At the time, I was young and quite curious about this place that I had heard so much about. Karsten had long spoken warmly of Husjord, where he had stepped into his children’s shoes and where he had also gone to school.
Karsten’s childhood home. He was born here, in the kitchen attic. At that time, home births were quite common. He had grown up here with his mother Bjørg and older brother Svein, and eventually his little brother Erling also arrived. His father, Karsten, died just a few months after his son Karsten was born.
We came in in a small boat on this fine autumn day. With us were Bjørg and Erling and my mother Ragnhild, who had all been involved in celebrating our wedding in my home village of Misvær. But before we got to Fornes and could go in the small boat, we had traveled for many hours. There were few roads that were rattled back then.
A potholed gravel road over Hamarøy was part of the travel experience. On the trip north we had to cross with three ferries; first Sommerset – Bonnåsjøen, then Bognes – Lødingen and finally Lødingen – Rinøyvåg. Bjørg had long since moved to the village of Lødingen.
It was in 1961 that she left Volden for a lighter home in Breivika in Lødingen. The house at Volden was now used as a holiday home. But there were still some permanent residents here that summer in 1972.
Both in Nerigården and in Oppigården there were still people. Oskar and Haldis also lived here. But the house at Nordvollen was only used in the summer, because Asmund had also moved to Lødingen. He lived in his own apartment with his daughter Jorunn and son-in-law Magnus in the winter, but the rest of the year he was at Husjord.
About the people and life on the farms.
In Nerigården lived Hagar and Sverre and Sverre’s sisters; Borghild and Liv.
In the farm there there were also a lot of holiday people, I remember; her daughter Marit and her family had come from Bodø, her son Lars and his family from Harstad and her youngest son Kjell Magne were also there.
But Nerigården is a large house with room for both the permanent residents and the holiday guests.
A cozy memory from this first trip was the sisters Liv and Borghild’s Sunday trips to the pier.
Then they were dressed for the weekend in beautiful coats, and then they walked arm in arm, the fine misses. In Oppigården lived Eivind and his sister Hagar. I also remember that their sister-in-law, Elise, visited there that summer. Elise had been married to Kåre who ran the shop at Husjord. She was a trained nurse, and helped out where help was needed. When Karsten was born, Elise was the midwife.
After she became a widow, she moved to Hamarøy. Oskar and Haldis were also holiday guests, their daughter Sigdis was home with her husband and daughters. At Nordvollen with Asmund, Jorunn and Magnus and their children had arrived.
In 1972, there were also cows in the field, there were cattle paths, gates and fences all around. Because there were still some who ran farms. It was Haldis and Oskar and probably also Sverre and Hagar. I met Eivind out in the courtyard one day where he was working on the scythe, but this was probably more like “lawn mowing” than haymaking.
He, too, had stopped farming. Probably this was the last year that someone was farming here at Husjord. I was told that in the past, dairy products from the farms were sent by boat to Aust-Lofoten Dairy in Svolvær. Butter and cheese were usually made on the farms, more rarely milk was sent.
Farming at that time was more like self-sufficiency; to secure food for one’s own household, and less for sale, even though it could probably be a valuable “counting boat” in the household when there was an opportunity to sell something. At that time, fishing was the main industry, agriculture more like a secondary industry. Down towards the boathouses, hammer blows could be heard. Leonard Sommerset was demolishing a small house just above the boathouses.
The house, which was built in 1951, had housed the shop that Kåre had once run, until approx. 1958. Now the “New Store” no longer had a mission, it had to go. But the demolition material came in handy. In Storfjell, at Leonard’s, there is a nice pier. The old store, which had been further up the hill (where Arne has the septic tank), had a history before it “came” to Husjord. When there was mining in Vestpollen (ca.1900 -06), a shop was run in a summer farm in there. After this, in 1907, the branch was moved to a storehouse at Husjord. ( This according to the “Husjord, et flytt sted i Øksfjorden” by Mary Ellingsen ).
There was also a post office back then, in 1972. On the wall of Haldis and Oskar’s house there was a postcode sign: 8585 Husjord. Here was the post office, and Oskar was the postmaster. There was a boat connection three times a week. Well before “Toregutt” docked, we could see Oskar walking over with his mailbag in the wagon. With the boat came goods, mail and sometimes even people.
At the youth centre, everything was unchanged. The house stood as it had done in all the years since it was built in 1939. It was in use as a school from the autumn of 1945 until approx. 1965. Otherwise, it was used for gatherings such as Christmas tree parties and 17. May celebration. (The plot at Melkerstrand was also given free of charge by her mother-in-law Bjørg ). The youth house will later have a central role in continuing to safeguard the social life and community in the fjord. I was told that there had also been a very active association life, as many as three associations were here. They were the Public Health Association, the Inner Seamen’s Mission and the Norwegian Society for Sea Rescue.
