Dagny, 107, prizewinner at Guldgala: ”I feel greatly honoured”
Dagny Carlsson, born in 1912, grew up in Kristianstad. She lived as a child in a flat in Västra Smalgatan, now called Västra Vallgatan. She used to wake up to the sound of horse-drawn carts passing by on their way to the dairy with empty, rattling bottles.
Now, 100 years later, she is back on a visit. She is going to attend the Guldjubelgala and receive a prize as Kristianstad’s Gold Ambassador of the Year.
– I feel greatly honoured, she says.
She still has vivid memories of when she was a child. She played in the streets with the other children. But playing in Tivoliparken was more fun.
– We swam in the river, in Helge å. There were two public baths. It cost 5 öre to go in, and then you had to put your clothes on a bench. If you wanted a locker, it cost 10 öre. But we preferred to go twice at 5 öre.
Sometimes there was a lot of mischief. Dagny says she was a bit of a tearaway herself.
Her family lived in a new four-storey house with an outside toilet. Later they moved to a less attractive house in Västra Storgatan.
”It was deadly boring, I loathe sewing.”
– Now these streets are so nice. When we lived there it was a sign of poverty. If you wanted to be gentry, you lived in Östermalm. The town was confined within the boulevards.
Dagny’s fahter died when she was 17, and she had to go out to work. Dagny had commercial training, but it was hard to find a job during the Depression in 1929.
– The only job we could find was sewing shirt-collars for a firm. We sat in a cellar in Söder. I stayed with that firm for 20 years. It was deadly boring, I loathe sewing.
88 years ago she moved with the firm to Linköping, but she has always kept in touch with Kristianstad. Her sister still lives here.
Municipal commissioner Pierre Månsson (L) thinks that Dagny Carlsson is the perfect choice for this year’s Gold Ambassador for Kristianstad..
– Dagny gives Kristianstad a lot of good publicity, for instance she writes a lot about the church. We want to show that you’re still an asset even although you’re a pensioner. Life goes on, and you must take advantage of the opportunities that come along, he says.
– My children think you’re great, he tells Dagny.
– That feels like a compliment. I think it’s because I’m just myself, I don’t try to be something that I’m not. I’m going to blogg about everything that’s happening now while I’m here, she says.
