Katarina Elevator
Early Ups and Downs and Up again
The most famous elevator in all of Sweden was — and as far as I know, still is — the Katarina Elevator by Slussen in Stockholm. Google it, and you’ll find plenty of images.
This is now the summer of 1965 (June, I believe) and I have just spent late winter, all spring, and early summer working in my dad’s factory up north after my very embarrassing Technical Gymnasium fiasco which saw me dropping out mid-January or thereabouts.
No, I did not like working for my dad. Not a bit. Yes, he paid me decently enough, but one of my best friends made a lot more from his (very well-off, to be sure — he was a doctor after all) father without having to lift a finger, so my work arrangement seemed a little unfair. That, and from working in this factory I always sported dirty fingernails; there was nothing for it with all that oil and dust and grease and yes, dirt, that went along with a factory like my dad’s — while my friends fingernails remained pristine.
That spring, there was still talk (call it unacknowledged agreement) about me returning to (as in starting over) Technical Gymnasium in the fall and I believe this actually was my somewhat nebulous plan at this time.
However, by now I needed a summer break and I think it was my mom who suggested that I go visit the…
