Lennart John Holmquist
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Lennart John Holmquist |
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In 1945 a Swedish-American who went by the name of 'Bud' joined the U.S. Marine Corps. and was soon shipped off to Guam, a small island in the Pacific Ocean. America and her allies were in a fierce war with Japan. Bud wanted to be part of the action. He got more than he wanted. At Guam he and his fellow marines were put on a ship for the island of Okinawa, which became one of the bloodiest battles of the World War II. Unlike many of his friends and acquaintances Bud survived Okinawa. He would have taken part in the invasion of Japan if America had not dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ending the war. If the mainland of Japan had been invaded there was little chance Bud would have survived. Dollan Rinell In the port city of Tsingtao, China a pretty young Swede by the name of Dollan was on her way to becoming a nurse, working as a nurse's aid for a Swiss doctor at a German hospital in the town. She hoped to eventually help nurse back to health soldiers and sailors on one of the hospital ships that she had heard about. Her parents were Swedish missionaries in Kiaohsien, less than a day's journey west of Tsingtao. Her uncle and his wife were also missionaries in the same town as was her grandparents before them. She grew up a Swedish kid in China speaking a mixture of Swedish, Chinese and some English. When Japan surrendered Bud expected to return to the USA and march down an avenue of some American city to the cheers and admiration of fellow Americans. Instead the marines shipped he and his unit to Tsingtao. America needed troops in China to fill the power vacuum caused by Japanese soldiers returning to Japan. A Christian, Bud, attended a social gathering one day at a German Lutheran church in Tsingtao where he was introduced to this beautiful blonde Swede. Soon the marine was in love, but not the young Swede - at least not with this marine. Dollan fell in love with another marine. After a year in Tsingtao Bud left for the USA, not thinking he would see the pretty young daughter of missionaries again. Dollan in the mean time had sailed for Sweden to continue her nurses training. While studying to be a nurse her engagement to her marine was broken off. Bud learned of this and wrote Dollan a letter and she responded. After some months and many letters he asked her to marry him. She accepted. Dollan sailed to America in 1948 and married Bud in the small town of Wheaton, west of Chicago. She now went by ger give name, Doris. They moved into Bud's family home in Chicago on Church Street. By 1949 Dollan was pregnant. Hedvig Rinell 1950 Chicago, IllinoisLennart John Holmquist was born in Chicago in July of 1950. As a young Swedish 'pojke' Lennart, who was called 'Lennie', remembered little to nothing of his life on Church Street. He was brought to church, a Swedish-American church, on Sunday mornings, and to church functions. At home his father spoke to him in English and his mother spoke to him in Swedish. The Swedish ended though when two young women in church, thinking themselves wise, told Dollan that she stop speaking to Lennie in Swedish or he would have trouble in school later. Young herself, a foreigner in a foreign land, and vulnerable to the opinions of others whose life experiences though did not go much further than the suburbs of Chicago, she listened to their advice forgetting she had grown up speaking Chinese and Swedish, picking up English along the way, and had no trouble in school. Swedish ceased to be spoken in the Swedish-American household. She could not cease being a Swede, however, and neither could Lennie actually. They lived in his dad's father's house on Church Street on the south side of Chicago. About 1952 Lennie's great-grandmother, Hedvig Rinell, a missionary and an 1894 immigrant to China, visited America from Sweden. It was maybe the once and only time she and Lennie could have their picture taken together. And so it was. 1951-52 ColoradoFrom 1951 to 1952 Lennie and his parents moved, living in a basement apartment in Englewood near Denver, Colorado. Lennie's father was attending a Baptist seminary. Bud and Doris invited guests over to the house one day. In preparation for the 'get-together'. Doris made a thirteen-egg angel food cake. When his mom was not looking little Lennie grabbed a chunk out of the cake and shoved it into his mouth. Doris used chocolate frosting to fill in the hole when she iced the cake. When Easter came around they did not have enough money for food. The manager of the Christian Service Center found out about this and brought over a turkey, and all the trimmings. One day little Lennie was missing from the house. He had walked out the door and continued on down the sidewalk. Bud took after him, but quickly returned and said to Doris, "You get him. He doesn't have a stitch of clothing on him." 1952 - 55 MinnesotaHellen
