Outside the childhood home

We are now standing outside Steingata 7, Thor Heyerdahl’s childhood home, and turning the clock back to Tuesday the 6th of October 1914, during the First World War. Inside the house, champagne corks are being popped. Thor Heyerdahl, the manager of Vestfold Brewery and Soft Drinks Factory, has a son. He already has a son and two daughters from a previous marriage, but they live with their mother in Germany. As for most men of the time, it was perhaps an even more joyful event when a male heir was born, especially as the manager is now 45 and his new wife, Alison Lyng is nearly 42 and the chances of further expansion of the family were not the best. A proud father and hopeful mother toast the fortunes of the new arrival. The manager will later say that this was the happiest day of his life. Alison is a positive woman. She has grand plans as she welcomes her youngest son, her eighth child. The joyous occasion at home contrasts with world events this Tuesday in October. The shocking news in August of a world on fire has caused fear and anxiety in the small local community under the beech trees. Many people fear for the future and the markets are down. Manager Heyerdahl is also facing challenges. The period of good years has begun to wane recently. There is a war and a recession and the temperance movement is growing in popularity. Temperance is one of the biggest social movements during this period. A new law on spirits in 1894 opened for voting on local legislation on the sale of alcohol and there have been regular votes on this in Larvik since 1897. The temperance movement won in 1913 and sales points had to close. The town becomes tea total the following year. This might have guaranteed a recovery for beer and soft drinks producers, but politics have long been involved in the case against alcohol and the town’s two breweries are fighting a losing battle. One brewery was located at the site we know today as “Bryggerikvartalet” and the other, of which Heyerdahl’s father was manager, was right behind his own house in Steingata, where you can see the block of flats today. But the manager is courageous and has a cheerful disposition. He is a good businessman and asserted himself in several fields after he arrived in the town in the 1890’s, becoming a strong competitor to the traditional Laurvig’s Beer Brewery. The thought of his former competitor is another reason why the proud father is drinking champagne with a good conscious today. Heyerdahl developed a warm relationship with the manager of the competition, the seven-year younger Christian Christiansen and just three weeks before the birth, the two breweries had decided to work together to meet future challenges with a new brewery. Larvik Bryggerier AS was launched on the 17th of September. By the autumn of 1914, there were still uncertainties as to whether the merger would have a positive outcome for the champions of beverages in the town, but everything points to a bright future for the new arrival.