The History of Aanderbakkan

There has been people living in Aanderbakkan for at least 5 generations. What I know for sure is that my great great grandfather was married to a woman who had been married to a man from Aanderbakkan and that might be how it came to be in my family. My great grandmother was born to my great great grandfathers third wife and was his 7th and last child.

The house as it is today was built by my great grand father sometime between 1904 when his second child was born and 1907 when his third child was born. My grand father was born in this house in 1911 as was two more of his siblings. 5 children was raised here in the early 1900’s.

My grandfathers oldest sister had polio when she was young and was therefore more or less unable to walk, but that didn’t stop her from getting around. In the summer she would go from farm to farm on her three wheeled motor cycle sewing for people as she was a very talented seamstress. She lived almost her whole life in this house, but the last 5 which she spent in the neighboring farm of her oldest brother.

The oldest brother got his own parcel of land from his father and built himself a house there where he raised his one son. The son and his son and granddaughter now uses that farm as a summer home.

The next sister got married and moved to a bigger place with her husband.

Then there was my grandfather who took over the family farm and raised a stepdaughter and a son, my dad, here till they moved in 1954. They didn’t come back to the farm for close to 15 years till my dad got himself a speedboat. That is when this became our summer home.

The youngest brother bought some land in town and brought up his kids there. That farm too is now a summer home.

The brothers lived off of their farms and their fishing boat. Then in the 50’s things got harder and my grandparents moved to the town where my parents are living and where I grew up. There they worked in the fishing factories till they retired.

My dad still remembers living together with his parents, his grandparents and his aunt in Aanderbakkan. He still remembers falling in the river as a child being rescued by his grandfather who was chopping wood by the barn. He remember the child safety of being tied with a rope so not to run off and fall into the ocean. 

These days my parents being retired gets here as soon as the snow is gone in spring around mid April and leave before the first snow in fall around mid September.