The young years 1957 - 1963

Stenhus Kostskole (Boarding School)

In 1957 my parent realized that I needed proper schooling and I consequently passed the entry requirements to Stenhus Kostskole near Holbæk in Denmark.

Having left Denmark after 5^th grade I was graded into 2^nd Mellem (intermediate) class and it proved easy for me to follow school. One big advantage by Stenhus was that younger pupils were two in sharing their own room and older pupils had their own room. I managed (I think) to have quite a decent room.

We were quite a good bunch of boys (no girls allowed!) and really learned to survive. Apart from studying sports was the only acceptable occupation. Soon I was confirmed and thus considered a grown up (or at least I felt so)

The students from Stenhus were good athletes and I soon joined the Handball- (goal keeper), the Soccer- (defensive left back) and the track- and field team (100m and long jump) our team’s 4 x 100 meter relay record still stands to this day! Selected students could be voted into the “VOLO” building which had its own “government” and I was lucky enough to live there the last 3 years of my school. I also was the editor of the school magazine “Prosit” the last 2 years.

In 1961 my mother and my smaller brother returned to Denmark and later we settled in Bandholm where my father build an extension to the silo. As my parents were still moving around I continued my schooling at Stenhus. The next picture is of the Volo team in my last year. In the 2^nd Gymnasium grade we had a school play and I played the father in Arabell’s “Picnic on the battlefield”.

While still at school in 1961 I met Puk and in 1962 we got engaged, it was quite a sensation in the VERY strict and religious school. In late 1962 I passed the entry exams to start pilot training in the Danish Air Force. Puk studied at the “School of Design” in Copenhagen, but came to visit her parents in Holbæk every week-end. One of the reasons I was very fit and slim in my last school years is that I drove on bicycle to her parents farm 4-5 times a week from the school, a distance of 12 km each way (and it was at high speed!)

Finally in 1963 I passed the Danish “Studenter eksamen” (University entry exams/A-levels) and life could start.

Class picture 1963 (the girls are from the girls Stenhus school (not co-located!) Some of us met for a reunion 25 years later!