|
Interview with Gordon Forsberg
Interview with Andrew Des Rault
The Gift Shalee, Auburn MA
November 5, 2002
AD: The following in an interview conducted by Any DesRault of Gordon
Forsberg for the Quinsigamond Homefront Project.
Ok, Mr. Forsberg, what year were you born?
GF: 1930.
AD: And you were born in Quinsigamond village?
GF: Well, I was born in, in Hol- I mean my parents lived there when I
was- I was born in Holden, but my home was Quinsig.
AD: And, when you lived in Quinsigamond, where did you live within
the village?
GF: Lived at 6 Halmstead Street.
AD: And, in what year did you physically move out of the village to
your present location?
GF: Forty-five- what does that bring us to? Forty-five years ago. OK,
so I moved out of there, and I was born in 1930, so I must of moved out
of there when I was 26 years old.
AD: And, during World War II did you go to serve, or were you too
young?
GF: I was too young. My brothers the rest of them- I was the youngest
of three boys, and they were gone, but I was too young.
AD: I've heard stories that at the tail end of the war, so, you know,
some soldiers enlisted under the age requirement.
I don't know how that happened, but…
GF: No but, I had friends that were killed before 17. You know, there
were kids in the village, or o n Vernon Hill,-which-
[they] went to church down in the village.
AD: Yeah. Speaking of church involvement, did
you have any church affiliation, or involvement in Quinsigamond?
GF: Yes, I belong to the Bethlehem Covenant Church.
At that time when I was growing up, it was called the Quinsigamond Congregational
Church, which my grandmother was one of the founding members.
AD: That's the Congregationalist faith?
GF: yeah. Covenant is probably a Swedish section of the Congregational
Church of their own.
AD: During the war, did anybody in your family, or anyone you know
go and fight in the war? How did that affect you?
GF: Well, it was kinda tough on the homestead. Your brothers are gone.
You know, in fact, my brother that's older than I am, we got his, we got-
my mother, I came home one day from school and she was crying. She had
gotten his graduation tickets to attend his graduation and he was in France.
They had drafted him right outta high school. [Inaudible]
where you went to, you could get out and go to work. In your third, in
your final year, you could take a job and get out earlier, and of course
he didn't take the job and get out earlier, he went into the service.
So he was gone. He was in France when his graduation class came through.
AD: Huh, bad turn of events. And what were some of the biggest changes
in your life, or your family's life for that matter, during the war? How
else were people affected?
GF: Well, it, it's always a strange thing because everybody was just
pulling together. You know what I mean? The mailman would my mother who
wrote the letter home from the kid up the street,
because he had everybody's address- you know, he was a house to house
postman, and ah, everybody came together pretty close as far as knowing-
well, we were a small community. I mean, I was a paperboy in the village
all my life, and my brothers had the paper route before me, and my oldest
brother had it before him, so you knew everybody on the streets that you
had your paper route on, so that's what happens, you just knew everybody.
AD: And that close-knitness had a great effect, or impact on how people
perceived the war. They knew everyone who went abroad..
GF: Oh sure, American steel and Wire, that was a
defense plant per se, and that was a defense plant, there was Johnson
Steel and Wire, and that was a defense plant, and
everybody in this area worked there. So, if you didn't- everybody knew
everybody- you know? It was just a real close-knit area.
AD: I've heard a lot about American Steel and Wire, but I haven't
heard much about Johnson's…
GF: It was a smaller wire firm down on Wiser Avenue,
which is, it isn't there at all now. Now there's a trucking terminal down
there, or a container operation you know, but that was a nice size local
company, and they were there a number of years. I don't know if they employed
but 100 people if they did that, but it was the neighborhood place where
a lot of people worked.
AD: You were pretty much just in school during the war, or…
GF: Yeah, I was in school…
AD: Too young to really work…
GF: Well, I graduated from high school in '48…
AD: Oh yeah.
GF: So that was just after the war.
AD: Did you have, maybe when you were younger in high school, an after
school job related to the war effort?
GF: I didn't, no. My father- I worked for my father so, my father was
in the trucking business so there was no searching for work. You know,
when I came home from work [sic] I went to work with my dad.
AD: What [again] did your father do during the war?
