Business went well and both of us were very busy. Late in the summer 1957 I got pregnant. We did not have maternitary leave those days, so I was working in the shop until 11pm and gave birth to Bente at 5am next morning June 14, 1958.
IMG: Karl and I
It was possible to give birth at home and went only to the hospital something was unusual. It was recommeded to stay in bed for ten days, but I was too busy and it was too boring for me, so I was up from bed after a few days and began working a little in the shop in between feeding the baby.
We were a small happy family and we enjoyed our little girl. At a time though, we felt ready for yet another child, which we made on Nybord Strandhotel. Actually, we were at a dealers conference and Karl went down to the colleagues in the morning and perky told them that we just had made another baby. They problably did not believe him, but May 23, 1960 our daughter Helle was born. Now we had a real family and all the children we wanted. Basta. We hired a nanny to help taking care of the children and with cleaning the house.
We lived on second floor and had no refrigerator. In the summer it was not easy to keep the food fresh, so we went to the butcher every day and had fresh milk delivered by the milkman. We could not buy more that we could use the same day, as it could not last in the heat. Later that summer we got ourselves a regrigerator. What a joy.
In 1960 we got our first black & white television and as this was the only one in the house, all the other families went to our appartment to watch the Olympics - Denmark won the silver medal in Soccer by the way. Television was rare those days, and occassionaly when something very interesting was transmitted, people gathered together in cafes and restaurants, like Cafe Vesta to see it. That was social intercourse for real.
As we lived on second floor without a garden, we started go camping to get away from home and to relax. In the beginning we rented a tent and drove to Henne beach some times and later we bought ourselves a cottage tent. Our debut with tent was not a succes as the dealer forgot to deliver pegs with the tent. It was not a disaster as we mainly went to try setting up the tent.
When we laundered our clothes we either boiled it on the stove or heated the water and washed in a bowl in the bath tup. Bedclothes, tablecloth and boiler suits was sent to the laundry. We bought a wash machine in 1963 and that was exciting. We sat in the kitchen looking at it washing. We had wooden flor and as the machine was unable to reverse, it jumped and moved out on the floor when centrifuging. That was a proges that really mattered. Then I got pregnant again, but Karl would not belive it. He sad it was just excitement over the new washing machine, but I was right. At 7am on June 25, 1964 I gave birth to our third daugther, Marianne.
Only three weeks old, she went on camping with us and everybody thought that she was cute and little.
When I was at a check-up with her, my doctor recommended me the new-invented contraceptive pills as he figured that we had children enough.
Only eight days before Christmas that year all three children had chickepox at the same time. What a nightmare.
We were really busy in the shop. Marianne was still in the cradle and felt hot and itchy with the diper. Helle had long hair and had chickenpox in the scalp, just as she had one wound, but we managed to get through it after all.
We bought house in Januar 1965. That was undoubtly the best thing we could do. Now we got lots of space. Three tooms, a guest room and a large garden to play in. The shop was twice the size, approx 60 sqm. whitch was a considerable size back then. It was an old house and a lot of repairing work to do, so we did not went to camping that year.
IMG: Helle, Marianne, Bente and Claus
At that time it was recommended to take the contraceptive pills for a year and then take a break. But it was unknown, that the chance to get pregnant inclined after have been using the pill, and that hit me. People had joked with us and warned us, that moving to a house often led to pregnancy, and that was true. October 16, 1966 at 5am I gave birth to Claus. After having three girls this was something really different to get a boy. Now I decided to stop having children and kept on taking the pills.