    
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Administrative
Information
Scope and Content Note
Biographical Information
Lineage
Selected Search Terms
Partial Interview Transcript
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New Land
New Lives Oral History Collection
Aletta Josefson Andersen
A Guide to Her Oral History Interview
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Administrative
Information
Creator:
Andersen, Aletta Josefson
Collection Nr: t004
File Content:
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2 file folders
0 photographs
1 sound cassette
2 compact discs
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Processing Information:
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The
interview was conducted using a cassette recorder. A research
copy was also prepared from the original. To further preserve
the content of the interview, it is now being transferred
to compact disc. We deliberately did not transcribe the
entire interview because we want the researchers to listen
to the interviewee's own voice. The transcription index
highlights important aspects of the interview and the
tape counter numbers noted on the Partial Interview
Transcription are meant as approximate finding guides
and refer to the location of a subject on the cassette/CD.
Interviewed
by Inger Nygaard Carr
Transcribed by Mary Sue Gee, Julie Peterson and Becky
Husby
Encoded by Kerstin Ringdahl & Amity Smetzler
Recording Quality: Fair. Voices are light and often
unclear. One has to increase the volume and listen carefully.
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Restrictions:
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The
collection is available for research.
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Preferred Citation:
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[Collection
Number, Collection Title]
New Land New Lives Oral History Collection
Scandinavian Immigrant Experience Collection
Robert A.L. Mortvedt Library
Pacific Lutheran University
Tacoma,WA 98447
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This
interview was conducted with Aletta Andersen on April 20, 1978
in Tacoma, Washington. It includes information on Aletta's family
and married background, emigration, Norwegian heritage, community
activities, and cultural differences. The interview was conducted
in English.
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Aletta
Andersen was born in Nordfjord, Norway in 1901. Her father was
Kristian Josefson, and she had four sisters and four brothers.
Her youngest brother died soon after birth. Aletta attended
school in the winter and helped on family farms during the remainder
of the year. She later married Anders Andersen, a printer, and
their first child, Garman, was born on September 3, 1921 in
Bergen, Norway. Influenced by his uncle en route to America,
Anders decided to immigrate in December 1924. Aletta and Garman
followed in February 1925. Ander's first jobs in America were
for the railroad and a sawmill, but he later worked for a Tacoma
bookstore, a company that printed labels on matchboxes, a telephone
book printing company in San Francisco, and The Oakland Tribune.
From The Oakland Tribune, he was transferred to the Tacoma News
Tribune, where the family then remained. By this time, the Andersens
also had a daughter. In America, Aletta became active in the
Lutheran church, took part in community activities, and participated
in Scandinavian organizations. She returned to Norway, where
her family still remained, four times after coming to America.
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Full Name: |
Aletta U. Andersen
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Maiden Name: |
Josefson
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Father: |
Kristian Josefson
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Brothers and Sisters: |
There were four sisters and three brothers; one boy, the
ninth child, died soon after birth.
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Spouse: |
Anders (Andrew M.) Andersen
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Children: |
Garman Andersen
Daughter (?)
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This collection is indexed under the following headings
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Personal Names |
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Andersen, Aletta
Andersen, Anders
Andersen, Garman
Josefson, Kristian
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Family Names |
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Andersen family
Josefson family
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Geographical Names |
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Nordfjord (Norway)
Bergen (Norway)
Tacoma (Wash.)
San Francisco (Calif.)
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Subjects |
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Community life
Cultural Diversity
Emigration and immigration
Family History
Gloria Dei Lutheran Church -- Tacoma (Wash.)
Naturalization
Lutheran Free Church
Lifestyles -- Norway
Norwegian-Americans -- Ethnic identity
The Oakland Tribune
Occupations
The Tacoma News Tribune
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Occupations |
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Grocery trade -- Clerks
Farmers -- Norway -- Nordfjord
Newspaper layout and typography
Printing industry -- United States
Railroad workers
Sawmill workers
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Genre/Form |
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Oral history
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Institution |
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Pacific Lutheran University. Scandinavian Immigrant Experience
Collection
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The
partial interview transcription highlights important aspects
of the interview. Numbers on the left may be used as guides
to important subjects. Two numbers separated by a slash indicate
that the first number is for cassette and the second for CD.
