{"id":14829,"date":"2021-11-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-04T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hafnarfjordur.is\/arid-er-1950-afmaelisveisla-fyrir-sjotuga-hafnfirdinga\/"},"modified":"2022-09-26T15:18:36","modified_gmt":"2022-09-26T15:18:36","slug":"arid-is-a-1950-birthday-party-for-a-sixty-year-old-from-hafnarfjordur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hafnarfjordur.is\/en\/arid-er-1950-afmaelisveisla-fyrir-sjotuga-hafnfirdinga\/","title":{"rendered":"The year is 1950 \u2013 a birthday party for seventy-year-olds from Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur."},"content":{"rendered":"

A tradition has developed whereby the Mayor of Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur invites all residents who turn 70 during the year to a reception at H\u00e1s\u00f6lum. It was not possible to hold a reception in 2020 due to the pandemic, and finally yesterday the celebration was held at H\u00e1s\u00f6lum.\u00a0 Around 100 cheerful residents of Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur gathered to listen to gentle music and the group was given a presentation on Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur's services for senior citizens<\/a>, a varied social life at Association of Senior Citizens in Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur<\/a> as well as listening to interesting and entertaining stories from the year of birth 1950 from the town's archivist.<\/p>\n

More photos from the birthday can be found on Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur's Facebook page <\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMG_0371\"<\/p>\n

Stories from the year of birth 1950<\/h4>\n

The year 1950 was, of course, remarkable for various reasons, like most other years. In world history, the biggest events were the outbreak of the Korean War and Harry Truman's declaration of support for the development of the hydrogen bomb, despite Einstein's warnings. Following a national referendum, the monarchy was restored in Belgium, India became a federal republic, and the Chinese invaded Tibet. Famous people born this year include Bill Murray, Stevie Wonder, Karen Carpenter and Agnetha F\u00e4ltskog. <\/p>\n

In Iceland, the following was of most note\u2026.  <\/h4>\n

Locally in Iceland, the main news was that the Iceland Symphony Orchestra held its first concert, the government of Steingr\u00edmur Steinarr took power, and the National Theatre was inaugurated, Hei\u00f0m\u00f6rk was made a nature reserve, the aircraft Geysir crashed on B\u00e1r\u00f0arbunga, and after the kr\u00f3na's exchange rate had been kept more or less fixed for two decades, it was devalued by no less than 43%, and import restrictions were also eased.<\/p>\n

In Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur, the following were the main news items\u2026.  <\/h4>\n

Here in Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur, various things were happening, as one might expect. The population passed 5,000 for the first time, and the town grew rapidly during this period. At the start of the year, popular films were shown in the town's cinemas. At the Town Cinema, an American musical comedy called \u201eThe Irish Rose\u201c was shown, and advertisements noted that this film was in natural colours. At the Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur Cinema, the epic film \u201eThe Sign of the Cross\u201c was showing at the same time, advertised as a magnificent film from Rome in the days of Nero. <\/p>\n

Among the new businesses in the town, on 3 January the Fr\u00ed\u00f0a Laundrette opened on L\u00e6kjargata. It offered a home collection and delivery service, and customers could choose whether their laundry was returned damp or fully finished. Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur was still, at this time, a major fishing town, and during the 1950 winter fishing season, 20 boats were sent out from the town. Regarding the development of industry, it should also be mentioned that this year the company Ol\u00eduf\u00e9lagi\u00f0 hf. was allocated a large plot of land south of the harbour to build a large oil storage facility there.<\/p>\n

At the end of January 1950, a severe storm struck the southwest, a gale from the southwest with strong winds and rain. The harbour walls did not protect the harbour from that direction, and a great deal of damage was caused. A large part of the harbour's boat fleet was moored to the quays and some were dragged away and broken, but thanks to the great vigilance of the skippers, it was possible to save a great deal of valuable property and prevent further damage. The damage still amounted to tens of thousands. Another storm hit the southwest corner in early March, and the outcome was not as good, as most of the boats were at sea when it struck. The motorboat \u201eJ\u00f3n Magn\u00fasson\u201c from Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur was lost; it was a 60-tonne oak boat operated by the Framt\u00ed\u00f0in partnership. All hands on board were lost: four from Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur, one from \u00cdsafj\u00f6r\u00f0ur and one from Bolv\u00edk.<\/p>\n

Municipal elections were held in the town in the spring of 1950, and three parties were standing: the Independence Party, the Labour Party and the Socialists. Although politics today can be harsh and pointed, it is child's play in comparison to what went on in the 1950 election campaign. It involved talk of underhand journalism, vile insinuations, lies, mob rule, Stalin's lackeys, and so on. The People's Party had been in power in the town for the past few years and, in their view, were doing quite well. The main election issues concerned the development and expansion of the B\u00e6jar\u00fatger\u00f0in, the harbour's development, Kr\u00fdsuv\u00edk, and housing issues. The Independence Party framed the campaign as a choice between Kr\u00fdsuv\u00edk and the Labour Party, or the harbour and the Independence Party. The election results were that the People's Party held on with five men elected, the Independence Party got three and the Socialists one. The Independence Party supporters, however, pointed out that they had increased their support far more than the Social Democrats since the last municipal election.<\/p>\n

