Martin Gumucio

Nora!  City of summer.  For us city-dwellers every year we come here it’s like balsam for your soul. We always sleep a lot more when we are here, eat extremely well, and Aron loves the house with all the toy cars in.

This years midsummers celebration was to be held at the Pershyttan. Old remnants of the iron-industry that these parts were famous for in the 17th century. It all started in the most swedish way possible. Pouring rain! Thankfully the sun decided to join us later.

Later in the day we took a guided tour of Lockgruvan, a mine in the same area that went into disuse in 1909. Lina tells me that the area around the mine-shaft used to be completely unprotected, which  is totally amazing to me. The shaft is 160 meters deep, at 100 meters down the water starts. Or as it were, the ice!  Even in midsummer the ice is thick, and the temperature way below zero.

Learning the fate of the people that worked in the mine makes us visitors grateful to not have been among their numbers. There were no unions and no organization among the workers, its only in the economic books of the company that you can learn how life might have been like, the following is an authentic quote from the ledgers of the iron company.

Today worker Sune Magnusson died of a “skut” (piece of rock falling from the cieling). He leaves behind widow and seven children in misery. The cost was 33 crowns. (funeral)

The guide could also tell us that there is a continued recorded history of the same family. Luckily for the family, they had a 15 year old son that could take his fathers place at the company. Had this not been the case the family would not only have lost their only source of income, but also the house. It also belonged to the company. The son died in a train accident a few years later, breaking the rules by leaving the mine by walking on the railway he was hit by a railway cart loaded with minerals from behind. By that time he had probably already lost all hearing and so was unable to hear the cart coming.

These sobering accounts on how the situation for the working man used to be, makes you all the more thankful for lazy summer days. Were “working hard” simply means  having to be indoors.

Happy midsummers to you, and I hope you get lots of great vacation!