003 Unclear.
022/13 FAMILY BACKGROUND. Her husband was Anders Andersen, and
they have two children. Her daughter lives in Portland, OR,
and has three daughters. Aletta has traveled to Norway four
times. On the first trip in 1949 she and her 18 year old daughter
took the boat; on the remaining trips they flew.
062 Her son lives in Seattle and works for the telephone company.
He has four children. The oldest daughter is married. The next
child - the older boy - teaches at Rogers High School in Puyallup.
The third child lives in Vancouver, WA, and the fourth is 18
and at home.
082 Aletta has seven grandchildren. One of her granddaughters
has been in Norway twice. Aletta's last two trips were in 1971
and 1977 when she was accompanied by family.
099 BROTHERS AND SISTERS. Aletta has four sisters and two brothers
back in Nordfjord, Norway where she was born; the oldest brother
has died. She worked in Bergen, and she and her husband lived
in Bergen after marriage.
107 EMIGRATION. Her husband emigrated in December 1924 and she
followed in February 1925. Anders was a "machine master" printing
books and magazines. In America his card was not accepted, so
he worked at Bachman's (?) sawmill in Tacoma with his uncle
with whom he emigrated. His uncle, also from Nordfjord, stopped
and visited them on a Wednesday in Bergen in route to America.
By Saturday, her husband was so excited that he decided to emigrate.
It wasn't until in the middle of the (Atlantic) Ocean he began
thinking about work in America.
148/14 How did Aletta feel about his leaving? "You have to expect
it. It was pretty hard." Her husband expected to return to Norway
after visiting America. That's why Aletta and their two year
old son remained in Bergen. Aletta worked two hours over lunch
time at her sister's grocery store relieving the hired girl.
164 Her husband was on strike back in Norway and wanted to work
for a newspaper in America. After his card was not acceptable,
he worked for the railroad and a sawmill before getting a job
in a Tacoma bookstore. The owner of the store recommended him
for a job at Pacific Nash (?), a company which printed labels
on matchboxes. He worked these two jobs simultaneously until
he went to San Francisco and got a job printing telephone books.
The family joined him there six months later.
233 He later worked for the Oakland Tribune, had his card again,
and transferred to the Tacoma News Tribune in 1950. They have
lived here since then.
248 Talks about the family moving to and from CA and WA. Their
first trip to Norway took place in 1949 while still living in
CA. Back in Tacoma, Aletta helped care for her first grandchild.
292/15 Husband died in 1970 at age of 70 years old. Aletta makes
the observation that "I always came after him..." to America
and then San Francisco. "Where he found his living, that's where
I belonged." Before he died he had two strokes and couldn't
keep up the yardwork, fruit trees, etc. He didn't like the looks
of things going down. He died in August, and Aletta sold the
house and moved into an apartment.
340 COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES AND SCANDINAVIAN ORGANIZATIONS. Aletta
was active in church. Her husband was approached by the Sons
of Norway. But he was put off because the men had forgotten
Norwegian and spoke poor English.
366/16 NORWEGIAN HERITAGE. She cooks Norwegian food for family
events: roemmegroet, meatballs, lutefisk, juleribber, and bloetkake.
417 In Norway they celebrated Christmas for many days beginning
with lille julaften, then julaften, juledag, annen juledag,
etc. In America she follows this country's traditions but bakes
fattigmann, hortetakk, and all those things.
431/01 Used to celebrate the 17th of May and mid-summerfest.
Would go with a church group and have a smoergaasbord.
447 They read Norwegian newspapers when they first came. But
after being away from Norway so long, they discontinued it.
451 Aletta's hobby is to have visitors. Tells a story about
a recent lady visitor who happened to be the first person in
the house the day her husband died.
490 Tells about her husband's death.
525 Tells about selling her house.
555/02 Tells about her children and grandchildren and their
education. Her son attended PLU one semester, then was in the
military and started work after marriage. The grandson who teaches
at Rogers graduated from PLU.
600 Talks about church. They had a cousin who lived in Tacoma
who was Pentecostal, but they weren't raised like that. When
they rented a house on I St., they met a pastor in the neighborhood.