One of the most remarkable pieces of equipment to be purchased for the town that year, and which received considerable media coverage, was a 14-tonne bulldozer with a mechanical shovel. Initially, it was primarily used for the water supply, but it could also be used to dig foundations for houses, load road material onto lorries, push up new roads, and clear snowdrifts from the town's roads. Wherever this excavator was at work, a considerable crowd of onlookers would invariably gather to watch, as it was considered so remarkable. In the middle of summer, another innovation was introduced, a new invention by the Municipal Works: a saltfish washing machine that had been designed and built by Haraldur Kristj\u00e1nsson, the fire chief. This washing machine could process about 2,000 fish per hour. For comparison, it is worth mentioning that the machine's round-the-clock output was comparable to five days' work for 20\u201325 girls. Only once before had a machine for washing fish been tried in this country, but it was foreign and proved to be of little use.<\/p>\n

An unemployment registration took place in the town in February, which revealed that 39 individuals were unemployed in Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur, of whom 11 were drivers, 5 were seafarers, 17 were youths and 6 were labourers. The origin of the youth work, or work school, can be traced to this year, as \u00d3skar J\u00f3nsson proposed at a town council meeting that preparations be made to run a municipal children's and youth work programme in gardening and vegetable growing on the town's land. He considered it necessary to provide teenagers who were unable to leave the town for summer work with sufficient projects suitable for them.<\/p>\n

The town experienced a water shortage in 1950, and some parts of the town only had water for part of the day. The reason for this was that there was not enough pressure in the water supply for the areas situated higher up in the town, and this was addressed by installing a pump to increase the pressure. However, the pump subsequently broke down, which greatly delayed a resolution to the problem. A great deal of work was put into laying the new water supply to the town over the summer, and by autumn, more than two-thirds of the pipeline had been laid from the top of Kald\u00e1rbotnar, including the most difficult section. The autumn was then used to concrete the dam at the water source itself.<\/p>\n

The Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur Brass Band was founded in early 1928 by a few enthusiasts in the town, and its main purpose was to enhance the town's musical life. Initially the band consisted of 16 musicians, who were guided by Albert Klahn. Fri\u00f0\u00fej\u00f3fur Sigur\u00f0sson was the band's chairman. There had not been a brass band in the town since 1928, and since then the Svanur brass band from Reykjav\u00edk had played for the people of Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur on various occasions, having received support from the municipal council. The town's Good Templars hosted an event in the spring that made the media. The Morgunbla\u00f0i\u00f0 newspaper reported: \u201eLast Saturday evening the Good Templar lodges in Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur held a most novel entertainment, the so-called \u00deorrabl\u00f3t. A long table down the middle of the hall in G\u00fatt\u00f3 was laden with provisions: flatbread and flounder, hangikj\u00f6t in large wooden troughs, and Icelandic butter to cut through the richness of the fatty meat.\u201c<\/p>\n

This year, a bust of Bjarni S\u00edvertsen, the 'Father of Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur', was unveiled in Hellisger\u00f0i. The bust was donated to Hellisger\u00f0i by the shipping companies V\u00edfill and Hrafnafl\u00f3ki. The monument was made by R\u00edkhar\u00f0ur J\u00f3nsson and was the first monument to be erected in Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur. The plinth beneath the statue is built from sea-stones that were brought from Selvogur, where Bjarni was from.<\/p>\n

There had been some instances of fires breaking out in the town's electrical fuse boxes, which was mainly caused by plugs or fuses not being used correctly, with people often driving nails into them instead. The Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur Power Company responded to this by also selling fuses at the town's garages, which generally had an open counter until midnight, much later than the Power Company. Then, for various reasons, the telephone tariff was changed this year. The permitted maximum number of local calls per quarter was reduced from 850 to 800, but in return, long-distance calls, i.e. calls between Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur and Reykjav\u00edk, became cheaper, Each such call was classified as three local calls, whereas it had previously been classified as four.<\/p>\n

To finance the harbour works, the Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur town council decided to offer bonds to the town's residents. This was a 10-year bond loan amounting to 500,000 kr\u00f3na, in denominations of 5,000, 1,000, 500 and 100 kr\u00f3na, with an interest rate of 6.1% per annum and a government guarantee. In the advertisement, the town's residents were encouraged to buy the bonds, thereby accelerating the construction of the harbour breakwater and at the same time earning a higher rate of interest than was generally available.<\/p>\n