GF: My father was in the trucking business the whole time. He had a trucking
business and he worked as a- well he was a delivery man for like Texaco
company that was in the village, they- Texaco company had a distribution
plant right next to Johnson Steel down there and he
did all their- not their bulk delivery, but their case-goods delivery,
and their barrels of oil that went to Norton Company
or whatever was within the city area.
AD: So work probably picked up for him?
GF: Oh yeah, he was a busy guy.
AD: And your mother?
GF: She was a homebody. She was home and took care of the business by
phone because my father was a- handicapped- he was deaf. So she really
had to be pretty much at home and take care of the telephone and all of
that for the business.
AD: And you were talking about your older brothers, what kind of employment
did they have besides serving?
GF: Well, my oldest brother Phil, he's gone now, but he worked at Norton
Company after high school and then after that he went into- after he got
out of the service, he went to school and became a mortician. And my other
brother Bob, after he got out of the service, he worked a little while
with my father I the trucking business, but then he went to work and ,
in another- he worked in Westborough with a company called Bay State [inaudible]
where he became- he had a good job down there. He as plant manager or
something of that nature.
AD: You mention a lot about the employment in the Quinsigamond region
and how it related to American Steel and Wire and
the other companies you had mentioned. How do you think the wartime economy
affected the Quinsigamond? Do you think it gave a boon to the economy,
especially out of the Depression?
GF: No, I don't think it made it any different than any other place because
of the war. It's just that- I mean, we a lot of people down in his area
here that worked at Norton Company too because Norton's
employed mostly Swedes. You know, and, they had
this old saying that, it might be a fallacy, but they said that at their
employment office they had this sign that said, "Swedes only apply."
AD: [laughs].
GF: Swedes only apply.
AD: So, you know, you think it was pretty much like any other place
during the war, just benefited....
GF: Oh yeah. Yeah, it was just a hardworking area.
AD: More questions about understanding the war in general: Well, you
were a young lad I suppose when the war broke out, and, how did that when
Pearl Harbor was attacked?
GF: Well, it was just a shock to everybody because our -well, I was out-
I think I was visiting my grandparents out in Holden when, when you know,
it came through- December 7th, Pearl Harbor. And then it was a shock to
everybody because nobody- it was only a few people in the service then.
That's when it hit them, you know, and they started to go. It was just
a, just a complete shock to everybody. They were caught with their drawers
[down]. You know, and there was nothing we could do but pull together,
go out and go to war. So we had-a couple of the boys in the village were
lost at Pearl Harbor or wounded.
AD: So there was a direct impact?
GF: Yeah, that's right. It was incredible.
AD: Right after Pearl Harbor, and during the war, what did you, your
friends, your family think about the enemy, what did you think about the
Japanese?
GF: Well, everybody was caught off-guard. I mean, we as kids we used
to play with cards we threw against the wall with Chinese on them and
everything, so there was never anything thought of that. Especially at
my age, in school. But there was, nothing, nothing really too bad on that
one. It was just "wow." You know, what the? Where'd this come
from?
AD: And um, what did you think of the Germans?
Same thing pretty much?
GF: Yeah, that was the, they're the same thing. You know, it was a case
of Hitler being a, you know, a so-called powerful god of their area. You
know, he was just a wacko, and just had the people all buffaloed and stymied,
so, that was- I think people were more against the Germans than against
the Germans than the Japanese in my thinking, because
they were more of an enemy. You know the Japs, they were just suicide-bombing
type people whereas the others, you know, they were attacking and ah,
the had- it was closer knit because they didn't have- Germany and over
there- the war was on each other [sic]- whereas as Japan, they weren't
going over to other parts, you know, North Africa and all of that to fight.
AD: It seemed more immediate to the community?
GF: Yeah.
AD: Being a member of the generation that really began coming of age
during and after the war- you graduated from high school in '48- how do
you think the community's, or Worcester in general, how do you think the
perception of the enemy changed? Do you think we just hit the ground running,
and, all kinds of animosities were lost after the war, and we just built
up, or do you think some of these tensions still remain…
GF: Oh well, it all depends on the serviceman. I mean, I have, you know,
I've got friends of mine that I grew up with whose brothers were in the
Marines, and they wouldn't have anything to do with a slant-eyed- a Jap,
they would not do anything with them at all, because they had buddies
that were killed and all that stuff, and, you know, that just doesn't
rinse out. That just stays with you. And I'm sure it was the same way
with the Germans. 'Cause my brother, my oldest brother was in North Africa,
and my other brother Bob, younger brother, just older than I am, he was
in France, so they had a different war. You know what I mean? And they,
but, when they came home they never talked about it. It was over and gone.
