sunday afternoon we were free to go home to visit our family. That went fast. We could hardly wait to get there. It was unbelievable how happy we were to get home. I don't believe a castle could have measured up to our little home. There we found safety and peace.