Childhood as travellers
"I was born in Fitjar municipality in Eigersund on April 14th, 1953, on an island near Fitjar in Stord. We were six siblings, but two died. The youngest one died at only six months old, while my other brother died at Svanviken. I have a sister who was born in 1957 (Gunnhild), a brother who was born in 1948 (John) and a third brother who was born in 1967 (Rune).
My parents were both from families who travelled by boat. My mother is Ruth Pettersen, and my father is Rasmus Pettersen. My mother was born in 1925 and my father in 1932.
My father was doing gutters, while my mother traded on a small scale, selling tablecloths and the like wholesale. She bought wholesale goods from Beiring in Tønsberg.
We travelled all year. It was great to grow up on a boat in the summer. My sister was even born on board, in Bømlo. My mother wasn't allowed to go inside anyone’s house, so the midwife had to come to the boat. When we got to school age, there was little schooling. My sister and my eldest brother went for a few years, but I was only in school for a few months at Svanviken. I can do some maths, but I can't write. When I was 15, we went to Svanviken. This was in 1968, and my father was about 36 years old. We were forced to go there, or the kids would be taken. The Mission was after us and Sigrid Løken came to our boat twice. People who knew us took her there.
We took the coastal steamer from Bergen to Molde. I remember it was in the winter and that Myhre met us. He was gruff, not a good guy. He was a pure sadist. I remember an episode with my aunt and uncle. He had tormented them for a whole night on one occasion when their house was not perfect. The kids had played with toys on the floor, while he thought everything should be perfect.
Myhre was the manager for two years while we were there, then came Agnar Austvik. My mother recognised him from her childhood in Tysnes in Hordaland. He was so surprised that my mother recognised him. Austvik was not quite as crazy as Myhre, but he was also from the Mission. When we came to Svanviken, we had to sign a five-year contract, but I don't know much about what the contract said."
Life at Svanviken
"Eikrem was a house manager who came to check all the houses before dinner, between 11am. and 12 noon every single day. My father was supposed to work, but he couldn't because he so longed to get out. It was coercion, you know. My father was forced to take disability benefits at Svanviken. At the end of the stay at Svanviken, he had to get admitted to Opdal hospital near Molde. If he hadn't done that, he wouldn't have been able to leave Svanviken. He wasn't really sick. He died only a few years ago of prostate cancer. Back then, he was as strong as a horse. Doctors at the hospital wondered why a healthy man would be placed there. He was in his 40s then.
As children, we did not have the freedom at Svanviken that we were accustomed to. We had to be inside at certain times, and at 11 at night everyone had to be quiet. If we didn't behave, we would get house arrest. Then we couldn't go outside the property. It could last for days and weeks. If Myhre saw someone going outside the property, he came over. His house was located so that he could keep an eye on all the houses. Now there's only one of the old houses left. It's number eight. They have rebuilt the other houses.
I went to Eide school for six months. Afterwards I was going to go to school at Svanviken, but it didn't happen. All they did was scold you. You were so discouraged by it that you didn't want to do anything. There was a lot of bullying during the six months I attended the school in Eide. I had to defend my brother because he always retaliated when he was tormented.
Because I was older (past confirmation age), I was put to work after this. My papers say I had received the education I was supposed to get – in six months. Those papers lied. I worked in the barns, on the fields, and dried hay on a rack in the haymaking season."
The routines at Svanviken
"The house manager made sure everything was in order, that everything was clean and tidy. She would stand in her window watching to see that everything went well. We weren't allowed to speak Romani and the women were not allowed to have long hair. That was taboo. There were so many rules. My mother’s hair was so long that she could sit on it. The house manager complained to my mother so many times because of her long hair that she eventually cut it off. I remember my mother having long, beautiful hair. To this day, I can see her before me, when we lay on the ground, with her long braids.
The bath house stood in the middle of the camp. There were showers and a sauna. Showering every Saturday was mandatory. Hoseth was with the ladies when they showered, while Myhre was with the men. Hoseth was supposed to explain to the ladies how to wash themselves, while Myhre did the same with the men. We were shy, but Myhre ‘strolled around’ with both the young ones and the adults. When I came back to Svanviken two years ago, the bath house was gone."
My brother died at Svanviken
"My brother Gunnar, who was born in 1955, died at Svanviken. He became ill but was left for weeks on a bench in the living room with no doctor to see him. My mum asked for a doctor when he got sick, but Myhre thought he was just lazy. There was no talk of him getting a doctor. Myhre was the boss and decided everything. Eventually he got to see a doctor in Eide, but there was hell to pay before we got there. When he finally saw a doctor, he was so weak that my father had to carry him. My mother had to watch him getting sicker and sicker.