[Hands over wartime newspaper article honoring 4
Forsberg relatives for military service to country]
My oldest brother here, Bill, I never saw him in a uniform. [tape interruption].
He got drafted, and I forget what year it was, he
never got a- he never was home from the service one day. He went in the
Army, and he was, he never came home to visit, never saw him in a uniform
until the day he was discharged. He never had a furlough and he was in
North Africa in about six weeks after he was in the service. He was in
the 8th, when they needed an army, you know, when they drafted, you were
gone. It was an unusual situation for him. Some people were fortunate
and they went in the service and went all the way to Springfield Massachusetts,
you know, out there to the airbase, you know, and they stuck around there
and had it made.
AD: Different kind of military experience! [Chuckles].
GF: Well, you know, they put in their time.
AD: For the village as a whole, what kind of sacrifices do you think
they made during the war, in general, in terms of service commitments,
in terms of work, what do you think people had to give up during this
time?
GF: Well, they, they had to give up travel. They couldn't go anywhere,
'cause in a village that size, nobody, you know, people weren't going
to, in those days they didn't go to Florida or anything like that, I mean,
but they were on a gas ration. If you didn't have
a business, you only got so many gallons a week for your car. So all you
could do is go grocery shopping, or to your local campground area, or
that, as there was nobody out whistling around driving any given amount
unless you had a business, that you got allotted more gasoline. It's strange.
AD: it was the same for food too, right?
GF: Oh yeah, there was a food rationing type of
thing, you know, for butter and that type of thing,
and, it's hard to think that that happened, but you know, when you were
a kid, that didn't bother you, it bothered your parents!
AD: [laughs] Did Quinsigamond lose a lot of servicemen?
GF: Yes. They did. I don't think they lost any more than any other area,
but, there was a lot of them. In fact, we had ah- they just came out with
a book, "The Swedes in Worcester," and
there's one page there where they have a picture, and I know all five
are gone. There was a picture of six-five were gone. Yeah. But there were
a lot of them and it was all different kind- different type- to you know,
some were in the Navy and lost at sea, some were pilots lost in action,
and ah, goo amount. They put in their time. I mean per-capita, we lost
our share.
AD: Do you think Quinsigamond was more, less, or the same in its patriotism
than other communities?
GF: Well, I think they might have been more because of the small area.
And they- we had an American Legion Post down in the
village, you know, post- and it is not where it is right now, but up further
near the stores, and my father belonged, and they were, they were all
air raid wardens, you know, and they were all- because
everyone had kids in the service. And they were all just together. Each
church had their own group that were in the service and the women in the
church would knit and send to the boys, you know and, they did a good
job.
AD: One of my interviewees was a warden in Quinsigamond…
GF: Is that right?
AD: Yeah, yeah. You mentioned the close-knitness of the Quinsigamond
community. Did the community have relations with other parts of Worcester
pretty much or did it…
GF: Oh sure.
AD: They were pretty much on good terms?
GF: oh yes, they were. But see, in the city of Worcester everybody was
in its own area. They Scandinavian were here, the Irish
people were down on,- well the Irish people were in South Worcester over
by Holy Cross. You know, Sacred
Heart Church down on Cambridge Street there, and
the, the Italians were all down on Shrewsbury
Street, and Greendale, near Norton, they had a
Swedish area, Swedish group-section. But, it was,
you know, until you got out of Quinsigamond
school, you knew everybody that, you know, it didn't
make any difference what church they went to, we went to school together
too. But then when you started to leave an go to high school, then you
met the Italian kids that lived down Shrewsbury street or the Irish kids
that lived up by old St. Stevens up on Grafton
Hill, and then you all fell together. Before that, you, most everybody
in Quinsigamond went to South High School- depending
on what you were going to take up. That was where you went before college.
And there was another-a commercial school. You had a chance in Worcester
to do anything you wanted. A lot of kids never left here to go away to
college. You had Holy Cross, Clark, so many colleges-
Assumption. More so now than then.
AD: Yeah, there's like ten or eleven or so…
GF: Yeah.
