Thursday, March 28, 2013

Another Culture: Part 2 The Swede and The Nutritionist


In preparation for my Challenge Series: Adventures in America, I've convinced The Swede, my Dad, to share the story of how he and my Mom, The Nutritionist, met, fell in love, moved to Sweden, then in the middle of our childhood, moved to America. It's great to have you here Dad. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with all of us.


ANOTHER CULTURE
by Leif Bilen

When the Arosa Sky of the Holland America Line docked in New York City on August 13, 1957, I was recovering from the Asian flu.  I was one of several hundred high school students who had crossed the Atlantic together. Many of us had spent a few days in bed with high fever and other symptoms. I was not allowed to disembark until local health officials had checked me out and cleared me for entrance into this country; not the greatest start of a year abroad, but it added to the adventure.

From New York City we headed to our final destinations. Along with several others, I was on a chartered Greyhound bus heading to the D.C. area. As the bus made its way to the Lincoln tunnel, I noticed the colorful yellow taxicabs that seemed to be all over the place. Back home all taxis were black and the drivers wore black uniforms. “No, this is not going to be a drab and boring country.”

A Howard Johnson restaurant with its bright orange roof and iconic architecture caught my eye shortly after entering New Jersey. “Wow, I guess I am not in Europe anymore.” It was not the only one along the road. They were all over the place back then. In 2012 there were only two of them left; one in Maine and the other one in New York State. Yes, America’s tastes have changed, and in more areas than food for that matter.

My host family welcomed me with open arms and quickly made me feel at home. During the few weeks before the fall semester I was able to adjust to several things, although they didn’t really come as a huge surprise: a big family, a big house, a big yard, a big church, big cars and so on.

Other curiosities intrigued me. One morning when I walked into the kitchen, there was a man looking into the refrigerator. Then he walked out the back door and returned with some milk, eggs, and butter. The milkman had free access to the house, and it was up to him to determine what the household needed until his next visit. I was used to running to the store for my mother, when were out of something.

Another thing that told me a lot about in what kind of neighborhood we were living in was the fact that nobody seemed to worry about locking their cars while parked in the driveway.

I guess the real culture shock came when I started school. I had attended a medium sized downtown high school for boys. Here I was in a large coed high school on a sprawling campus with huge parking lots for the students who drove their own cars to school, which included Bob, my host brother, who drove me, Bonnie and two other girls. We also had our own stadium for football and other sports. I got used to it faster than I had expected and enjoyed it a lot.

I knew I would probably lose a year of school after returning to Sweden, so I signed up for some rather unique classes not available back home: driver education (1957 Chevy), public speaking, and typing. Although I was a senior, I took 11th grade English and History, because they dealt with American literature and history. Since Bonnie was a year ahead of her peers, we ended up taking those classes together, and from time to time we helped each other with homework.

Other than that I stuck with the program and hung out with brother Bob and that included both of us playing on the soccer team. However there was little doubt that Bonnie was rather cute and pleasant.


11 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

I sensing more to come with Bonnie!
Howard Johnson restaurants. Forgot those even existed.

shelly said...

I'm sensing the same thing Alex is sensing.

Hugs and chocolate,
Shelly

JoJo said...

That's soooo cool. It must've been neat for him to be here in those times; right before the US was in turmoil over Vietnam. He got here during the IGY too when everyone was full of optimistic hopes for the future.

Brian Miller said...

the man looking in the fridge would have freaked me out a bit...ha....never had a milkman before....

Unknown said...

love the story!

and how nice is it to have your dad talking about his early years?

Debby said...

I'm enjoying this!

nutschell said...

how sweet that you're featuring your parent's love story :D
Nutschell
www.thewritingnut.com

LA Nickers said...

Pretty blog site! Looking forward to doubling back during the April Challenge.

Ready to go with EIGHT blogs in April A-Z! Mine are 475 - 483 on the A-Z list.

Two of these blogs (Simply Snickers and The Meme Express) will offer DAILY writing/blogging prompts and A-Z words throughout the month of April. The Meme Express welcomes A-Zers to leave daily comments, linking back to their alphabetic posts.

Thanks for hosting the A to Z Challenge! Here we go-o-o-o!

Jo said...

Can't imagine why you think there is more to come with Bonnie, LOL. Its interesting to read about that period of time, and to think how times have changed. We used to have a milkman in England, but he didn't walk into the house to see what we wanted, we had a standing order every morning and if we wanted anything different, we left a not.

JO ON FOOD, MY TRAVELS AND A SCENT OF CHOCOLATE

Shannon Lawrence said...

Wow, the milk man came in and figured out what to leave? I'd never heard of that before. Thank you for sharing your story!

Shannon at The Warrior Muse

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Lief - this is so much fun .. to find out something about Tina - via your backstory ...

It's such an interesting read and I'm so pleased Tina asked you drop by ...

We were pretty lax in the 1950s too in the UK - particularly when we visited Cornwall or Westmoreland ... to see grandparents ..

Love this story - thanks for sharing .. have a very happy Easter with the family - Hilary