It was the same people, mainly women, who kept the association life up. And they met regularly with handicrafts and lottery tickets. They held bazaars and parties and received money that they sent out to the various organizations. What first struck me, and then created a lot of curiosity, was that this tiny rural community with five farms with no road connection, had had both a school, a shop and a post office, yes, even a street once upon a time a long time ago.
The small road stump down towards the boathouses and which today is more of a path than a road, they called Sjøgata in the old days, according to the Norwegian Maritime Authority. Gauken (the youth team’s newspaper). I understood that Husjord had once been the center of the fjord. Because here they came back then, from Bjerknes, Sommerset, Rørnes and Normanndalen to go to school and to shop in the store. Before the youth house was built, approx. 1939, they held school in the private houses. At that time, there was a separate school at Sommerset and at Husjord. At Husjord there was a school in Nerigården, with Lars Christensen.
Neighbor meetings
I will never forget my first meeting with neighbor Asmund at Nordvollen.
He was very nice.
He welcomed me warmly – and then he called me something as wonderful as the Virgin Golden Dora!
I wondered horribly what he meant by calling me something like that.
In the village where I come from, Gulldora is a cow name!
But I was eventually explained that this was meant as a nice gesture to the new arrival and not as something insulting.
Asmund became a frequent coffee guest with us both this summer and the summers after. A pleasant guy with a sixpence and a cigarette butt in place, with a twinkle in his eye and many good stories in store. Having time for the neighbors and the good chat around the coffee table means a lot.
Nature
Eventually, I also discovered all the glory that grew in the immediate vicinity.
There were lots of blueberries on the slopes just beyond, the cloudberry marsh was so close that we could pick the berries as they ripened, and lingonberries were also plentiful this autumn.
Then there was the river, I who liked to walk with the fishing rod, was used to trout lake in my home village.
Here it was a short distance to an exciting little river that after it had rained properly, could offer big catches sometimes.
And then the fjord, with large saithe and cod, and the small coalfish on Husjordgrunnen. And – if you were particularly lucky – sea trout on Tobysluken. But what struck me the most in this first encounter with Øksfjorden and Husjord, was the fantastic nature. On the west side, the high and steep mountains with green tufts of grass all the way up to the top. On the east side, the soft and more rounded lines, the mountain crags with small forests and marshes all the way up.
Being in Øksfjorden also involves trips in rain and dirty weather, whether it is in the mountains, in the field or in the fjord. Because sometimes the shutter “gets stuck” in the mountains for a few days. I also got to experience this on my first visit to Husjord. Actually a nice experience too, as long as you are dressed “for the occasion”. Møysalen partly in shutters.
The bird life here was also something different from what I was used to. Here, the Jellyfish and the Seagull kept us awake from dawn until late in the evening. And then they were so close to us. It was a gossip like no other. I have gotten to know these birds also in the spring, and you world for an active life. Especially the capercaillie that returns year after year to the same place, how they struggle to save the eggs and eventually the chicks from all the dangers that lurk.
Both the eagle, otter and mink are frequent guests on the shore at this time, looking for a treat. The fox also knows where the food dish is. It’s an incredible drama that plays out on the shoreline time and time again, every spring. A good experience is also to walk and stroll along the shore. With the chirping of birds, the lapping of the sea and the wonderful smell of the sea, seaweed and shore. Sometimes you find exciting things, such as a home-made small wooden boat someone has been unlucky enough to lose, a knife, a blower, yarn reels and other “useful” things. Yes, there is probably an Espen Askeladd in most of us on such trips.
And then there is the silence. Not having to have car traffic close to you is a balm for soul and mind. Cumbersome, yes, but it’s actually worth it. The tranquility that descends over you, the proximity to fresh air and pure nature are priceless.
This first encounter with the fjord also involved trips to Austpollen and Vestpollen. With bonfires and coffee making at Sætran and Båtneset, at Forselva and Storelva. And a fantastic sight at the very heart of Vestpollen where Møysalen towers in great majesty to the northwest. Well-known and beloved places that are still visited several times a year, with a black kettle and fishing rod.
This first meeting with Husjord, the fjord and the people there was not the last. With the exception of 2-3 years, when the house at Volden was rented out in connection with the House Soil Project, from 1976 to 1978, I have been there every year and often several times a year. And I come again – like the Tern – every spring, time and time again!
Thank you that such places still exist!
Bodø, april 2008 – Torill Svendsen
Photo: fjordbolgen.com
Source: fjordbolgen.com