AD: Here's a good one. Since you were in school at the time, what
did you learn about the war in school? What did your teachers tell you
about it? Did you have any everyday activities that related to the war?
GF: They never dwelled on it. You know what I mean, everyone was just-to
my recollection, they never, they never pushed it. You know, but they-
the teachers lived all around down here too, so I mean, so, more or less-
there might have been a couple of teachers that didn't live around, but
they're all close by, and every teacher knew your brother that was in
the service 'cause she had him. You know what I mean? It was a, I mean,
my brother- well all four of us had the same second, third grade teacher.
You know, you just went through it. In fact, when you went home for lunch,
if you lived close enough to school to go home to lunch, the teachers
walked home to their house for lunch too. They walked down the street
with you. You know, you were in line of course, you had different lines
for different areas of the street, but [pause] almost every teacher lived
within walking distance of the school, some of them drove but….
AD: Very close-knit.
GF: Yes that's right.
AD: Well, I don't know if you were involved much in politics during
the war, being that you were only in high school, or junior high and high
school at the time, member you remember even what your parents' political
persuasions were, but what were you opinions of politics in general of,
FDR at the time?
GF: There was no, I was not into it. And not too many kids were I don't
think. I mean, all you had was the radio and the
newspaper, and if you got by the sports page, you might have read something…
AD: [laughs] I don't think things have changed very much…
GF: [laughs] sports page, or the funny pages, but ah, politically, I
was not involved, and I don't think any kid of my age was at that time.
AD: It was just kind of accepted?
GF: Yeah, that's right.
AD: Did you get out much during the war for entertainment- on the
weekends, or did you see movies much?
GF: Well, we used to be able to walk up on Millbury
street for a movie once and a while, maybe on a Saturday morning, and
walked all the way up, and you know, 25 cents, you get in to the movies,
and then walked home. But we all- a lot of us belonged to Ionic
Boys club- Ionic Avenue Boys Club that's up in the city, and we all went
there…
AD: Is that involved with the Masons at all?
GF: It's right across from the Masons. The Masonic building is here [gesturing
with hands ] and the Ionic Ave. Boys club is on
the other side of it, and now it's girls and boys. But that was just the
boys' club, and we went there every Saturday, and you know, probably ten
of us from the village would get on the bus an go up to Ionic Avenue Boys'
Club and swim, play snaps…
AD: It's still up there?
GF: Yeah! I missed it until I read it in the paper- they just had a reunion
just a short time ago. And they still have a lot of the old guys that
are my age that are still active in supporting it.
AD: Great.
GF: Yeah, and then at that time, there were two boys' clubs. There was
the Ionic Ave. and we had Lincoln Square boys' club-
and that, you know where Lincoln Square is, its by the auditorium, OK,
the Courthouse.
AD: OK
GF: yeah, it was right down there. It's part of Worcester
Boys' trade school now, but, that was a great rivalry between Ionic Ave.
Boys' club and Lincoln Square there, that brought a lot of rivalry stuff,
which is pretty nice when you are a kid.
AD: So there was a movie house down on Millbury
Street?
GF: Yeah, called Rialto, Rialto was the name
of it. Rialto theater….
AD: 25 cents?
GF: Well, 25 cents if it were a big movie.
AD: What is it? $8.75 now [laughs]?
GF: [laughs] oh, I know, its- well I think it was like a quarter.
AD: Lets get another difficult question: Would you remember at all
anything about what you saw, if it related to the war, or even in newsreels,
cause I know newsreels were big back then?
GF: Yeah, well, they were all- newsreels- I'm trying to think of it.
You know, everything was war-oriented. I mean, it had to be 'cause you
were at war. So I mean, the newspapers had everything
you could, you know, want out of it, and ah, it kept everybody on top
of everything, and then of course you have the news bulletin, was, you
know, one o'clock [or] I think at noon, from 12 to 1, they had all of
the great commentators and all of that, and they kept you pretty much
up on it.
AD: And that was on the radio?
GF: Yeah. They'd have Lowell Thomas and Gabriel
Edith and all the old, newscasters- kept everybody pretty much up on it.
AD: I don't suppose that a lot of people had TV's back then.
