sample copy (PDF) - New World Finn

Name
Street/Address
The Journey Ahead
to the New Year
By Anni Putikka
Translated by Ivy Nevala
“It Surely Was Easier in the Early Days!”
We didn’t have: supplemental child payments, pensions, rent assistance
We just had: our own work, help from neighbors. accusations, and the poor house.
We didn’t have: TV, stereo, Nintendo, or VHF
We just had: village musicians, bands, youth choirs and drama clubs, athletic groups,
and the village library. News was spread by the tube radio, the regional newspaper, and
the village gossips.
We didn’t have: alcohol and other drug treatments clinics, mental health clinics,
misuse of alcohol, drug sniffing dogs, work regulations
We just had: drunks, despondent drinkers, village nuts, those brought to the insane
asylum, and the lazy, who were called lazy.
We didn’t have: bureaucrats, adjustable interest, dividends. junk bonds
We just had: the rich and the poor, and those who didn’t have anything.
We didn’t have: diseases of the circulatory system, psychoses, syndromes, dementia,
or lactose intolerance.
We just had: the weaknesses of aging and senility, hip problems and rheumatism. We
didn’t have to linger and died because of old age, accidents, chest or head diseases.
The above was submitted by Anni Putikka from Teuvan Joulu, 2006, along with
the following article:
What are one’s first thoughts about the year’s beginning and end? In the beginning
of the year, the end seemed far away, but now that the year is coming to a close,
it seems to have gone quickly. But I’ll be writing about my childhood years.
Our elders believed in the Bible’s admonition, “Those who don’t work don’t have to
eat.” One’s bread was honored, men took off their caps at the table, thanks were given
to God, and the young took on the habits of their elders.
Children learned to work from the time they were small, taking care of younger
children. Apparently I was a dependable child, because when I was just two years old,
Mother left me with my baby sister when Mother had to do the barn chores. She checked
on us occasionally. Once she found me with my sister’s pacifier in my mouth, sleeping
in my own bed. Another time I had climbed onto the table without breaking any of
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the dishes set out there and sat there looking at the sugar bowl, a wedding gift for my
parents. I now have that sugar bowl. I gave the same responsibility to my own children,
not even thinking about doing anything differently.
When I was eight, I walked behind the horse tilling the field, while Father spread
manure. Then when the field was ready, he sowed the seeds by hand and I again had to
cover the seed. Driving the horse developed my muscles and by the time I was ten, I was
able to milk. In fact, when my parents had to be away, they depended on me to do the
milking and prepare a meal. Of course, Grandma was close by, available to help. After
school there were child care and chores such as carrying firewood into the house and
into the barn. When my sister was old enough, we did the chores together.
Father made our skis, and after they were finished, he heated tar until it was fluid
and penetrated the wood. Then he built a fire in the snow, and when the wood created
a roaring fire, heated the skis, applying more tar as it dried, while we enjoyed the fire in
the darkening evening, breathing the aroma of the tar. Then wax was spread on top of
the tarred bottoms. Of course, we needed poles too, so he put a sharp point on the end
of the pole so we could grip ice and hard snow. The poles were finished with strips of
rubber and leather, for us to hold on to the poles. The first time we skied to school on
our skis, we were almost tardy, so we jumped off our skis, carrying them and running
the rest of the way. On the way home, there was no hurry, so we had time to get used
to skiing. After we made a trail across the fields, the trip became much shorter and a lot
of fun as we learned to speed along. At home it was time to brush the snow off the skis
so they were ready for the morning’s journey.
In the morning, after a breakfast of boiled potatoes and pork gravy, we left for school,
with probably a sandwich in our knapsacks along with our books, because at that time
there was no school lunch program. During recess we had fun playing in the snow on
the small hill behind the school. When the bell rang, girls and boys lined up in separate
rows, all with rosy red cheeks.
When we were children we couldn’t be all thumbs (peukalo keskellä kämmentä).
