(Note by Laura Jensen, of Spice Drawer Mouse: When all the concert tour performances were over, Linnea Gord and her aunt Marie Malm were to stay for a whole month with the family. In this diary entry they were still housed in their own railroad car and on their way to more performances. Linnea Gord is so happy to see the home of her grandparents, her mother and her aunt. In the photographs are the boys when younger, with Linnea's cousin Signa, who had come to the United States from Finland adopted by Linnea's Great-Aunt and her husband, and on a bridge, Farbror Isak - a building contractor.)
TUESDAY - JUNE 17th, 1930 - MALAX, FINLAND
We left Vasa at 11 A.M. in a special bus for Malax! How thrilling!
After a ride of an hour and a half we reached Övermalax! Then the fun and excitement really began. There are quite a few in the chorus who came from Malax and they started saying "Here is where so and so lives" "Oh, I remember this so well" "Here is the school" "Look at the church, isn't it beautiful", etc. etc. Finally we pulled up in front of Bygdegården, the Malax Ungdomsfõrenings hus. An American flag and a Swedish-Finnish flag were floating above the gate. We were all taken in for keffe and dopp in the hall. There we met my mother's cousins - Bror, Paul, and Lars, very nice young fellows - Bror being about 21 years of age, Paul 23, and Lars 25. They took us to Farbror Isak's home - where we were to stay for a whole month.
The boys’ mother and also my great-grandmother were there to meet us. They were both glad to see us and my great-grandmother certainly didn't act as old as she was--91 years. She laughed and joked with us. Farbror Isak was away working, so we didn't get to see him until we came back again to Malax. They took us for a sight-seeing trip that afternoon. We went to the Övermalax store, where we had limonad and karameller, to the dairy and to the church, where a short service was held in our honor. After driving out to Åmminneborg, we again returned to the Fõreningshus, where there was a big dinner served. The minister, Rev. Malmsten, sat across the table from me and we had a good time talking to him. He is young and very good-looking. He took quite a fancy to Blanche.
We dressed at the house and had a good time laughing, getting in each other's way, and talking to Grandma. There were around eight hundred people at the concert. The hall was packed. There were no aisles, and if there had been a fire I don't know what would have happened. Luckily, there was no fire. It was very hot that evening, but Mr Carlson said that we sang better than ever. That was some encouragement! Perhaps it was because so many of us were in our "home town". After the concert there was a dance--also refreshments--and at 12 o'clock twenty-five of us packed in our little bus and drove back to Vasa. It was daylight all during our drive. There was also some funny kind of mist that settled right close to the ground. I have never seen anything like it before. We arrived at our Home - 2724 North Hobo Avenue - at about 2 A.M.
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