Sara Paretsky's Critical Mass and Women's Uniforms of the 1930s

Read Critical Mass, the novel by Sara Paretsky newly published.  According to the blurb, "V.I. Warshawski's closest friend in Chicago is the Viennese-born doctor Lotty Herschel, who lost most of her family in the holocaust."  While I waited for my turn to read Critical Mass, I returned to an earlier Sara Paretsky novel about this topic, Total Recall.  Topics from the earlier book included implanted false memories, psychiatry, and children brought to England in the 1930s.  Although the story is not a continued story, Total Recall was an appropriate book to reread ahead of Critical Mass. 

Of course I do not want to tell the story of Critical Mass.  In one paragraph a scene illustrates 1930s Vienna:  "Martina was wearing the uniform of the school, sewn by her mother with meticulous care..."  She, as a jewish girl "would be an easy target for rage" from those suffering during the German 1930 depression.  The character of the mother is a working class servant who does detailed sewing.

Curious about the appearance of the uniform, on the internet I find an interesting story about 1930s working women at Woolworth's in England and the United States.  The article shows the uniforms" "Assistants were given maroon uniforms or stockman's coats, backed by a free laundry service."  I think we might imagine that Martina's school uniform was a blazer.  I think it might be more likely that she had worn a pinafore as an early grader and had advanced to a tailored dress with a specific uniform collar. 

In any case, the uniform might have signaled a future for the schoolgirl that many street people in the 1930s had a hard time imagining. 

"Black and Gold" by poet Nancy Byrd Turner

 

From the Washington School News, a 1955 Halloween Poem.  It appears on the internet and the name of the author is Nancy Byrd Turner.   Halloween is nearly here. 

This is the Swedish of the Julius Wellhagen article in the preceding blogpost

VARDAGENS SJÄLAVÅRD

Husmodern,  No. 52 1938  Page 31

"Endast den religiösa människa är modern" säger kyrkoherde Wellhagen

Vardagens själavård blir ämnet för en serie artiklar, skrivna speciellt för Husmodern av kyrkoherden, teol. lic. Julius Welhagen i Överum.  Redan i hans introduction här nedan får man en bestämd, tryggande känsla av att bakom erden står en människa som talar och tänker oberoende av dogmer, en kristen människa, som med djupt och omfattande teologiskt och socialt vetande förenar modern, praktisk livsåskådning.  Den förkunnelse han företräder och den hjälp han bjuder riktar sig till vardagens människor, liksom Jesu egen förkunnelse gjorde.  Att det föreligger ett djupt  behov av just detta slag av religiös belysning av vardagslivets problem har vi för lange sedan fått belägg på genom mängden av insändare från trötta, tvivlande, ängsligt spörjande människor, som i sin närhet sakna någon att vända sig till

(new column)

eller som måhända ej kunna förtro sig direkt till en människa.  För dem - och för oss alla som längta efter något gripbart för själen medan vi sträva i vår borgertliga näring - bör denna nya avdelning i Husmodern under 1939 bli av oskattbart värde.  Och härmed lämnar vi ordet åt kyrkoherde Wellhagen, som kalla denna sin första artikel för

Vi behöva tala ut med varandra.

När jag nu vill börja tala om höga ting och djupa frågor, kallar jag den som läser detta icke medkristen, icke syster, icke jordevandrerska utan kort och gott Du.

Själv är jag präst.  Men tänk inte på mitt namn.  Det är mitt uppsåt och mina ord som skola tala till Dig.  Jag är icke stadspräst eller motsatsen, icke modepredikant för dagen eller en särgångare, icke högkyrklig eller lågkyrklig, varken den ena eller andra gruppens man.  Jag är kort och gott en kristen utan choser och åthävor.  Men jag bor säga ut, att jag vill skänka Dig något av den andliga trygghet, some ligger uti begreppen äktkriset och äktsvenskt.

Jag förmodar att Du ibland funnit kristendomen tung, svårförstådd, obegriplig.  Precis som jag själv.  En bok med självvittnesbörd från Mose och Jeremia över Paulus. Augustinius, Luther, och Söderblom skulle övertyga Dig om religionens stötestenar.  Under mina studentår vid universitetet hade jag obegripligt svårt att uppbyggas av vad präster, professorer och predikanter predikade.  De voro bra karlar allihop, men faktiskt minns jag inte mer av det som gjorde intryck på mig

(new column)

än vad jag skulle kunna nedtckna på ett kvartsark - ett andligen vitt blad genom vitmössans tid?  Ingalunda.  Tusen gånger ingalunda.

