When I was 16 years old, I began an apprenticeship at the dairy in Vråby (May 1, 1925), where for the first six months I made boxes for powdered milk and weighed out milk for Copenhagen deliveries, and helped with the washing up when the cream separation was finished.
The next six months I weighed out skimmed milk, and from May 1, 1926, to May 1, 1927, I worked as a stoker.
I will never forget the first day. We started at 5 o’clock and did not finish until 8:30 PM, and then I was ready to go straight to bed.
It was a Saturday and a time when there was a great deal of milk to process, but as I gradually got into the routine, it became easier.
Now that I had come out among strangers, I soon learned to drink a beer and a glass of wine. The winters were usually spent doing gymnastics in the assembly hall, where I also learned to play chess.
When the skin had been eaten away from my fingers, it was very painful to knead cheese and wash equipment in lime and soda.
On October 1, 1927, I then got a position with V. ?. Nielsen in Skodsbjerg, and on May 1, 1928, I came to “Rosenbækgården” in Herfølge, which at that time was a place where one could learn a great deal, and where I had a good summer.