noochi

4 out of 5 grandparents in my family were entrepreneurs. only my grandmother on my mum’s side is alive today:

my mother’s parents, Bent Hugo & Jytte Marie Larsen, owned a grocery store in nørresundby. this was my grandfathers project and a lot of hard work. they struggled as super markets continued to deteriorate the basis for running small shops. later on, both became employed by others, and my grandmother wisely invested a few hard earned bucks, and simply loved the structure of being employed. i remember my grandfather being a bit disappointed with customers, who all of a sudden, forgot their loyalty and indulged in the great variety offered by emasculate super markets.

and i remember quite vividly how potatoes and apples from føtex for example, were hidden into bags and under coats, so that the local fruits market (mrs. Kragh) wouldn’t see that the larsens, formerly independent business owners and confederates, were now also spineless buying 10 apples for 5 kroner… like the rest of the customer base. my grandfather made rhymes around this topic (and many other things) until he died just before turning 80. gør som tusind - forlad brugsen (can’t translate), was one of his mottos. he always took my brother and myself to the airport to look at the planes, and to have a bar of marzipan and a donald duck magazine. or to the train station, to see the model railway. he was a very sweet and loving granddad. with a tough life, i think.

my grandmother made dresses. primarily. she educated young girls from the country side, who, like herself, had a personal ambition of independence. the girls worked for her in the tailor’s business for free in return for housing and education. and the girls loved her. she must have meant a big difference for them, because until the day she died, every christmas brought her a ton of “christmas baskets” containing free-range chicken, home-made rolled meat sausage, pickles, and home-made jams. from the girls, who later on married wealthy farmers and business men, yet knowing that they could take care of themselves too, because they knew they had a skilled trade. and she trivialized the income she grew to make to the outside world and to her husband. my father has told me, that she always pretended that the fancy shoes and hats and whatnot she got for her (4) children (and for herself) hardly cost anything. and i have a feeling this was just the top of the iceberg. i know anyway, from my own conversations with her, that she felt very good about the money she had made. and she made the money to live in a manner that befitted what she felt was her and her family’s rank, and to leave an heir to her kids. that was very important to her. i felt that it was almost a confession when she said that “every krone is made with a needle and thread”. the confession bit was not related to the fact that there was work behind every cent, but to the fact that she had made the money.

whereas 4 out of 5 grandparents were entrepreneurs, and 3 out of 4 were entrepreneurs by choice, 4 out of 4 parents (both mum and dad married twice, in case i have an old school reader who wonders) are employed by others, like myself. my parents however were pattern breakers in other ways. 4 out of 4 were first and only in their family to graduate from high school (and 3 out of 4 from university). my mother was the one who didn’t go to university, and tells me that she never considered that she could have done so, until she had another education as a social worker.

my mother (who now wisely enjoys early retirement) knows a thing or two about paying with goods. she knits (socks, hats, wollen gloves, legwarmers, wrist warmers, ponchos, shawls and sweaters) and she makes people laugh and feel good. the picture to the left shows one of mum’s most recent creations… “support christiania socks”, she’s named them, as the choice of colors resembles those of christiania’s flag.

i get an instant urge to give her something in return when she sends over such spectacular gifts for no particular reason… half the town of hune where she now resides have warm feet and/ or hearts thanks to mum. some of them surely get the same urge as me.

my brother runs his own business, as a freelance illustrator and comic book author with his second opus (Kom hjem, in english: Come home) on its way through the printing press. i consider him an artist more so than an entrepreneur, as he works for money mainly to be able to author his own works (and feed the family of course), and to become better in different genres. although not exactly an entrepreneur, he is highly professional when it comes to marketing, something most artists have a hard time with. and he works independently, and is only tied to select companies on a freelance basis.

i wonder in which direction i should look to find my own niche. my family so beautifully illustrates that there are many different ways of going through life. and i thank each and every one. the dead and the living.