Rinell in America: Minneapolis Minnesota, circa 1953 Hamm's Beer Commercial circa 1950 Lennie's father had changed schools. Now he was attending Bethel Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. The family lived at reduced rent in the home of an old fellow by the name of Mr. Graber. Mr. Graber was bed-ridden, and Lennie's mom helped care for him. Lennie's mom asked Lennie to bring up a tray with on which which was a cup of tea, and perhaps a cookie or two. The tray was heavy and th flight of stairs long and steep for his little legs. He struggle to keep it level, it tipped to the right, but he made it to the top and walked it in Mr. Graber's bedroom. Mr. Graber was sitting up in bed, an old man with a big white fluffy beard. Lennie was a bit scrarred of him for no other reason probably than he looked different than most with his big fluffy white beard. Mr. Graber thanked Lennie, and Lennie left the room, glad that ordeal was over. Here Lennie recorded in his mind some of his first memories including scary Minnehaha Falls, his green and red space ray gun, cowboy boots, a blue and white inflatable pony, and his little sister, Meimei. Lennie's dad took color movies during Christmas in the living room. Lennie's mom was expecting a baby. She felt more comfortable having the baby under the care of her previous doctor, Dr. Walker, in Chicago, so they drove down to Lennie's grandfather John T. Holmquist's house on the south side of Chicago and stayed again with him until the baby was delivered and for some time afterward. They loaded up their car again and headed for Chicago. The trip went without incident and they arrived at Aunt Almeda's home where they stayed for some weeks. Meilynn was born at the hospital on May 28, 1952. Having four other people in her home, and two of them being babies was too much for Aunt Almeda. Hope Rodberg from church arranged for the family to move in with a generous couple from church, Ruth Anderson and her husband. Ruth became Doris' American mom. They then drove back up to their home on Keewaydin Place. Lennie's grandmother, Hellen Rinell, came for a visit. She was passing through the U.S.A. to or from Sweden. This may have been the time that she and Oscar moved to Korea for a few years, caring for orphans. Hellen
Rinell in America: Minneapolis Minnesota, circa 1953 During this time Bud, Doris, Lennie and now little Meilynn made a surprise visit to Chicago to attend the marriage of Rusty, Bud's brother, to his second wife. Afterward, Elaine drove them back (don't know if Elaine drove all of the them back at this time - may have been just Doris and Meilynn) in her new Chevy which she had paid cash for with her inheritance. While driving back they encountered a tornado. They found a hotel made of brick and stayed for the night. The next day they saw telephone poles leaning over, barns blown down and airplanes from a local airport strewn about as a child would leave toy airplanes on their bedrooom floor. On Wednesday, April 8, 1953 Lennie's mom became a U.S. citizen in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Certificate of Naturalization: Doris Hellen Holmquist Bud finished his degree at Bethel Seminary. They decided to move to California. They packed up their green '46 Plymouth, and hitched a small red open trailer that Bud's father had made from the axel and wheels of an older car, to the round ball hitch on the the back bumper of the Plymouth. The trailer was piled high with household items and Bud's many books. The back seat of the car was stuffed too except for a tiny cubicle in which Lennie 'holed up'. Meimei sat between her dad and mom in the front seat. And, Doris was four or five months pregnant. Stopping by the American Automobile Association (AAA) office they asked for directions. The agent gave them a route that brought them across Nevada and to Donner Pass, difficult, high in altitude and a bit scary route during the 1950s. Many decades earlier the 'Donner Party' making their way to Califonria strande in the Donner Pass during the winter in heavy snows. Running out of food, some ate thier fellow travelers to keep alive. The trip from Minnesota to California took several days. After making the ascent and descent from Donner Pass they continued south down much of the length of California to the town of Reseda in the San Fernando Valley about an hour drive from downtown Los Angeles. Ranches and citrus groves exited in the San Fernando Valley at thist time, but were gradually disappearing under tract housing, strip malls, concrete and assphalt. 1955 CaliforniaDuplex Arriving in California they had no place to go. Bud went to the very small First Baptist Church of Reseda and asked where they might rent an apartment. He was directed to a small duplex across the street from the church. It was a small faded blue, adobe looking plaster building with a plowed field behind. They had the apartment on the left as you look at the duplex. It had one bedroom, and a small living room and a tiny kitchen. After their long trip from Minnesota, purchasing gas, and food along the way, and paying rent for the apartment they had little money left. They put up a notice on the church's bulletin board giving a list of all their needs such as furniture and kitchen utensils, pots and pans. In a short time members of the little Baptist church donated nearly everything they needed. They lived in this little duplex for several months. While living in their small apartment Doris' father, Oscar visited. He was returning to Sweden after working with the United Nation forces in Korea where he was a Mandarin Chinese and English translator. He arrived by bus, probably Greyhound, and they picked him up in the town of Tarzana near Los Angeles. He was wearing his UN officer's uniform. Kids who saw him thought he was a general in the US military. Actually, he was a captain with the UN. Not having a spare room for him to use they borrowed a small fold out bed and he slept in the small kitchen. That summer