Childhood and Youth at Grefsen

I was about eight years old when we moved to Grefsen in Oslo and became neighbors of Rakel and Sigurd Bratlie, Ingrid and Edwin Bekkevold and Anna and Bjørn Bekkevold. This was the “street of happiness” for me. Many brothers came to stay with the friends there during this period. Dear friends such as Gjermund Skreosen, David Nielsen, Peter Gangsø, Gunnar Kristensen and others lived with us in a small apartment or stayed at Edwin Bekkevold’s. I remember so clearly how they took time with us and made our childhood so good.

In those days we had prayer meetings with Karen Marie Eriksen who was 14 or 15 years old at the time. We prayed to the best of our ability. Personally I didn’t understand the seri­ousness that my sister Eva and others attached to it, but I re­member very well that Lise Bekkevold prayed with a loud voice. She was a little girl of six or seven who must have heard the expression “youthful lusts” somewhere. She prayed with great boldness to be saved from it. I didn’t know what youth­ful lusts were, but I was certainly very curious about them. And seeing that Lise prayed so powerfully to be freed from them, I also decided that getting victory over youthful lusts must be something really great. So in the end I started to pray for victory over youthful lusts too, even though I didn’t know what they were. I’m sure she didn’t either.

We often took trips to visit relatives and friends in Krokstadelva, and as time passed, the number of our cousins increased. We children often played “meeting.” As a rule, I led and my brothers, sisters and cousins had to sit still. Everyone had to have a Bible, and the sisters had to wear headscarves. I pretended to be Elias Aslaksen or Sigurd Bratlie, since they had such great authority. It was very important for everyone to be obedient. I usually stood on a chair and held a fire-and-brimstone sermon for my brothers, sisters and cousins. I de­manded repentance and the joy of salvation! We were bold, and we prayed, sang and testified. Everyone seemed to get something out of the meeting—then I was satisfied too.

I liked having everything in order. I had a particular inter­est in fire drills, and I studied very carefully to see how they were to be performed. One important drill was for us to lower ourselves about ten meters down from the third floor with a fireman’s rope. Sigurd Johan Bratlie was quite small, and he was also rather plump. I was a little doubtful whether he would be able to climb down the rope, so I tied it around him tightly. The fire drills came to an abrupt end one day when Sigurd Johan—the fireman’s rope firmly knotted around his chest—waved joyfully to Aunt Rakel (his mother) through the kitchen window on the second floor!