life in Alrum

It was a difficult life for Botilda. I have never heard anything about how her family treated her after the marriage. She certainly married beneath her socially. She died ten years before I was born so all I have of her are photos and in every one she is seen knitting stockings for her brood. They were not socks the way our children's were, but things that went up over the knees. And did she have a yarn store to rely on? Or did she sheer wool from the sheep and spin it into yarn? I remember my older brother having to wear long socks like that when he was a child and the yarn was so itchy on his legs that he sat on the side of his bed crying in the morning because of the misery.

In my case, I had to wear stockings like that, but I must have had to wear hand-me-downs from my sister, and they were as smooth as silk. Probably a darn here and there. You should have seen the ugly garment we had to wear to hold these stockings up. A sleeveless thing that buttoned down in front. And then there were elastic bands hanging down from the sides, which buttoned on to the sides of the socks. As you can see, I don't know if I should call them socks or stockings. The item that held them up was called knappe-liv. Knapp means button. How is this getting to either Nils' or Botilda's story, much less Blendas'. I have a feeling there will many diversions like this in this story. Can't help it. By the way, the elastic bands I spoke of were bought in the store. They had buttonholes every other inch so they were buttoned first on that garment and then on the stockings.

Tomorrow I will try to tell you about the dwelling they lived in and about the horrible discomforts they all suffered.