was hot. Lennie remembers a water pistol and water hose war with neighborhood kids. He had no water pistol, but another kid loaned him one, a very small black squirt gun, which need refilling only after five or six shots. By the end of the war he was drenched to the bone, but had one of the best times in his young life up to then. They lived first in Reseda (1954-55?) and then Granada Hills where at five years old Lennie was put into the local Baptist kindergarten. Bud joined the navy as a chaplain. Bud still wanted to get into the ministry, but he needed to find work first to support his young family. Someone told him about Bendix Aviation which was not too far from their new home in Reseda. Bud applied and got a job as a tool and die maker, a job which again he did not enjoy, but for which he could at least make a living. He started work on the following Monday, which was a very good thing. They then moved into a little suburban house in Granada Hills, a community in the San Fernando Valley.[4] 'the Valley' as it was called had not yet been completely absorbed into the urban sprawl of greater Los Angeles, and still contained some citrus orchards and windbreaks of eucalyptus trees. Little Lennie was put into kindergarten at Granada Hills Baptist Church. His opinion about the school was, 'I don't wike it. I dont wanna go.' However, authorities higher than himself thought otherwise. He spent the next two years, kindergarten through first grade, in that little two room school. Beside the two rooms was a small church sanctuary that looked little like a traditional church. First it didn't have a tall steeple and secondly, like the school rooms, it was made of stucco, the building material of choice in California at that time, and the building material of choice for decades more. And, if he remembers correctly the church was green. The classroom floors were of linoleum. The desks of wood and metal tubing stood in rows and columns facing the teacher, and the long rectangular black board. A large square bulletin board hung to the right of the blackboard. Above the blackboard was the alphabet in small and big letters scrolled out on a long 8 inch high piece of cardboard-like material stretching from one wall to the other. Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz An American flag about three feet long and attached to a black stick stuck out on about a 45 degree angle from the wall right above the bulletin board. Lennie and the other children talked to the flag every morning after putting their right hands over their hearts. I pedge eagence to the flag of the u-nie-did states of merica, and to the public for which it stands, one nation, under god, invisible wid liberty an justise for all. The exit door was to the right, a bank of windows made up much of the wall to the left letting in an invasion of California sunlight. The scent of eucalyptus and orange blossom wafted upon the occasional breeze entering the glass and metal-framed windows. Heavy gray rubberized canvas curtains hung from ceiling to floor gathered in columns to the right and left of the windows. Crash of DC-7B On a Thursday (January 31, 1957) after school Lennie's dad came home from work. "There's been a plane crash nearby, let's go see it." Following a mid-air collision, a passenger plane with four crewmen crashed. They got into the faded green Plymouth and drove about ten or fifteen minutes to Pacoima, a neighboring town of Granada Hills. On January 31, 1957, a Douglas DC-7B operated by Douglas Aircraft Company was involved in a mid-air collision and crashed into the schoolyard of Pacoima Middle School, then named Pacoima Junior High School. By February 1, seven people had died, and about 75 had been injured due to the incident. (Wikipedia) From what Lennie remembers the school yard was filled with debris, and people were milling about. Lights flashed on emergency vehicles. A piece of the plane landed on the side of the road. Either Lennie's dad suggested or Lennie suggested he retrieve it. Lennie hopped out of the car and grabbed the jagged metal fragment, about seven inches long and five inches wide at the widest part. One side had rounded rivets, and a smooth area. One the other side the metal was partly hidden by insulation. Len hopped back in the Plymouth, and the drove off. Lennie put the fragment under some linen in the linen hall closet. He took it out to look at it now and then. Eventually the fragment was lost, probably during one of the family's many moves. This event was probably Lennie's full realization that life can be tragic and unpredictable. Bud had began work at Bendix on August 12, 1954. He eventually worked a number of jobs at Bendix including that of a lathe operator, which was his first job at Bendix. Lennie's brother, Carey, joined the family on January 30, 1955. Bud really wanted to get into Christian work and considered that the navy could be a good place to do it. Doris liked the navy and ships, and that fact too influenced him to get into that branch of the armed forces. He felt the Lord was leading him into navy. Bud went into recruiting office in North Hollywood, and was interviewed by a navy admiral chaplain at a navy base in San Diego. They hit it off well and Bud thought he probably got a good recommendation from the admiral because things went well afterward. He worked at Bendix until March 29, 1957 at which time he left for military service in the U.S. Navy. 1957San Diego, California Bud was to report to the Naval Training