Jag kände att livet väg gick rakt igenom min tillvaro, rakt ignenom de för en kritisk student ganska grå söndagardna, rakt igenom den gamla vishetsmättade domkyrkan.  Och vad med var!  Den vägen gjorde om allting: förvandlade småsaker till sammanhang, tillfälligheter till livslinjer, missmod till glädje och glädje till djupt och välgörande ve, vräkte undan uttjänta bördor på hjärtat och lade på nya.  Och vad som var underligast av allt: man rycktes med sådan man var, framåt, uppåt.  Den ena dagen var icke den andra lik.  Kristendomen var ett mirakel över ett litet fattigt människoliv.  Sen dess har jag lärt mig förstå tvenne ting.  Det ena:  endast den moderna människan kan vara religiös och endast den religiösa människan är modern.  Den andra: jag måste tillägna mig så mycket av kristendomen, som min ande förmår, men icke mer, om jag skall kunna bli lycklig i det som jag sålunda  äger.

Jag kan icke ge Dig det gamla receptet: att vara stilla, att drömma vid levande ljus, att vila Dig etc.  Nuet rycker an med hela sin makt.  Hus och hem, föreningar, uppgifter och yrken från lekande särintressen till pressande förvärsarbete kräva Dig.  Du är icke längre den stillsamma schalettgumman utan ställd i kampens brinnande och bistra allvar.  Det är omöjligt att tillråda världsflykt.  Och det vore föga religiöst att förmena Dig den härliga lotten att få spänna

(Forts. a sid. 48.)

krafterna, strida, verka, sköta mursleven i världen, tro, hoppas, brinna. 

Men Din värld är ofta grå, enahanda, kompliderad.  Du behöver hjälp.  För trötta mödrar ha vi vilohem.  För slitna själar behöves också något, men det får lov att vara verkningfullt, praktiskt, nående ned till Dig, där Du går och står.  Jag tror inte att Du kommer till kyrkan eller bönhuset i första rappet.  Icke heller blir Du synnerligen hjälpt med att någon påtvingade Dig kristendom.

Bliv och var Dig själv!  Klara upp det där med Din inre värld!

Du är intresserad, tvivlande, undrande i religiösa ting.  Nåväl, alltid något.

Utanför mitt fönster skjuta tolv rosenstånd upp ur rundeln.  Ett av dem skickar fram sista rosen ännu i december.  Du håller väl med mig om att det ska vara rosenrundel och icke ett blastbelamrat potatisland.  Just nu medan jag skriver glimmar aftonstjärnan fram över bergen.  Blicken drages dit, jag vet icke varför.

Du skriver inte under på allt vad bibeln säger, revolterar emot mycket i trosläran.  För att nu inte tala om djupare ting sådana som begreppen synd, förlåtelse och dyl.

Alldeles riktigt!  Stora teologer ha måst stanna vid åtskilliga punkter i bibeln, undra och gå i vördnad förbi.  Vad mänsklighetens djärva bergsbestigare i de andliga upptäckternas värld icke förmått, det må vi vardagsmänniskor resolut låta vara. 

Du finner kristendomens målsmän vara ofullkomliga, kanske något än värre.

Alldeles riktigt!

Ock dock:  genom alla motsägelser och invändningar nalkas till min vardag, om min själ vill vara sig själv, en underbar makt.  Det är kristendomen själv, uttryckt i vardagsproblem, upplysande och förklarande det ofta komplicerade nuet.  Vi förstå bättre oss själva, vi första kristendomen och överhuvudtaget tillvaron bättre, om våra vardagsproblem börja klaras upp.

Det är vardagsproblemen, som vi öppet och ärligt skola tala om.  Julius Wellhagen

Julius Wellhagen: I can not give you the old recipe : to be still, to dream by candlelight , to rest yourself , etc. The now pulls an all the power .

The Husmodern Subscription I have was in part a gift to my mother from her Aunt, Faster Emilie, the gift began at the start of 1937 and ended two issues in to 1939.  (Another subscription began in the late 1940s.) Included is an article about the visit to the United States by Kyrkoherde Wellhagen and a return to Julius Wellhagen in their last 1938 number.  Then the magazine begins a series of meditations by him.  Below I include the translation by Google of his December

article. 