Because Grandma’s sister had a hat factory, she sewed caps for us, and when I was old
enough, I got the patterns and made both winter and summer caps for my sister and me.
I was quite young when my aunt taught me to crochet, doll clothes at first and later bed
covers. Then I was taught to knit mittens and sock. Evenings went by fast, chores and
schoolwork taking so much time there wasn’t much left for handwork. Later still, it was
time to learn to card and spin wool, spin linen, and weave both into fabrics.
This season reminds me that in the winter the red mountain ash berries remained
on the tree after the leaves fell, and it was fun watching the birds eating them. Every
fall Father left some oats unthreshed and on Christmas eve made a sheaf of them for
the birds. We delighted in seeing them eating the oats and feeling sorry for them for
having to be out in the cold. Christmastime we enjoyed skiing on the sparkling clean
snow and often stopped to admire the beauty of the surroundings the Lord had created
for us. Let’s remember to stop our rushing and not be blind to nature. Let’s enjoy the
beauty before we are old and gray-haired!
Nazi Himmler Was Enthusiastic About Karelia and the Finnish Kantele
Finnish anthropologist Yrjö von Grönhagen met German SS leader Heinrich Himmler
in 1937 at Himmler’s home, along with German music researcher Fritz Bose. The
scientists were led into Himmler’s study, and they were surprised at what they saw.
Hanging on the wall of the study was a copy of a photograph that had recently been
taken by Grönhagen, of Timo Lipitsä, a Karelian runonlaulaja, or “poem singer”. The
photo, which had been given to Himmler a year earlier, hung over Himmler’s desk as
if it were an icon.
Von Grönhagen (1911-2003) and Bose (1909-1975) brought new gifts from Karelia.
The Nazi leader was especially enthusiastic about the kantele, a traditional Finnish
stringed instrument. Bose played for him, and the kantele was given to Himmler, who
immediately ordered ten more for the SS.
The information is from a book by author Heather Pringle, The Master Plan:
Himmler’s Scholars and the Holocaust, which was recently translated into Finnish.
The work by a respected Canadian writer of popular science touches upon Finland and
the other Nordic Countries, especially the rock paintings in Sweden’s Bohuslän Province,
while describing in detail the activities of the Third Reich’s Ahnenerbe research institute.
Ahnenerbe, or Deutches Ahnenerbe, Studiengesellschaft für Geistesurgeschichte (“Study
society for primordial intellectual history, German Ancestral Heritage”), was established
in 1935 for the stated purpose of studying the legacy of Germany’s Aryan forefathers. Its
real purpose was to create myths. According to Pringle, its leading researchers dedicated
themselves to falsifying the truth, and to churning out carefully tailored information to
support the racial doctrines of Adolf Hitler.
Ahnenerbe was interested in Finland and Karelia in the early phase of its activities -
specifically through the activities of Yrjö von Grönhagen, who was born in St. Petersburg.
A Frankfurt newspaper published Grönhagen’s article on the Kalevala, and soon a
meeting with Himmler was arranged. Himmler also wrote a greeting into his travel
diary: “Germans and Finns always remember that they once had the same fathers.”
Grönhagen and Fritz Bose made a research expedition into Russian Karelia in 1936,
taking along the illustrator Ola Forssell. Grönhagen returned to Karelia again in 1937
and 1938, alone both times.
The intense interest that Himmler felt toward the Nordic region as a target of research
irritated Hitler: “It is bad enough that the Romans built magnificent buildings while our
forefathers were still living in clay huts; now Himmler is starting to dig up these clay
hut villages, and gets excited about every fragment of a clay pot, and every stone axe
that he happens to find”, Hitler once said to Albert Speer.
By Pirkko Kotirinta HS
Mail to:
Ivy Nevala, Treasurer
New World Finn
PO Box 432
Cedar Grove, WI 53013
JANUARY - FEBRUARY - MARCH • 2010 WINTER NEW WORLD FINN
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