Center (NTC) in San Diego. He first went home on leave because he and Doris had to find housing. They heard about a house available in the naval housing area. They took it without even looking at it. Naval housing was sparse, but adequate. They had little furniture of their own to move in. They bought their food and other necessities at the base commissary and post exchange (PX). Lennie attended a navy dependent school, but did not remember any of his time there later in life. Lennie played down in the gully nearby and look at what appeared to be the remains of an old ranch with wood posts dug into the dry hard clay soil and barbed wire stretching between the posts. An old rusty tin can, nailed to one of the posts, was full of bullet holes. He thought that cowboys used to live in the area. Neighbor kids each brought pieces of cardboard boxes to the edge of the gully, sat on the boxes and slide down to the gully's bottom. Lennie often did this until someone threw a jar into the gully, that broke upon impact. In the jar contained the two preserved snakes. Lennie was scared of snakes, alive or dead, and didn't slide to the bottom of the gully on cardboard again. His fear of snakes probably came from his mom who had was extremely fearful of the animal. The family sometimes went to the beach at Mission Bay, a new man-made salt water bay. Lennie, with his brother and sister played on the sand and waded into the water. Len didn't know how to swim, but this didn't matter it seemed because the water was always calm and the waves in the land-protected bay were about six inches high. Len waded further out into the water feeling the gentle sandy slope beneath his feet. He was about chest high when he took another step. No sand was beneath his feet - just water. He sank under the water but held his breath. He came to the surface again and he struggled not to go under, but couldn't manage to stay on the surface. He sucked in a quick breath of air and went under again. He could feel, sea weed brush his feet. He came to the surface again and grabbed another breath of air and went under. While he struggled Lennie felt someone grab him. On the shore was a friend of the family, Otis Howard Payne, a minister, who had come with the family that day to the beach. Otis dove into the water and pulled Lennie to shore. Lennie was saved by a preacher. Lennie was scared and had a hard time thinking. He was traumatized. He spent the rest of the time working on a sand castle, pretending that everything was OK, but he didn't feel that way. The navy had many activities. Probably because of Len's near drowning, the kids took swimming classes at the base pool. Lennie was afraid of the water at first, but instructors who were probably sailors, were good helping the kids become accustomed to the water and swimming. Doris and Bud attended official functions - one had to go really both for the sake of courtesy and to help ensure Bud's advancement in the navy. They met nice people. The 4th of July celebrations were hard to believe - a lot of food, fireworks, entertainment, and games for kids. This was all free, paid for by the PX profits. The navy was turning out to be a good experience. His parents soon bought a cute yellow and white house in Cabrillo Heights on Providence Road , and Lennie attended a school down the block. Doris grew flowers. Bud spoke every Sunday before the recruits which numbered 2,000 to 3,000. Garden Grove, Orange County, CaliforniaBud received good fitness reports from San Diego. He requested destroyer duty and was transferred to Long Beach to join Destroyer Squadron 13. He was one of two chaplains on eight destroyers, two divisions of four destroyers each. One of these destroyers was the new USS Turner Joy. His good friend Chaplain Huffman got orders for the destroyer tender Bryce Canyon. Bud and Doris sold their home and the family moved to 8851 Imperial in Garden Grove in Orange County, California. A middle class suburban neighborhood of tract housing each house had its own small piece of land with a front and back lawn small enough to cut with a push lawn mower in about a half hour. The house plans were cookie cutter with about every sixth house or so looking nearly identical the house six houses away. USS Turner Joy Garden Grove had once been outside of greater Los Angeles and consisted of groves of trees as its name implied -possibly oranges - and ranches, and some of these still existed in 1958 and 1959. On the other side of the Holmquist family's pale pink cement block backyard wall was a field ringed by a barbed wire fence. Three strands of parallel barbed wire tacked to vertical wood posts. In the yellow dry field was a bull. Lennie and Meilynn (Meimei) dared each other to climb down from the cement block, and over or through the strands of barbed wired into the bull's pasture. The bull incensed by such a trespass came to chase them out. Lennie and Meilynn climbed back over the barbed wire before the bull got too close. Other times they simply sit on the cement block wall and irritated the bull. Beige grasshoppers startled by the rantings of the bull flew away over the straw-yellowed grass and sun-dried bull piles. About three blocks away was Sunnyside Elementary School, a typical California school of flat-roofed stucco buildings with a minimum of aesthetics and a maximum of utility. Lennie and Meimei went to school here. It was possibly at this school that Lennie had one of his favorite teacher's, the elderly Mrs. Wood. And it