 

EVERYDAY CURE OF SOULS
The housewife , no. 52 1938 Page 31

" Only the religious man is modern ," says Reverend Wellhagen

Everyday pastoral care becomes the subject of a series of articles , written specifically for the housewife of the vicar , theol Lic . Julius Welhagen Överum . Already in his introduction below to get a firm, safeguarding the feeling that behind Erden is a man who speaks and thinks independently of dogma, a Christian man who has a deep and extensive theological and social knowledge unites modern , practical outlook on life. The teachings he represents and the help he offers is aimed at everyday people, like Jesus' own preaching did. That there is a deep need of just this kind of religious illumination of the everyday problems of life do we have long ago received evidence on the amount of letters to the editor from weary , doubting , anxiously inquiring people , who in their vicinity miss someone to turn to

( new column )
or perhaps not be able to confide in directly to a human. For them - and for us all to crave something tangible for the soul while we strive in our borgertliga nutrition - should this new title in Husmodern in 1939 to be of inestimable value . And with that , we leave the floor to the vicar Wellhagen , who call this his first article for

We need to speak out with one another.

When I wanna talk about high matters and deep questions , I call the reader non fellow Christian , non sister , non jordevandrerska but in short, you .

I myself am a priest. But do not think of my name. It is my intent and my words shall speak to you. I am not the town priest , or the opposite , non- fashion preacher for the day or a särgångare , non- high-church or lågkyrklig , neither one or the other group one . I am simply a Christian without AFFECTATION and manners . But I 'll say this , I want to give you something of the spiritual security , some are UTI concepts äktkriset and äktsvenskt .

I suppose you sometimes found Christianity heavy, hard to understand , incomprehensible. Just like myself. A book of self- testimony of Moses and Jeremiah over Paul. Augustinius , Luther , and Soderblom would convince you of religion stumbling blocks. During my student years at the University , I had incomprehensibly difficult to be edified by what priests , professors and preachers preach . They were good men all of them, but actually I do not remember more of what made an impression on me

( new column )
than I could nedtckna (down cover?) at quarter past one sheet - a spiritually white leaves by sphagnum time? By no means . A thousand times no means .

I felt that life path went right through my life , straight ignenom those of a critical student rather gray söndagardna , right through the ancient wisdom saturated cathedral. And what was! The road did about everything : little things turned into context , coincidences of life lines, discouragement to joy and happiness to deep and salutary woe, threw away discarded burden on the heart , and put on new ones. And what was the Strangest of all: they were carried away by such a man was , forward, upward . One day was not like the other. Christianity was a miracle of a small poor human lives. Since then I've learned to understand two things. One : only the modern man can be religious and only the religious man 's mother. The second : I have to dedicate so much of Christianity, that my spirit can give, but no more , if I may be lucky in that I thus owns.

I can not give you the old recipe : to be still, to dream by candlelight , to rest yourself , etc. The now pulls an all the power . Home , associations, tasks and professions from spawning to special interests pushing förvärsarbete require Dig. You are no longer the quiet schalettgumman but set to struggle burning and grim earnest. It is impossible to rule world escape. And it would be a little religious to deny you the lovely parcel to tighten

( Cont. a page . 48. )

forces , fight, work , operate the trowel in the world , faith, hope , burn.

But your world is often gray , monotonous, kompliderad . You need help. For weary mothers have we rest home . For worn souls needful something , but it is allowed to be effective , practical, reaching down to you, where you walk and stand . I do not think you come to church or meeting house in the first blow . Nor are you particularly helped with that someone forced you Christianity.

Backwardness and were yourself ! Clear up that thing with your inner world !

You are interested , doubting , wondering in religious matters . Well, always something .

Outside my window shoot twelve rose stalls out roundel . One of them sends out final rose even in December. You agree well with me that it'll be the rose circle and not a blast cluttered potato . Right now as I type gleams evening star forward of the mountains. The gaze is drawn there, I do not know why.

You do not subscribe to all that the Bible says , rebelling against much of the Doctrine of the Faith . To say nothing of deeper things such as the concepts of sin , forgiveness, and the like.

Quite right ! Great theologians have had to stop at several points in the Bible , wonder and reverence go by. What mankind bold mountaineers in the spiritual discovery the world has not been able , let us everyday people resolutely let be.

You can find Christian guardians be imperfect , maybe something worse .

Quite right !

Ock though: by all the contradictions and objections approach to my everyday life , my soul wants to be herself , a wonderful power. It is Christianity itself , expressed in everyday problems , illuminating and explaining the often complicated present. We understand better ourselves, we first Christianity and unremarkable life better , about our everyday problems begin to be cleared up .

