checkered floor, Naugahyde booths and
a proper old jukebox belting out crackly
Buddy Holly hits. Pulling up a chrome-
rimmed high-top stool, I feel like I’m guest-
starring in an episode of
Happy Days
.
The question I have to ask myself is
why? Why is a Scandinavian country
with a population of around nine million
so obsessed with the half-a-century-old
culture of a country 7,000km away? How
is it that Sweden has the largest number of
American classic cars in the world – even
more than there are in the United States
itself? Nostalgeek owner Tone Nielsen,
who is a well-known figure on the scene,
offers some answers: “I think it was all due
to life after the Second World War. People
in Sweden had the money to ship cars over
from the States, that’s how it started.”
“I think it goes back to Elvis,” chips in
Niclas Carlsson, a Nostalgeek regular, with
an immaculate quiff and the biggest turn-
ups I’ve ever witnessed on a pair of jeans.
“I think there are just some people who
don’t live in the current era,” adds Tone.
“There’s so much trouble in the world today,
so we live in the ’50s and ’60s. Maybe we
think the world was better back then.”
Back in Falköping, it’s 10.30pm and the
families and children have long gone; the
party has moved to a venue half an hour out
of town. A rockabilly band is playing and
while a lot of alcohol is being consumed,
the atmosphere remains convivial. It’s no
different to what goes on in a thousand
other places across Scandinavia every
Saturday night, but with a lot more quiffs.
A few days later I drive 350km north
east, bypassing Stockholm, to meet with
members of the Uppsala Rebels Car Club,
who have invited me to a low-key Tuesday
night meet. It’s an already-familiar scene
of parked classic cars, a spectrum of age
ranges and a ’50s-tribute band supplying
»
Clockwise from
top left
⁄
Staff at
Nostalgeek get with the
scene; the Säll family:
Denise, Jennie, Stefan
and Daniel (
left to right
);
Niclas Carlsson, a
42-year-old consultant
from Skara: “My mum
and dad were into
rockabilly and the cars –
they just passed it down
to us”
“Some people
think the
hearse is cool,
others think it’s
horrible”