may have been at this time that Lennie's class was given the homework assignment of writing about their family background. Lennie asked his Mom about this, and she told him of her family's time in China. His mother helped Lennie write up the report. The report was instant success with Lennie's teacher. She mentioned it in the front of the classroom. Lennie was glad to have the attention, and to be considered special in some way, but he also was not happy. Being very shy he didn't like being the focus on any attention. Len still has the report (2020) his and the reports of his fellow classmates, fastened together in some way to form a simple book. They also were to finger paint the cover. Lennie's cover was orange. Somehow Mr and Mrs Wood got to know Lennie's parents. Perhaps it was because of the report, and a teacher-parent meeting. The Woods came over to the Lennie's house at least once. Lennie's parents were selling a four panel Chinese screen, about six feet high, dyed or painted in a dark lacquer. Chinese artists had painted Chinese scenes and embedded various colored carved stones to form human figures. Lennie was a bit sad the screen was sold, but the family probably needed the money. Down the street was a dry, dusty polo field ringed by eucalyptus trees. On an occasional weekend polo players in their bright uniforms and astride their mounts batted a ball back and forth across the dry grassless field. Clouds of dust drifted between the trees. Mallet hit ball with a clack. Lennie's dad was at sea several months of the year. When the ships were in port, Lennie's dad held religious services on one of the destroyers on Sunday morning. He often took Lennie with him. Lennie walked up the steep the gangplank of a ship and down through the hatches to the ship's mess (cafeteria). The Huffman family lived just about six house down the street. Bud and Chaplain Huffman, whose denomination was Nazarene, often drove together to Terminal Island. Bud thought his friend was a great guy, and they got along well together. Onboard Ship Being a chaplain on destroyers was hard work. Sometimes Bud could hold only one service if destroyers were tied up together at the docks, but this was rare. Usually Bud had to go to several ships at various locations to hold Sunday services though sometimes some destroyers were out to sea. Upon going aboard a destroyer and making his way down to the mess deck where the Sunday services were normally held, Bud needed to set up up for the service. Often Lennie went along to help out if the destroyers were not at sea. First Bud or Lennie laid out the alter cloth on one of the metal dining room tables, take out the heavy brass cross and brass candlesticks from their case and place them on the alter cloth. Since this was a protestant service the figure of Jesus hanging on the cross was faced toward the wall, and the Christ-less side of the cross turned toward the congregation of sailors. Bud placed a tract rack on a table, leaned against a metal post or hung on the the gray metal wall if there was something to hang it on. Printed on the tracts were 'testimonies' of Christian athletes, politicians and other notables or short writings on leading a Christian life or how to becoming a Christian, the latter of which Bud himself had written, and which was published by Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. Lennie had his chores. One was to keep the track rack neat and the tract slots filled with tracts. His father asked Lennie to read all the tracks and write up a report on each track so that his father could know which tracks were the best ones. Lennie made some extra money this way. He did this over several weeks due to the number of tracts and because Lennie was not a good reader. It dawned on Lennie either then or later that this was a ruse by his father for him to read all the tracts, so as to influence Len toward becoming a Christian if he wasn't one already or becoming a better Christian if he was. To Lennie the paid job was boring. A few times sailors 'adopted' Lennie for a half hour or so and gave him goodies to eat. Ice cream was his favorite. Sailors dressed in working blue came to the services, but rarely officers. Sometimes only two or three or four sailors showed up. Normally for music Bud turned on a reel-to-reel tape player providing appropriate music and supplemented the often meager turnout. The sailors sang along with the tape with song books. Bud had several varieties of these tapes with a range of hymns. More sailors came to the service if it was a special day such as Easter Sunday in which the mess hall could be nearly filled with sailors. On these special occasions, the whole family went on board the ship. The galley served good meals on the holidays. Some Sundays Doris might come to play the portable pump organ. Sometimes the service was held on the gray metal deck with metal folding chairs placed in rows. On these Sundays many sailors and officers attended the service, with officers in dressed whites. The time was often hot under the California sun with the gray metal decks soaking up the heat. Lennie sweated and squinted and hoped the service would not last long. Lennie's dad wanted to to something different, and requested an assignment on Taiwan, a large island near the China coast. He requested Taiwan because he always wanted to be a missionary to China. A commanding officer Bud knew pulled strings and got him assigned there.
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