There are everyday problems that we openly and honestly talk about school . Julius Wellhagen

A Translation by Google of Two Paragraphs from the Husmodern article about Julius Welhagen's Search in the United States

From the article about Julius Welhagen's search for Swedish immigrants in the United States, this is a google translation from the two Paragraphs that describe the West Coast encounter with Otto R. Karlstrom of the Compass Mission of Seattle in Summer , 1938  -  (on the earlier blog post, see page 27, second column)
It became quite clear to me that an individual 's search for all of those people was a physical impossibility. none of them could conceivably show up to the huge family reunion in Wilmington or on the field in front of Swedish Museum of Philadelfia . The old address was no good either as clue. The houses in which they lived was perhaps lost and themselves , they could be in another part of America. A mother asks her son "a time in Minneapolis, then in the forests . " " In the woods " is liktydligt with traces of a refugee westward , perhaps to Washington, where countless Swedes work in forest camps. But it 's not worthwhile to search randomly in the forests but by observation in places where workers conducted during breaks at work. A adressavlämnare talk about the West Coast. There 's an entire continent . It may be that the appropriate remedy in a large city on the Pacific Ocean or in a small backwater of the coast. The American country has millions of houses , login and nook. A human being there is like a pin in a hundred mila forest . Swedes have worked in the forests and mines, Swedish rallarnävar has evicted hundreds of mil away by the immense natural obstacles in the Rocky Mountains where the railroad now connects East with West . They may be living somewhere along the railway and have other jobs. A Swedish railroading will not forget , in addition , he is of too durable timber .On the trip I was accompanied by the eminent scholar of Swedish -America , pastor OR Karlstrom , a Småland sailor, who for Great fortunes became a priest in the Augustana Synod and director of the comprehensive Compass Mission on the West Coast . He leaved help me and we decided to prepare a list , in whose division we would follow August Anas old division of the Swedish centers , such that built up since 1860. There are 13 so-called conference areas , each with a president at the head . To these we would add a fourteenth , that admission people wil Sea, South America, or without actual U.S. address. But the urgency of the printing and the manuscript was not prepared in a jiffy. We could not afford to hire help, but we caught a priest who was traveling to a rest cure on the West Coast . Him we took with us to Pastor Karlströms small blockhouse and put him in business with us for two 18- hour work day . The result was a åttaspaltig list of one meter length , absorbing all the addresses and clues in the U.S. and the requesting party in Sweden . In hundreds of copies were sent this list out over the country, the conference preachers , to consulates and associations, to Swedish press. It runs now through major cities sea of ​​people by the West and Canada 's forests , including sailors and fishermen and miners, across the prairies and through the mountain villages . The names read by a bunch of lumberjacks in Washington. ' Donald K. - he asked me in Alaska this summer ,' says maybe . Or: " He works in a lumber yard in Portland. " At The Compass Mission in Seattle runs daily until 800 Swedes out, they read the list and it upstår a whole network of communicating . I am sure that there is reason to hope that the forward in July to have signed a host of signs of life from the sought after .

1938 Excursion to Finland by the Order of Runeberg - Seventy-Five Years

At the beginning of 2013 Spice Drawer Mouse included diary entries from the 1930 Order of Runeberg Choir Tour to Finland by Linnea Gord, the nineteen-year-old piano accompanist.  In 1938 the Order of Runeberg made efforts to achieve another Choir Tour to Finland.  Although the Choir Tour did not gather momentum, a successful 1938 Excursion to Finland happened.  Among travelers to Finland were Gord's Family Orchestra members Linnea Gord, Ray Gord, and Gilbert Gord, who performed on board their Atlantic crossing with other musicians as the Suomi Band.

As this event and its media accounts enters Public Domain at seventy-five, these media clippings describe the summer in Finland and Sweden in The Tacoma News Tribune.


Photograph of Linnea Gord 1938



Article 1938



Linnea Gord was twenty-seven in 1938 and worked as a secretery, a choir director, and a Scandinavian dance band piano player.  Her mother, Amanda Gord, also traveled with them.  Only five years later the two other band members, Ray Gord, accordianist, and Gilbert Gord, drummer, along with the brother who also traveled with them, Elmer Gord, all were in the United States Army.  About four years later the Liner, the Lancastria, which had been turned into a troopship, was torpedoed by the Germans.  It sank at sea.  The seventieth anniversary of the Second World War is remembered by many in the United States.

Husmodern at Seventy-Five

At an earlier post, in 2007, I transcribed some of this article.  The pastor's visit is compared to The Good Shepherd.



Tacoma First Lutheran's Reader Board



This article from Husmordern in 1938
includes a photo of Tacoma First Lutheran's
Reader Board



Husmodern Cover



Husmodern at Seventy-Five - Photo of Tacoma First Lutheran Reader Board - (continuing pages)

These pages continue the story from Husmodern from the earlier pages.