He was sent to the hospital in Kristiansund . Mum visited him in the hospital. I remember a time when my mum and I went to visit Gunnar in the hospital; we were scolded by Myhre because my mother had gone to the hospital without asking Myhre first. Myhre waited at the gate and made a huge fuss because my mum had taken me along.
Gunnar died at The National Hospital (of Norway) in 1969, of kidney failure. My mother was told she had to come before he died, but she arrived too late. When she got to the hospital, he was already dead. This was in 1969 and he was 13 years old. Gunnar was buried at the Eide church.
‘Is it normal that a child would die of kidney failure?’, I ask myself. I think they didn't do anything for him, but just let him die because he was of Romani heritage."
To Bergfløtt in Lier
"My family was at Svanviken for four years. From 1970-1971 I was sent to Bergfløtt in Lier, while the rest of the family remained at Svanviken until 1972. I was forced to go there. I was not allowed to stay at Svanviken because I didn’t want to attend adult education because Myhre was the teacher. My mother went just to be left alone. She couldn't read and write and didn't learn to do so there either. Under those kinds of conditions, you don't learn.
Bergfløtt was a place for alcoholic, adult men and was not a place for children. It was absolutely horrible. I rebelled and didn't stay there for long. If you protested there, they gave you pills, so I ran away. I loafed around. Walked the entire Drammensveien road down to Oslo. I went to Karl Johan [main road in Oslo] and sold conditioner to the ladies, so I would have enough money for the train. I stayed in Fredrikstad with my aunt, Louise Pettersen, for a few days. I had another uncle and aunt in Hølen who had been living in Moss after leaving Svanviken. From them I found out that Sigrid Løken was looking for me, so I hid. She asked my cousin Sigurd if he knew where I was. Then he said that he knew, but that he would not tell her. After I had been with my uncle and aunt for a while, I went to stay with Sigurd and his wife in Kristiansand. I was there for quite a while. Then I went to Stavanger, to my aunt Olfine Pettersen. We had a lot of family there. Many of my aunt's children were taken shortly after birth. The three oldest ones were sent to Vailsenhuset in Stavanger. Then I went to Svanviken again. My parents were supposed to become residents in 1972."
Settlement
"My family became residents of Bømlo. Then the whole family went there. We didn't get to choose where we wanted to live. The house was in a very rural area. You could barely see a neighbour’s house in the distance. The sheep grazed by the house. They tried to keep the sheep out, but they used to go in and out of the basement.
There was no running water. A toilet and a bathroom were built much later. A person from the Mission watched us, an inspector named Olav Gåsland. He was going to make sure everything went smoothly. That we behaved properly. I guess we didn't feel like he was going to help us. We had to watch out for rats - they were all over the attic, so we had to have the shotgun ready.
After they became residents, they had to get by on my father’s disability benefits and the child benefits. We squeaked by somehow. Many times, we didn't have money for food. Fortunately, it was possible to buy goods at the food store (trading post) on credit. My parents traded a little when they were out in the summer, but they didn't trade in Bømlo.
I was 19 when my family settled down. I didn't stay long in Bømlo. I've worked in many places. First, I went out to sea for two to three years. Then I worked for many years at a herring oil factory, which I liked. I was an operator there, running the factory. I have taken some machinist courses. I've been a forklift driver, too. I had to keep everything in my head because I couldn't read. Had to take it in by listening. There was little adult education in those days, so I was not offered any reading and writing courses. The only opportunity was to start in first grade, and that made no sense.
I've been working for over 30 years. I had a job at a herring oil factory at Karmøy for 15 years (Karmsund Fisheries). There was a lot of evening and weekend work. Often, I had a week's compensation time between shifts. The factory was running all the time to make money. People were nice there. I lived in the barracks on site, which was free. I then went out to sea for a couple of years and got a new job when I got back. I worked for about 12 years at the last place I worked. Then it was shut down, and everyone was fired.
I was married and had a house in Åkra then. I have two girls who are adults now and are married. I got married in 1989 but got divorced later. The girls were born in 1982. I remarried – to Nina – five years ago.
I am now receiving disability benefits. After losing my job, I went to NAV in Bergen, and they said there was no job for me because I was too old. I went on unemployment benefits, then rehabilitation, then disability benefits. I have quite a good pension today because I worked for so many years. But I don't expect much, and money isn't everything.
My children are not afraid to tell people about their heritage. Everyone around them knows about it."