GF: I don't think we had any. We had TV's, well, when I got out of high
school, yeah, we had them in '48. Well, I mean, we used to have a-there
was a television store in the village, right in the square, and he used
to leave his TV on at night and all of the kids would stand outside and
watch it, you know, it was not that big…
AD: [laughs] right.
GF: A little bigger than your wristwatch, or as big as your tape recorder..
That was like '46, '47, '47 or '46.
AD: You'd mentioned the boys club, and your involvement
in the church. What other kinds of social organizations, or any organizations
for that matter were you a member of during the war, and if you'd like
to expand on your involvement in the church in particular…
GF: Well, we, you see, the churches- we- each church , we had, four or
five- five churches in the village. We had the Lutheran,
the Baptist, the Methodist,
the Congregational, and the Salvation
Army. And then later in came St. Catherine of Sweden,
and that made the sixth. But back before St. Catherine of Sweden, they,
the churches were really competitive. Each church had their own basketball
team and we played against one an other. And you know, you just played
against a kid that you were in school with during the daytime, you know,
but on the weekend, we had a, we played as a church. And Salvation Army,
had the, they were known for their Boy Scouting. They
had the only Boy Scout Troop in the village at that time. Later in, St.
Catherine's had theirs and all that. But we just, so, whatever kids wanted
to become a Boy Scout went over to the Salvation Army and joined their
Boy Scout Troop, because it was the only one.
AD: Whether you were Lutheran or Methodist it didn't matter, you just
went over…
GF: You didn't even know what that- the only went because your mother
and father sent you. You know what I mean? There was no real difference,
you know, it's ah, and a, so that, that kept the village together too.
AD: What did your church in particular do for the war, or during the
war to support it?
GF: Nothing. Just togetherness. You know what I mean? Everybody worked-
went to work in the defense plants- you know, taking a man's job-that's
where that song "Rosie the Riveter" came
from.
GF: Yeah, Rosie… So that was about it…
AD: They was a lot of that in Quinsigamond? Women worked…
GF: A lot of women went to work at Johnson Steel,
you know, their husbands were gone and- very interesting.
AD: Kind of a "foreign affairs/international
relations" type question: Given Quinsigamond's high Swedish population
and its heritage, did Sweden's neutral position during World War II influence
anybody's perspective on the war, or did people just not think about it?
GF: They never thought about it. They just never thought about it. Swedes
are lovers, they're not fighters.
AD: Isn't that what they say about Italians, or is it French? I forget!
GF: No, but, that had no bearing on it really, everybody just went out
and did their best.
AD: Yeah, as Americans.
GF: Yeah, that's right. You know, its like this thing in your voting
now-what is it, your "number two" or number, you know, about
the speech, you know, teaching kids that are bilingual. I mean, my grandparents
came over here and they spoke perfect Swedish, but not to me- to each
other: To me they spoke English, because we- they came over here to be
Americans, and we don't need all of this bullshit that they're pulling
off, but they're doing a good job of it. City of Worcester spends more
on Spanish than they do on English- in the school system. And I'm not
against any one of them, but what's good for before- why shouldn't leave,
I mean, they just. I don't know. In Quinsig school they have- I have coffee
every morning with a, some of the, a couple of the guys I went to school
with, some old timers come in, and there's two or three of the young ladies
that come in are school teachers, and what they go through in the school
system, you know, you, I mean, I wouldn't be a teacher for the world.
They sent notes home to the parents and the parents can't read!
AD: What good is that?
GF: That's right, and I think, I forget whether it was this year, this
season or the season before when school started, they had something like
twenty something kids that were dropped off at school, never enrolled,
couldn't speak, and they didn't no where to send them after school. I
mean, what bus are you gonna put them on? They didn't even know where
they lived! So, you know, that was not like when we grew up. When we grew
up, we knew where we were going, there was no busing. You know, it was
a big difference.
AD: Yeah, I get this real string sense the the
Swedish community in Quinsigamond was very hardworking, bootstrap conservatism-like…
GF: Yeah, there was nothing. I mean, the next door- there was nobody
that was wealthy, but there was nobody that was unemployed either. You
know what I mean? We were a poor family- we had four kids- and that isn't
a lot, my father was handicapped, you know he had a hearing problem- he
was deaf all of his life- and we struggled, but we didn't have to worry
because their were neighbors that were looking down at you. If you needed
help, you know, there were a couple of people in my neighborhood that
always brought stuff to my mother.
