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| Kathleen, Elsie, Ron |
Being Poor and Being Finn: Social activities and serious thoughts about being poor and being Finn
Written by Elsie Koski Waterman
Saturday afternoons were often spent at "Victor's Hill" sledding and skiing. Once in awhile, we would shovel off an area of a pond where we learned how to skate a little. It was on such an area near Johnson's store where I had been on the fateful day, December 7, 1941. I can remember coming home and my father's announcement in a somber voice, "now we are at war." He had already spent much time commiserating over the Finnish-Russian War of the late thirties. He often told me how terrible it must have been for the Finnish families to have to pack up what they could and leave their farms as the Russians took over.
It was during those times that he shared with me about the beauty of Merikarvia, where he had been born in Finland. I visited there a few years ago and could hear him describing the beauty of the Finnish woods and Gulf of Bothnia. I was able to see the family homes of both my father's parents in Finland, as well as visit with a cousin of his.
However, he had unhappy feelings about being "a Finn." He felt we were degraded, called "dumb Finns" and often wouldn't be hired for a job because he was Finn.
Though we must have been poor, food in our home always seemed plentiful. My mother baked a lot, and we always had eggs and meat of some kind. Often it was frankfurters, ring bologna, canned meat, and when butchering was taking place, we had beef, pork, and chicken on occasion.
Money was pretty scarce in those days. Often we were "on relief,” and I can remember my mother being concerned that an investigator might come and question us about a red snowsuit I had, which had been received from some "rich" relatives of hers who lived in Detroit. I can recall my father saying that the local grocer, Gilbert Johnson, would always let us buy food "on tick," because he knew that when my father would have a job, the bill would get paid. I can recall our bill going up to $65 at one time. Also, we had purchased a car one summer when my father was working on the railroad. Then he got laid off; our car payment that month was $18 and my father's pay had been $20.
My mother used to tell me that her parents came from an area in Sweden where Finnish was spoken. Somehow, I never seemed to understand that, and though I would have given anything to be like everyone else, I was afraid that if I tried to explain it, they wouldn't believe me. However, when my Swedish relatives came to visit a few years ago, I was convinced that I was actually part Swedish. That was confusing for a child when both her grandparents spoke Finnish. My mother laughed at me one time, when I started to speak Finnish to a young child who was not Finnish. I thought that everybody spoke Finnish first, and then English as they got older.
Life in Carlshend in those days was really not too bad as we had some wonderful Swedish Sunday School teachers, who not only were very committed to teaching the children on Sundays, but also there was a group of people who got children together for skating parties and young peoples' fellowship events.
For my parents, most of their social life consisted of visiting with friends. Hannah and Bill Salminen were good friends, and I remember an event at their house which was a"cookware party." This was where a salesman cooked a meal and then sold you some cookware. I believe that method of selling is still in use in some areas. In fact, I had a particular pan that my mother purchased at that party until a short while ago.
Another event that stays in my memory is the famous Joe Louis 1-minute boxing match. It was at Otto and Dorothy Carlson's. Everyone had gathered and had coffee and lunch and were prepared for an evening of "radio." But alas, the event started and it was over!
Going to wedding dances at Dukes was also a big event in a little girl's life. I recall the wedding dance of Alice and and Ben Lindberg at Dukes’ Hall. She was a beautiful bride, and Alice and Ben still continue to live in the Carlshend area.
Another summer activity was swimming at Farmer's Lake. My father was a very good swimmer--he bragged about swimming across the lake. However, he sort of ruined my chances of learning to swim. He used to tell me that he would teach me to swim. All he did was have me try to float in the water by putting his hands under me and then he would let me go. I would get scared, sink down, get my nose and eyes full of water and vow not to try it again. Other summer activities for my father included softball at Erkkila's Corner. When that finished, there would be the baseball games on the radio. My father loved listening to the Cubs play. For the children, there were shows such as Jolly Joe and Jack Armstrong, the All American Boy. My mother listened to soap operas in the daytime, like Stella Dallas and Ma Perkins.
Sometimes, I felt like my life was a soap opera, with the disharmony in the family, being poor, and feeling discrimination at times. However, I was happy to have been living with both parents despite it all. My father had a great influence on what I have done with my life. He was a typical quiet Finnish man, but he had an unusually good sense of humor. He took great pleasure in playing tricks on people, and used to tell about celebrating the Fourth of July by lighting a stick of dynamite to go off early in the morning. (Not such a good idea, actually.) We used to laugh a lot, and most of the time, my mother being the serious type, really didn't know what we were laughing about.
When I tried to contact his cousin in Finland, she sounded very shy and she really wasn't sure about being visited by this relative from America. I could see my father being shy and skeptical about that kind of situation also. However, once I met her, and she realized that I could speak Finnish and communicate with her, she was very friendly and pleasant. I think her greatest concern was that she wouldn't be able to understand me. To this day, her letters to me are rather philosophical and almost pessimistic. The one thing that surprised me most about my visit to my father's home area in Finland is that the Finns there are not at all serious about religion. In fact, most of them go to church only at Christmas and Easter. The Lutheran Church there is state supported, so the ministers don't have a lot to do--but they have wonderful genealogical materials.
Both my parents were very supportive of my education. I believe that if they had lived in a different time, they would have been educated and perhaps had a better life. There was never any doubt in my mind that my parents both loved me and wanted only the best for me and my brother.
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