They joined his church, the Lutheran Free Church. The second
pastor there was Anke Berg, a woman who had been a teacher at
LBI. Aletta tells a story about this woman's daughter and a
health affliction.
653/03 Aletta's parents and grandparents. Aletta only remembers
seeing one grandmother who was small and about 90 years old
at the time. Her parents were alive in 1949; both died about
1968.
672 Her father emigrated to Iowa as a single man. He returned
to Norway, married, and farmed - even milked the cows. They
lived in Kvagen (?), Nordfjord. There were nine children, but
one boy died shortly after birth. The farm is still in the family,
owned by one of her older brothers (now 85) who lives there
with his daughter. His son was very ambitious; had built a new
house and barn on the farm. He also worked spraying pesticides
for the local farmers. Didn't wear a mask, got sick and died
at age 30. The daughter was engaged to be married, but her fiance‚
died in a plane crash. She never married; looks after her father
and takes care of the farm.
714/04 She works like a man with all the machinery, etc. Women
used to do all the farm chores; now men do that. "Now they (the
woman) are getting kind of...spoiled, I guess." Some have jobs.
In her day "we didn't think of it. A woman should be home with
her family. That was most important in those days." Like in
America, women don't make things - they buy them. "Of course
that was kind of ......(crazy?) back in the old days when you
knit your own stockings and made clothes for your menfolks."
The men farmed and fished in the winter besides making and mending
nets. In winter the girls knitted and spun, but in summer they
worked outside taking the cows to and from distant fields morning
and evening - not seters in that part of the country; that was
further inland in the fjords.
755 WORK. When Aletta was 12, she helped an older sister with
her seven children on their farm. At 16, a cousin's wife died,
and Aletta worked for this family with five children. Besides
looking after the children, she cooked, washed, and did the
barn chores.
772/05 SCHOOL. Attended school in the winter.
Side II (Background noise on tape.)
043/06 Remembers being carried up to the road when she was six
or seven. Then she and her sister joined other children and
walked a half hour to reach the school.
066 FAMILY LIFE. She had a secure homelife which was wonderful.
Her dad, Kristian Josefson, made shoes for them and was a very
handy man. In winter her mother hired a lady to help make flatbroed
on a big griddle over an open fire; the flatbroed was stored
in barrels for summer use.
097/07 EMIGRATION. When she left, her father "couldn't say a
word - he cried". Both she and her son were checked by a doctor
before they left. The water was rough, the fog horn blew, and
there was ice scraping on the ship. She came second class, and
basically spent the nine days in bed because of seasickness.
She couldn't eat and was so sick and weak, she had trouble feeding
her son. She wanted to bathe before leaving the boat in NY and
needed to be supported by the nurse. Her son felt fine; was
running around.
156 Had no trouble with customs.
193/08 TRAIN TRIP. She sat at the station with her boy and a
few suitcases. Was helped by a Norwegian man from the same boat
- he thought she'd miss her train. Earlier she'd been approached
by another fellow who suggested that she didn't have to leave
that night but could come stay overnight at his home and take
the morning train. She replied, "No, I sent a telegram (to her
husband) that I'm supposed to come with this train". And she
adds that's how one could get into trouble. She had seen the
Norwegian fellow on the boat and trusted him. After that, the
conductors helped her change trains. She ate on the train.
268/09 The hardest thing in America was the language. Tells
a story about shopping and mispronouncing words. Her son would
speak English to other children but Norwegian to her.
296 CITIZENSHIP. She took citizenship classes at Lincoln High
School and regrets she didn't take English at the same time.
319 Most exciting times in Norway were the picnics. She didn't
have much time off and really enjoyed them. She and her husband
like to travel in America.
357/10 CHURCH ACTIVITIES. Used to be in sewing circle which
was more social then; now it's all business. They'd sew, eat
together, and have Bible study. Talks about her church relations
and activities now; belongs to Gloria Dei.
412/11 Commentary on current social values. Allowance or support
for unmarried people and their children; insecure for the children
not to have two parents. (434 - 474: interview and voices become
blurred because of background noise; more talk about values.)
474 Speaking Norwegian. Aletta says a prayer in Norwegian -
"Fader vår....."
485 End of tape.
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