Document text
4
Erik Christian Jensen
STATE
NAME OF WRKER
ADDRESS
DATE OF INTERVIEW
SUBJECT
NA EE OF INFORMANT
ADDRESS
MASSACHUSETTS
EMILY B. MOORE
84 ELM STREET, MRCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS
LIVING LORE
ERIK CHRISTIAN JENSEN
WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS
Erik Christian Jensen was born in Denmark
in 1870 and came to Worcester when he was twenty-
three years old. He is a tall, old man, stooped
and misshapen, with a thatch of pale yellow hair,
deep blue eyes, a booming voice and a kindly
courteous manner. A boyhood accident injured
his back so that his life was long despaired of,
but Erik, as he will tell you with a twinkle,
came from a family "who die old", and not even
a bad back was going to deter this determined
young man. Today, "Old Erik" is hale and healthy.
He moves with the deftness of a man years younger,
his hands are quick and sure. Only his bent body
and extremely long arms are reminders of the long
ago injury.
The Jensens, father, mother and two daughters,
have lived for many years in a comfortable little
home set high on a hill on Grove Street near the
outskirts of the city. It is a trim tidy little
home, well -painted with bright flower gardens and
a strip of green lawn, Mr. Jensen's pride and joy.
Mr. Jensen has worked in the wire mill ever
since he came to Worcester, forty-six years ago.
He appears to be a much valued worker. It has
been suggestea by those who profecs to know,
-2
Erik Christian Jensen
STATE MASSACHUSETTS
NAME OF WORKER EMILY B. MOORE
ADDRESS 84 ELM STREET, WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS
DATE OF INTERVIEW
SUBJECT LIVING LORE
NAME OF INFORMANT ERIK CHRISTIAN JENSEN
ADDRESS LORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS
that at one time, Mr. Jensen worked out a method
of tin plating which proved to be of such value
to the company, that they were able to make great
improvements in their products. If this is true,
Mr. Jensen does not seen aware of it. He tells
of his work simply, with pride in a job well done,
but makes no reference to having materially aided
the "company."
Very early in his life in Worcester, Erik
found it necessary to turn to a "side line" when
the wire mill was "low." Naturally deft with tools
and machinery, he began repairing bicycles. Business
boomed, for it was the age of the "League of American
Wheelmen," of tandems and "bicycles built for two."
In the past few decades, the bicycle industry was
mainly confined to youngsters, but with the new vogue
of recent years, "Old Erik" does a steady business.
The little bicycle shop, neat and scrupulously
clean, is in the cellar of his house. It is really
the first floor for on one side, the hill has been
cut away to allow Hr. Jensen roam enough for an
entrance to his shop.
Mr. Jensen speaks English fairly well if he
thinks about it. But when he becomes excited or
strives to explain a point about which he is none
too certain, his voice becomes blurred and thick
and his words come out helter-skelter, crowding and
pushing one another. It is with the children who
come in with broken "bikes" of all makes and stages
of repair, that Mr. Jensen appears most at ease.
A broad smile, twinkling blue eyes and a quick
hearty laugh form a language universally understood.