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(1942) Mr. Blomdahl Shot

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Missionary Shot

Mrs. Blomdahl's husband had been shot by Communists right in front of her when she was nine months pregnant with her son, Robert. Mrs. Blomdahl was hiding behind a cart. Mr. Blomdahl was reaching into his pocket to check the time on his pocket watch. The communists thought he was going for a gun.1

Machines Guns and Japanese - [circa 1942]

In 1942 Johnny whose Chinese name was 'Yua- Han' was eight years old. All Johnnie's friends were Chinese since there were no other foreign kids in town except family and the Reinbrecht children at the Lutheran mission, some distance a way. He played mostly with two of the five sons of Mr. Fong, a teacher at the mission school, and Mr. Fong's daugher. The two son's names were Fong Liu Yu and Fong Liu Yan, and his only daughter Fong Liu Chen.

Chen was very disappointed that she wasn't a boy like all her brothers. She asked Johnny what she could do about it.

"Yua- Han, I want to be a boy. What can I do?"

"If you want to be a boy just give it some time. It takes a long time to grow a boy."

She kept asking Johnny every week when it was going to happen.

"Just keep checking."

The poor girl never did become a boy.

The boys passed their time playing marbles, and shooting birds with their homemade slingshots.

They played marbles by hallowing out a round depression in the ground, each boy placing a equal number of marbles in the depression, and each using another marble to aim and knock marbles out. What marbles were knocked out were theirs to keep.

Shooting birds with slingshots was even more fun and took a good deal of skill.

The boys made slingshots from tree branches where the branch created a Y shape, and from old automobile tire inner tubes from mission cars. Whenever a tire inner tube was replaced due to a puncture driving the poor roads, the boys were sure to get the inner tube. They cut the inner tube to the desired width and length and attached it to the upper arms of the Y.

The boys made slingshot ammo from mud. Dirt was in plentiful supply and water was near at hand. They rolled mud into small balls between the palms of the hands, and left them to dry in the sun. Dried balls made excellent ammo, and automobile inner tubes had excellent elasticity.

The ball was placed in the curve of the rubber inner tube and held in place by the grip of the thumb and index finger. With the Y grip held in one hand, the inner tube with ball were stretched back. The boy aimed and released the ball. The ball flew with considerable speed and power. Upon hits something solid the ball scattered into bits of dirt and dust. Johnny got so good with a slingshot that one day he shot an humming bird in flight.

Birds of various sorts were frequent targets. A certain time of the years a lot of crows flew into town and perched by the hundreds in the huge trees on the mission property. The crows were easy to hit because there were so many of them. If a ball missed one, it would likely hit another. The crows fell to the ground, wounded or dead. The sons of Mr. Fong picked up the birds and brought them home for dinner. But, not only crows were suitable for the pot. Anything the boys shot was game, including sparrows.

Bats perched in an inverted fashion in another tree. The boys caught, rather than shot, the bats. One of the boys climbed the tree and scared the bats from their dangling slumbers. Then one of the boys on the ground threw a hat into the air. Several bats would dive for the interior of the hat. When the hat hit the ground the boys dove for the hat, trapping the bats.

During one time of the year, cicada nymphs burrowed by the thousands out of the the ground around dusk to climb trees where they made a lot of noise, and eventually molted into flying insects. [Describe cicada] The boys caught many of the insects by digging them up from the ground before they had a chance to burrow out by themselves and get to the trees. They brought the insects home placing them on the windows screens. During the night the insects emerged from their exoskeleton , at which time their wings spread out ready for flight. In the morning the boys picked the insects off the screen and let them fly.

That was during the warmer weather.Of course birds you can shoot all year long. During the cold weather the boys had less they could do.The cold temperature was made worse by the tampness in the air.

Johnny's home had no electricity nor running water. But, with the coming of the colder weather they chipped ice from the creek and made ice cream. The cream probably came from the Catholic mission. Ironically they had no ice cream during the summer. (However, the family had ice cream at Iltus Huk during the summers. Ice was brought by the ice man to use in the ice box).

They had a garden raising corn, radishes, potatos, carrots - a little bit of everything. Johnny's family garden was tended by a gardener who also took care of the garden of Oscar and Hellen. The missionaries kept food in the cellar to keep it cool or put it in a bucket and dropped the bucket down one of the three wells in the mission property.

At Johnny's house they had a cook, Yan san shi [sp?], whose job was it to go downtown to buy food, bring it back to the house and prepare the family's meals, and clean up. The cook lived in a small house next to the compound gate entrance. They also employed a Chinese woman who took care of Johnny as he was growing up as well as his sister, Lally. She worked for the family until Johnny's little sister, Margie, was born.

Johnny got along very well with the cook. He would often help him dry the dishes after the evening meal. Yan [sp?] was full of jokes that he would tell Johnny, one right after another.

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The Swedish school kept the kids busy during the day. Swedish kids from other missions attended the school, staying in Kioahsien when school was in session, and returning to their particular areas of China during school breaks. Even with the children from other missions the Swedish school was always small, having eight to ten students at most. Johnny didn't play with these kids very much though because he was about the youngest Swedish kid in the school. And, after school they had homework to do.

Johnny's mother, Gerda, taught, as did his aunt Hellen, and missionary Johannson [sp]. All the teaching was in one room, so whatever teacher they had was busy teaching kids at various ages and levels.

One day Johnny and Chinese kid John were out playing. They went to a creek where they often caught frogs. Nearby ten or fifteen Chinese were lined up in front of Japanese soldiers with machine guns. Suddenly the Chinese started falling. The machine gun bullets had ripped into the bodies of the Chinese. The boys got left as quickly as possible. 2

Egron and Oscar

Egron and his brother Oscar got along very well together. They could often be seen in the afternoons walking around the garden together discussing politics and other subjects. In front of Oscar's house they had a earth tennis court made where they often played tennis. However, one year someone, probably Hellen, thought the tennis court would make a lovely rose garden.

Hedvig's 75th Birthday

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Table Set for
Hedvig Rinell's
75th Birthday Celebration

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On October 12 was her big day. Hedvig was 75 years old. In Oscar and Hellen's dining room the best china, silverware and crystal glasses for fourteen people were in place. An additional table was set out in the living room for another eight people for so. Each napkin was rolled and stood erect at each placesetting like an honor guard.

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Footnotes

  1. Year of his being shot supplied by Dollan Rinell, July 2000.

  2. Interview with John Rinell, San Luis Obispo, California, September 2004. Year of 1942 was a guess by John. Johnnie when he told me about it (September 28, 2004) said he still feels anger toward those Japanese troops (LJH).

CHAPTER

Foreign Devils: A Swedish Family in China 1894 to 1951
© 2012-14 Lennart Holmquist
Lorum • Ipsum• Dolor • Sic Amet • Consectetur

Updated: 02-May-2019

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