1930 Diary Entry, June 16th by Linnea Gord

MONDAY - JUNE 16, 1930 - NÄRPES, FINLAND

We arrived at the town of Närpes at 10:30 in the morning. There was the usual crowd of people to meet us, and they had a special bus - or busses - which took us to the Ungdoms Föreningshus where we had "kaffe o' dopp". After we had satisfied our hunger they took us for a sight-seeing trip. We were first taken to a monument and then to the church, where a short service was held in our honor. We sang two songs. We also visited the grave yard and the "hjeltegravarna". We were quite curious upon coming to the church to see a long row of little sheds. These, they said, were used for the horses while the church service was going on.

Folk Hög Skola in Övermark

Next we were taken to the Folk Hög Skola in Övermark. We had dinner, which consisted of fil and knäckbrod, served to us outside, and then they let us rest. They had kindly made up cots for us in the school house, and so some of us girls went in and slept for a while. There was a short musical program that afternoon and then we were taken to supper in Korsbacks matservering, and it certainly was a supper. My! How we ate!

We had to hurry to our car to dress for the concert. Our little rooms in the car are so little that we have to dress one at a time. I would hurry and dress and then Auntie and Blanche would do their primping. I usually was dressed first of anybody.

There were over one thousand people at the concert that evening. We had to sing outside because the hall wasn't large enough to hold all the people. It was rather chilly that evening, but we didn't mind it. After the concert we danced in the hall, with Arnold at his accordian. Our train left at about midnight and everyone went to the station - the first bicycle I rode on in Finland. I just wanted to try it, and it didn't hurt the dress a bit. It belonged to an American girl who was staying in Närpes.

(Note by Laura Jensen: Arnold was Arnold Koutonen, a choir member and an accordionist when the group danced; in an earlier part of Linnea Gord’s dairy about her trip, she describes dancing on board as they crossed the Atlantic, with Arnold Koutonen playing the accordion for them.)

Dancing on the boat, accordianist Arnold Koutonen