Memories of My Childhood in Taarnby

When anybody ask me about my Childhood I immediately think about Taarnby of which I – despite the war – only have fond memories.

I was born on Grœkenlandsvej, Filips Parish, Sokkelund County, Copenhagen, Denmark.

My parents moved from there – not exactly sure when and where, but I think it was near or on Sundbyvestervej. I remember it was a red brickhouse with some stairs up to the front door and I do remember we had a piano when we lived there.

I LOVED that piano so much and still remember crying a lot when my Dad sold the piano to purchase our home on Munkebjergvej 53 I Taarnby. I was about three at that time.  Just shortly before the Germans waded in to Denmark on the 9^th of April 1940.

But I grew to not only like our new place, but whenever anybody ask me where I grew up I right away says “In Taarnby”, because that is where many of my very best childhood memories were made.

Both me and my two older sisters Inge Lise and Birgit, who was 9 and 7 years old have often talked about our “Taarnby Memories”.

I got my “first” boyfriend there.  I must have been three or four.  His name was Ole. We always walked hand-in-hand singing “We two are engaged”.

I was not very old either when my Mom placed me on the back of her bicycle and drove me to Taarnby Folkebørnehave and for ballet and acrobatics.  I loved that too.

When I got a little older she took me for ballroom dancing lessons on Englandsvej and I had my steady dance partner Erik Feddersen for at least three years.  We won a couple of prizes ( My son Harly has one of my silver cups) and I think I was in love with him too.  At least I remember him being very handsome.

Me and Erik are the couple to the left.

One thing that made up for the loss of the piano was that I got a black and white cat. I loved that cat so much.

I was also fond of all the other animals my dad required; The chickens and the rabbits and even the pig that he kept in the room right beside our toilet.

Yes, the toilet was off course not the kind of flush-toilets that we have now.  No, no it was a hole in the ground with a lid on like you find in the official parks.  My Dad had to “empty’ the smelly thing regularly.

But the one thing I did NOT like about my Dad wanting to have the animals was that he killed them.  That I could not understand at all.  Why would he kill all our pets?  

My Dad would fill the huge barrel with hot water and the neighbors came over to help him kill the pig.  First a huge knife in the throat and then in the scalding water. I hated it, but I even hated it more when it was the rabbits because they were my pets, just like the cat.

Neither did I like when he picked up a chicken and axed the head off and then we girls had to “Plug the feathers” off.

But I did not mind when my sewed warm skin hats and gloves out of the skin from the rabbits, nor did I mind eating all the good food my mom cooked from the slaughtered animals.

I never did acquire a taste for the rabbit meat though, but the chicken and pork I had no problems eating.

My Mom would make blood sausages and all different kind of other sausages.  She had a huge brown barrel with salt where she stored a lot of the meat.

She also canned “sylte” a processed meat which we ate with great delight with mustard and pickled beets on our home-made rye bread.

I especially liked and remember our Christmases on Munkebjergvej with the good food, the home-made candy and marzipan and with the living tree with presents under it, and living candles on the tree.

We were never allowed to see the tree before “After” we had had our 24^th Christmas eve dinner which consisted of a pork roast with the rind on. White potatoes.  Glazed brown potatoes and red cabbage and beets.

Dessert was a delicious “RisAlamanda” a rice dessert with whip cream. My Mom wood cook the rice on her wooden stove.  Then place the pot in newspapers and towels and then the rice porridge wood cook finish in one of our beds.

Before it was cooled down and the whip cream added – which of course we girls had to whip with our hands – she would leave some rice porridge to the elves outside – she said – and of course us girls never knew it was the cat that ate it.

After the good food, we were finally allowed to see the tree which was draped in white sheets until then. We were not allowed in that room before – after the dinner – and after all the dishes were cleaned up and put away.  The we were – fiannly - ready to “Dance around the tree” while we were singing Christmas Carols.

Of course, our ONE gift was the highlight of the evening.

Another thing I remember about Munkebjergvej was the in fondness I had of our garden.  I would usually help my Dad plant the potatoes.  He would make the rows and I had the job of placing the potatoes in the rows and cover the dirt over them.

After the potatoes grew up, us kids would play hide and seek in between the potato leaves.

At times, we were not very nice though because we would go and steal cookie wafers at the neighbor’s place. He worked for a wafer company and would often bring home huge barrels of scraps for “his family”.  We knew where the barrels were standing outside and often sneaked over and stole some.

I had some good friends when I lived on Munkebjergvej.  Especially two sisters: Aase and Lise. I was always at their house.

I also have fond memories of visits to my aunts Grethe and uncle Richard.  I played with my cousin Gudrun and her brother Willy.  Gudrun and I are born same year. 

One thing I really liked about my visit to them was that my aunt Grethe made a wonderful chocolate pudding with canned pears and whip cream.  Uhm.

We also often visited my Mom’s step brother Edgar (nicknamed Lasse) and his wife Karla and their two kids Birger and Lise.  They lived on Gundtvigsvej 1, on Frederiksberg.

It was great visits.  Before we got there, we got instructions about behaving.  Children should be seen and not heard we were told and we were NOT to take any of the food at the table before Mom had given us a NOD with her head.

I also enjoyed my visits to my grandmother Johanne.  My Dads mom.  She made the most awesome frikadeller.

Both my parents worked.  My Dad worked for the army.  He was in charge of “dressing the soldiers” and my mother was weeding in the huge fields of strawberries.  She was lying on her knees most of the day to that job.

Us kids thought it was “wonderful” with all those strawberries. It never entered our childminds that our Mom worked hard “on her knees” and that there was nothing wonderful about doing that for eight hours a day.

But my Mom always had an ability to “look at the positive side of life”.   She had a beautiful contralto voice and was always singing.  Both at work and at home.

She created a love for music in us three girls that has prevailed all my life. She would sing even louder if she was down and depressed or stressed.

My mother also had a very hospital and welcoming spirit to anybody.  I remember – it must have been right after the war – that we had 24 Danish soldiers sleeping side by side on our floor.

While lived on Munkebjergvej my parents singed me up to be girl scout. I hated every minute of it and one time when I was on a day Scout trip, the leaders FORGOT me.  I walked several miles home in the evening, was not home before 1:00 p.m. Well, the good thing about that was that my Dad got so mad about the leader’s negligence that he said “that was the end of that”.  Well, I could not be happier.

No, then I would rather sit with my sisters at the little pond in the evening when they were sitting with their friends singing and somebody would play the accordion.  Oh my, how I listened and tried to learn the songs by heart. Of course, I wanted also to go out in the pond to see if I could catch a frog. When I got out of the pond I would usually have my legs full of black leeches, but we were used to that and would just remove them.

I loved my first 5 years in Taarnby school.  I would walk or bike the 5 kilometers to school.

I especially felt like a princess when my Dad gave me a “beautiful brown school briefcase to carry my books, pencils in.

I loved my school teacher Christian Petersen.  He was a wonderful man that was able to influence my life for good.

Unfortunately, my happy childhood in Taarnby was abruptly broken when I was 10 years old when my Dad left the family and my Mom had to “fend for herself and moved to Kongshøjgade on Vesterbro.

That was when my “new life” on Vesterbro started and When I look back, I also have good memories of Vesterbro, but I think more about that as “my teen life”.

My childhood was formed in Taarnby.

Vibeke Lindhardt – nee Vibeke Sonja Madsen

21 March 2017