15 days in Oconee County

J and I just returned from a nice 15 day visit to our birthplaces in Oconee county, South Carolina. The weather was superb for January: some days were warm enough to get by with just a long sleeve shirt, no jacket. There were some really cold days sprinkled in too.

On the visit we went to J's annual family reunion. There were about 35 there and we had an amazing selection of good food. One of the enduring traditions at the reunion is fresh coconut cake, a specialty of our beloved and deceased Ruby. We visited a new museum in Walhalla. It's free and I recommend all residents of Oconee to go there to see some of Oconee's past, including some Cherokee and Catawba Indian history.

All the brother's and sisters living in Oconee had us over to their homes for a nice time. Having a large home with acreage is a far cry from the fourth floor 800 square foot apartment in an 95 year old building we live in Stockholm - totally different lifestyles.

We also did some hiking. This is where you can experience the natural beauty of Oconee. It is unfortunate that many residents don't appreciate the natural beauty and tolerate some awfully ugly buildings and general junk. One of the most valued principles in Oconee is the notion of property rights (and it's a good principle). A person can do just about anything on their property as long as nobody gets hurt. Government taxation, regulation and interference is despised, probably because it smacks of "occupation" which the original Irish and Scottish settlers viewed as very "British," who occupied Scotland and Ireland for the better part of 800 brutal years. However, I wish there was a better balance with the principle of preserving nature and natural beauty (which would increase property values!)



One thing we now observe about Oconee that wasn't there in the past is the broad range of homes from run down mobile home parks surrounded by junk cars to well kept but modest farm homes to disgustingly opulent beautiful multi-million dollar lake front properties with a dock jutting out and cluttering the lake shore. This is because Upstate SC is a popular state for retirement and summer homes for wealthy people.



Bernard-Henri Levy (in American Vertigo) says that Americans, unlike Europeans, don't mind letting cities die. The old parts of both Walhalla and Seneca seem to be dying. It's shame. The unregulated sprawl is moving out to the 123 by-pass and other areas. Some places are a hodge-podge of signs and cheap store fronts. It is criminal to blight such a pretty area this way.

Oconee's "exports" are wood (mostly pulp wood), electricity from Oconee Nuclear station, and lake front property. There is also some industry but much of it is moving to China.

My two son's and daughter-in-law also met us there (unfortunately our daughter couldn't make it). Out out-of-town brothers and sisters and their spouses also drove in. It was so nice to reunite with them and the extended family.

I have posted numerous pictures from the trip here.

Astrid Lindgren Jubilee - Sunday June 17, 2007

Not only was today Father's Day in America (Sweden also celebrates Mother's Day and Father's Day but on different days), but it was also the day we chose to visit the Astrid Lindgren exhibit at the Kulturhuset (Culture House) downtown Stockholm. This exhibit was very moving especially to J as she remembers reading these books in America as a child.

Astrid Lindren is the beloved children's literature writer born on her family's Näs farm, near Vimmerby in Småland. 2007 is declared an Astrid Lindgren jubilee year to celebrate Astrid (in Sweden and all over the world) as she would be 100 years old this year on November 14. She died at the age of 94. She is the most successful author of children's books in the world. Her books, toy characters and Pippi dolls are seen all over Sweden.

There are plenty of nice websites for information and pictures from her own collection and the Astrid Lindgren celebrations and about her in general.

Beginning with Pippi Longstocking, her works are among the most read and translated (about 85 languages) children's books over the world. The characters and places are drawn from her own childhood:
The Children From the Noisy Village, Emil in Lonneberga, Bullerbyn, and, of course, the Pippi series. The display included many photographs and collections from Astrid's own private collection. The most striking thing to me was how Astrid herself had a playful side and a twinkle in her eye that looked as if the child in her spied the child in you. And then she would bring out that part of a person....the fun loving playful side.

One photograph showed her climbing a tree at the age of 75ish. The caption quoted her as saying "The Ten Commandments do NOT say an old lady can NOT climb a tree!!!!"

In an episode in one of the Pippi books, the kids put a message in a bottle that read "We can't survive much longer on the island without more snuff." Astrid says in a television interview that that story was based on a true story about some kids she'd known while growing up. In real life, the message was "Bring liquor and snuff, we can't survive on the island much longer without." The kids got in trouble when an uncle found the bottle floating near shore in the weeds. In the book, Astrid removed the reference to liquor to avoid a public outcry.

Recently, it was discovered that there were thousands of her books in a warehouse in Turkey. They had decided not to distribute them (for reasons I can guess). Too bad they don't view her as the global treasure she is and was.

In one film of the exhibit, Astrid tells how vivid life is to children. ..yet she reminds us that child is always alive in each of us. She spoke fondly of the wooded meadows and farmland she played with her many friends and siblings, the animals, the barns, the houses, the smells of the earth and trees. She states that every rock and tree was a living being to them. Astrid cared deeply about animals, nature, peace and children's rights.

Although she acquired fame and fortune, she stayed the same. Many have told me that she was seen shopping and living life normally around Sweden. She lived in a modest apartment above a restaurant for some 40 years before she died. Visitors commented on how someone so famous would live so modestly. The world is certainly a much better place since Astrid was here!