Jane. Maggie Nelson

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       HOW THE JOURNEY WAS

       TWO LETTERS FROM SWEDISH ANCESTORS, MUSKEGON, MICHIGAN (1910)

       1. How the journey was (Marie)

      I will let you know that I have come to a new land.

      I will tell you now how the journey was.

      Dear you can imagine it was terrible.

      There was a war boat that drove into us

      so there was a big hole in the boat

      and our trunks stood in water.

      We thought we were gone.

      But we were not so far out.

      Then we went with a smaller boat called St. Louis,

      a little terrible boat.

      We were real glad when we came to land.

      We were in Muskegon Tuesday, October 3rd, at night.

      They were nice people that Nels lives with.

      Just young people.

      He was so glad when he saw his little Svea.

      You can’t imagine how fat he is. He thrives good here.

      I have only my man and little Svea

      and it is of course at first I feel alone.

      I don’t think we will ever come to like America

      as good as Sweden.

      I wonder how it is with you. Well,

      you are probably busy with the harvesting.

      Is it a nice fall there at home?

      Here it is changeable.

      One day it rains,

      the next day the sun shines.

       2. A hearty greeting (Nels)

      I must also write a few lines to you.

      I have worked almost every day since I came here to America

      so I am never free.

      A worker can get along better here.

      I am working in a factory

      where we make billiard tables.

      There are 700 men in the factory

      so we make several hundred tables a day.

      They do everything on a big scale here.

      There are 3,000 Swedes here,

      three Swedish churches, and many

      Swedish lodges. That is good

      because it goes slow to learn English.

      We are too old. I wish I had been here

      ten years sooner.

       THE BOX

      My mother says she won’t leave Michigan without it.

      But when her father goes down to get it,

      all he comes up with is a slim packet

      of ruled paper, bound by a piece of twine.

       Jane’s Diary—Private

      it says on the cover,

      Private twice underlined.

       She didn’t always like her sister,

       and she didn’t like her parents much either,

      he warns my mother, who says

      she doesn’t mind. She packs it

      in her suitcase, tells me

      we’ll look at it in due time.

      About a year later, she sends me a copy.

      The diary starts in January, 1960,

      when Jane was thirteen, and runs

      to October of 1961.

       At this moment in my life

       hate is so fierce

       that I would give anything to СКАЧАТЬ