One Christmas, my Uncle Herbert came to visit. Sweeping in from Detroit, he parked a beautiful Chevy in our driveway, and sailed through our front door laden with presents for everybody.
61 Chevrolet Bel Air by DVS1mn
Bounding into the living room with a fat cigar belching smoke in his wake, he barked a happy greeting to his brother, threw the packages on our couch, and wrapped his arms around my mom as he said, "Now, where are the meatballs!" My mom waved away the cigar smoke, laughed and pointed to the sideboard where no fewer than twenty-five Swedish delicacies were waiting for the man we affectionately called Uncle Gunshot.
My uncle earned his name the
hard way. But that will become plain later, and he had no regrets about the
choices he made that led to his surprising moniker. What you need to know first
is that Uncle Herbert loved America. Most of all he loved living in Detroit.
"The greatest city in the world," he called it. Given how he got there, I can
understand why.
Before Sweden adopted a more humane
approach to government, in the 1950's for example, living in small-town Sweden
could be a stultifying experience. Now, please keep in mind that I am reporting
here. These are the characterizations shared with me by my father who, you may
remember from other posts, left Sweden because it was not the greatest place
for him to grow up.
Anyway, my Uncle Evert was dad's
older brother. And he was a bit at loose ends as he left school. Not the best
student, he didn't seem to settle into a job. Instead, he was most famous for
running with a pack of boys who very effectively stole apples from other
people's apple trees, and performed similar acts of mischief when they felt
necessary. To cope with my Uncle Evert, one of the more recidivist pranksters,
the little town's leaders met and decided they would take up a collection to
send Evert to America. They cast about for a town that would fit his exuberant
personality, one where a Swede they knew would be willing to sponsor him, and
finally decided to send him to Detroit. They thought of it as a punishment. For
Evert it proved to be the exact opposite.
You see, Uncle Evert later told
me that he got into so much trouble back in Sweden because the culture there
had already written him off. A boy from a poor family with not the best grades
in school, Evert just wasn't able to compete for one of the few scarce jobs the
city dangled in front of its young men. You see, it's not just America that
tolerates a high unemployment rate in order to enable business owners to employ
only the most prized workers. So Evert had directed his initiative in ways that pleased him and frustrated the city elders.
Uncle Evert was blessed to
arrive in Detroit at the height of its glory. The city was booming.
Cadillac Square from City Hall looking east towards county building, Detroit, Mich. by Boston Public Library
Evert
marveled at its city thoroughfares laid out like the spokes of a wheel. When my
dad drove to visit my uncle the first time, Evert said, "Just follow any major
artery. They'll all take you to the city's center. I'll meet you downtown."
Detroit was pulsing with the success of its auto plants, with its parts plants,
with its manufacturers of all kinds. Evert quickly decided on a career as a
house painter and helped all the working class and middle class folks who
wanted to make their homes and apartment buildings shine with the city's
success.
But it wasn't Detroit's economic prosperity that Evert loved. He was to remain in the city even when times got very tough indeed. No, what Evert loved were the city's people.
Ugandans dance to Mahogany Jones- LIVE music at the National Theatre by U.S. Mission Uganda
As a boy who'd
known only Caucasian Swedes, and pretty conservative ones at that, Evert loved
all the races and nationalities that flocked to Detroit. He said this rich and
complicated culture was what made Detroit so amazing. The crazy quilt that was
Detroit kept Evert happily fascinated for the rest of his life. Even after he
earned his nickname.
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