AD: You looked out for one another.
GF: Yeah, it was no problem.
AD: Would you say that in and around the wartime Quinsigamond was
mostly Republican or Democrat?
GF: I would say Republican. I would say Republican. And of course you
know we had councilmen form the government then, where you had city councilmen,
and there was aldermen and all of that type of thing, and we had it right
in the village. You know, Doctor Nelson was the Dentist, and he was a
State Rep., you know, there was another Doctor Hagmer, he lived right
there upright in the center next to the Salvation
Army. And the American Steel and Wire, they had their
own infirmary and their own ambulance for the people that worked there.
If somebody got hurt, they had their own ambulance. They had a nurse on
duty all of the time. I can remember my brother breaking his arm. You
know, his collarbone [sic], and my mother said."what," to my
father, "you better take him to the hospital." He says, "no,
I'll take him up to Danny." Danny was the nurse-male nurse- in the
mill. He walked in, he set my brother's collarbone, strapped him up, and
then said, "take him home." He sewed my stitched in my eyes,
you know, when I got hit with a rock or something. They'd bring him up
to the mill doctor. You know, now, if a guy did that to him, they'd get
his- he'd get sued.
AD: Yeah [laughs]. Why don't you talk about the downtown area- well,
if you can call it that- of Quinsigamond- the little main street stretch-
about the stores, and, you know, operations that were going on during
the war, like drugstores…
GF: Oh yeah, well, we had a drugstore, it was, Anderson
Brothers' -it's where we have coffee now- Linda's, John
and Linda's coffee shop, and we had probably five groceries stores, you
know, in that area. One was Andersen Sundquist,
one was Andersen Johnson, there was another one- trying
to think of it- on the corner of [inaudible] street, and it was Holmquist
market, and I worked there as a kid. It was a Swedish store that made
sausage. You know, I stood- I had a pair of wooden shoes at about twelve
years old, and I'd be standing out back high on the sausage when it came
out of the machine. But you didn't have to go anywhere to get anything.
We had a five and ten cents store that sold, you
know, thread, and all of the fabric for the mothers of the village and,
we didn't have a clothing store in those days: My grandfather had one
there but that was way before my time. But, two gas stations, two gas
stations, one automobile dealer- pontiac dealer- we had everything, you
didn't have to leave. Really, is, self-contained area.
AD: When did things begin to change down there?
GF: The minute the war was over. When the war was over, the, it started-
everybody, everything changed then-it had to. Everyone was coming home
from the service, and some guys, they moved away.
AD: Yeah, that's what the other man I was interviewing was talking
about-how people just moved out.
GF: Yeah, they left it. It's in tough shape now, you know, compared to
what [sic] we had it.
I mean, I, was a salesman on the road for a lot of years and I kind of
drifted away from church, and, ah, then my son got through college and
he married and moved to Sutton. One day he said to me, "Dad, why
don't you come to church with me?" I said, "all right, I'll
go." So I met him down there and, it was a Congregational
church, and I couldn't believe how many people I knew in that church that
used to go to my church, but they moved to suburbia. So their kids are
out there going to school, so they're going to Sunday school there. And
they go to school. So they meet there, and very few people out in Sutton
come back to our church. And I was wondering, you know, and then I said,
I said to him- my son after about the third week- I said, "hey look,
I'm going back to my church," still a member of course, and ah, I
was so surprised how few people attend that church now compared to when
I was growing up because of what we are talking about: They moved out-
they moved away. I mean, some people moved to Holden. It depends on where
your girlfriend's from in many instances, you know what I mean, you marry
a girl from Holden, you move out there. But…
AD: Church membership is down?
GF: Oh yes, considerably: Every church in the village is down- every
church everywhere.
AD: changing times.
GF: That's- that's right. And then when we were younger and were- when
you were sixteen seventeen years old, the only thing you did was stick
around the village. Now, seventeen years old,. Everyone's go a car and
a drivers license and they take off. I mean, I think, and I think I can
speak for- I think that when I was in that church-
that Congregational Church there, we had more kids
in that Sunday school than you could imagine. Now, there's probably 20
at the very most. We almost had 20 in my Sunday school class-my age, you
know? Yeah we had a lot. And every church had a load of kids. But now,
I, its- not many people having children. The average family is two I guess,
isn't it?