One of the biggest projects in Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur this year, apart from the water supply and harbour works, was the construction of the new care home, S\u00f3lvangur. It was one of the largest buildings in the town, and the project was half-funded by the profits from the operation of the B\u00e6jarb\u00ed\u00f3 cinema, with the remainder coming from the municipal budget.<\/p>\n

As Christmas approached, the Christmas books suitable for the Christmas presents of children from Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur were advertised: 'Sigr\u00fan at Sunnuhvoll' and 'Eir\u00edkur Becomes an Athlete'. These were books that were very popular that Christmas. There were three Christmas films in the cinemas: the children's film Gosi at Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur Cinema, which was advertised as being both beautiful and entertaining. They also showed the lively and hilarious American comedy *The St. Trinian's Society*, while at the B\u00e6jarb\u00ed\u00f3 they screened an impressive and substantial new American epic called *Mrs. Mike*. The year ended, as in so many other years in Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur, with a Christmas tree party at the Good Templars' Hall.<\/p>\n

Sources<\/h4>\n<\/p>\n
    \n
  • Al\u00fe\u00fd\u00f0ubla\u00f0i\u00f0, 3 January 1950, p. 7 <\/li>\n
  • T\u00edminn, 15 January 1950, p. 8<\/li>\n
  • Al\u00fe\u00fd\u00f0ubla\u00f0 Hafnarfjar\u00f0ar, 21 January 1950, p. 4<\/li>\n
  • The Morning Newspaper, 24 January 1950, p. 11<\/li>\n
  • T\u00edminn, 07.03.1950, p. 1<\/li>\n
  • Hamar, 20 January 1950, p. 1<\/li>\n
  • Al\u00fe\u00fd\u00f0ubla\u00f0i\u00f0, 31 January 1950, p. 1<\/li>\n
  • Hamar, 10 February 1950, p. 1<\/li>\n
  • Al\u00fe\u00fd\u00f0ubla\u00f0 Hafnarfjar\u00f0ar, 27 January 1950, p. 2<\/li>\n
  • Hamar, 16 June 1950. P. 4<\/li>\n
  • V\u00edsir, 08.02.1950, p. 1<\/li>\n
  • T\u00edminn, 10 March 1950, p. 8<\/li>\n
  • Hamar, 10 February 1950, p. 2<\/li>\n
  • Al\u00fe\u00fd\u00f0ubla\u00f0i\u00f0, 26 August 1950, p. 5<\/li>\n
  • The Morning Newspaper, 15 February 1950, p. 12<\/li>\n
  • Al\u00fe\u00fd\u00f0ubla\u00f0i\u00f0, 15 February 1950, p. 8<\/li>\n
  • The Morning Newspaper, 21 February 1950, p. 12<\/li>\n
  • Al\u00fe\u00fd\u00f0ubla\u00f0 Hafnarfjar\u00f0ar, 16 September 1950, p. 4<\/li>\n
  • Al\u00fe\u00fd\u00f0ubla\u00f0 Hafnarfjar\u00f0ar, 18 February 1950, p. 3<\/li>\n
  • Al\u00fe\u00fd\u00f0ubla\u00f0i\u00f0, 30 April 1950, p. 12<\/li>\n
  • The People's Will, 13 April 1950, p. 7<\/li>\n
  • Al\u00fe\u00fd\u00f0ubla\u00f0i\u00f0, 26 August 1950, p. 5<\/li>\n
  • Al\u00fe\u00fd\u00f0ubla\u00f0i\u00f0, 24 December 1950, p. 2<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Hef\u00f0 hefur skapast fyrir \u00fev\u00ed a\u00f0 b\u00e6jarstj\u00f3ri Hafnarfjar\u00f0ar bj\u00f3\u00f0i \u00f6llum \u00feeim Hafnfir\u00f0ingum sem eru 70 \u00e1ra \u00e1 \u00e1rinu til veislu \u00ed H\u00e1s\u00f6lum. Ekki reyndist unnt a\u00f0 halda veislu \u00e1 \u00e1rinu 2020 vegna heimsfaraldurs og loksins \u00ed g\u00e6r var h\u00e1t\u00ed\u00f0in haldin \u00ed H\u00e1s\u00f6lum.  R\u00e9tt um 100 k\u00e1tir Hafnfir\u00f0ingar komu saman hl\u00fdddu \u00e1 lj\u00fafa t\u00f3na og f\u00e9kk […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18805,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_breakdance_hide_in_design_set":false,"_breakdance_tags":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-frettir"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hafnarfjordur.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hafnarfjordur.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hafnarfjordur.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hafnarfjordur.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hafnarfjordur.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hafnarfjordur.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hafnarfjordur.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hafnarfjordur.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hafnarfjordur.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hafnarfjordur.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14829"}],"curies":[{"name":"WordPress","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}