AD: Yeah, something like that. Yeah- if you're lucky.
GF: Yeah, one and three quarters overall per-capita…
AD: [laughs] right, right…
GF: But I mean, other than the ones that can't speak English, they could
do it. But they're here on welfare.
AD: Just a few concluding questions…
GF: Sure.
AD: Concluding questions about the end of the war and your perceptions
following that: How did you feel once the war ended? Were you exuberant…
GF: Oh sure. My brothers were coming home. All of our friends were coming
home- that's just World War II we're talking about.
AD: Right.
GF: Yup that was, that was something. In fact, it was amazing to see
how many of them came back to high school. You know, they didn't have-
they had joined the service, came back. For example, when I was a Sophomore
in high school, I played basketball and baseball, and I played football
too- but the other two were my favorite sports- and I made, as a Sophomore
I played first string basketball and first string baseball, but when the
guys got back from the service, I was playing JV-Because they were entitled
to play sports too. I mean, all of the sudden, you get a guy playing against
you that is 23 years old, you know he can wipe you out!
AD: [laughs]. Right, in the physical peak of his life!
GF: [laughs] That's right, he'll wipe the dirt- wipe the ground with
you. But that was interesting too, because, it made the schools different
too. Now, there were guys back in high school that would go to high school
and work a 3-11.
AD: So you had a bunch of early 20-somethings in college- I mean,
you had a bunch of early 20-somethings in high school going back?
GF: Yeah, well, they would- they were in the service for four years.
After they were in the service three-four years and didn't have a high
school edu- they didn't have a diploma. So they went back to high school
on the GI Bill of Rights.
AD: Never heard about that. Wow.
GF: Yeah, they came back to [sic] the service. It was a really, ah, amazing
to, you know, see a guy beside you, you know, in school and you're sixteen
year old, seventeen years old and…
AD: [laughs] the guy has a full beard…
GF: Yeah, a 23 year old, and he, he's sleeping like this [puts head down
on table] because he's been working 3-11 somewhere because he's got a
wife and kids at home. You know, it was, it was unusual to have guys in
school with kids. Of course, nowadays they kinda work around that [laughs].
AD: I guess, if there is anything that you- we didn't mention during
the interview or we didn't talk about that you think is important to bring
up about Quinsigamond during the war, feel free…
GF: I'll just say that there was no better place to be brought up- were
great great people we had. And you know, the thing is, we had people on
our street- Halmstead street- they would stand out
in the street and talk to my mother in Swedish- and I was the paperboy
and always thought that they were Swedish. But they were Irish.
But they worked at the mill. And if you worked at the mill, you better
talk Swedish or learn Swedish. And there was no difference
between what church you went to, or where you- everybody was, it was,
really great to grow up in that era.
AD: Seems like we need more of those communities.
GF: Well, now everything's so- done- we didn't have the news media to
do it either. I mean, the news media- I mean, they'll e- a sportswriter
will ruin a ball team. You know what I am saying? Because before you didn't
care. And we, you know, Saturday was a great day for the kids in the village-
especially if Holy Cross was playing. We'd go up over
the hill-Patchochaug hill, you know, where all the buildings are now-
there was a practice field up there- where the rink is- that was wide
open for us to play football. And they had a football field up there just
like Fitton field, and they did all of their practicing up there. But
what we'd do, was we would go over the hill, and down in through the locker-rooms,
and when the football team was going out on the field, we'd all run in
between the football players so that we could get in free. So we were
great followers of Holy Cross. You know, we had a good time over there.
We got thrown out by the cops cause we didn't pay our money for tickets.
But the village was a great place, but I'm not saying Greendale
was, you know, everybody, every place was a good place. 'Cause you stayed
there…
AD: Depends on who you were…
GF: Yeah. Where the hell were you gonna go? I mean, and ah, I can remember
my father on Thanksgiving, he would put his car in the garage and that
was it for the year. He'd put it up on blocks so that the weight wasn't
on the tires, and he wouldn't take it out until memorial day. So now,
what did you do? You went with the kids in the village, you went in the
Boy Scouts….
End Tape
Mr. Forsberg went on briefly to restate youth's involvement in the
Church and school sports. Andrew thanked Mr. Forsberg for giving his time
for an interview.
|