June 23, 1930 - Vasa and Malax, Finland - Diary of Linnea Gord

In 2013 blog entries at Spice Drawer Mouse were devoted to episodes of a diary from 1930 that describe Concerts given by the Order of Runeberg Choir from the United States in Finland.  Because a Facebook Group is posting beautiful old photos of Malax, Finland, the following episodes of the same diary can be of interest.

Blue - typed diary transcript
Tan - handwritten diary

In the diary of the choir tour to Finland my mother,the nineteen-year-old Piano Accompanist Linnea Gord, kept, her last entry about the Concerts they made,June 22,  ends as they took the train to Malax to spent the end of June and all of July with relatives. This entry was included in the blog entry in 2013.

...we who were going to Malax climbed into the train, after saying goodbye to those we were leaving behind. Immediately after the train left the station we settled down for a nice long sleep. We changed trains at Seinajoki, but I don't even seem to remember that.

June 23, 1930 

MONDAY, JUNE 23, 1930 - VASA AND MALAX, FINLAND

Arriving in Vasa about 9 A.M., we didn't see how we were going to keep from falling asleep right on the street. However, we managed to keep our eyes open while we bummed around the torget and town until 2 o'clock.  Then we climbed into the Malax bus as we had climbed into the train that morning, almost sleeping.  We slept all the way to Malax, each leaning on the others' shoulder.  We woke up when we reached Malax at 4 o'clock and clambered off the bus with all our suitcases and bundles.  (Ah! What a relief!  We were at least through carrying suitcases for a month.)  We stumbled down the road to Farbror Isak's place--our place of abode.  There we met that good gentleman himself--my great uncle.

After greeting everybody around the place, we went to our bedroom.  (I may as well stop to explain right now that there were five of us--Wilma, Tyra, Olga, my aunt and myself.)  We had a nice large bedroom, with a bed apiece.  That is, three of us had a bed apiece, but Olga and Wilma slept together because they were the smallest.  The furniture in our room consisted of two single beds, one pull-out bed, one day-and-night sofa, a big table upon which we did our letter-writing, one bureau upon which we spilled our powder, one phonograph, a little stand, a couple of potted plants upon stands, a wash stand, our suitcases, and last but not least, the cockelong (I don't know if that's the correct spelling).  This was our stove, a big green thing that reached from floor to ceiling.  It wasn't exactly a stove nor was it a fireplace.  It was just a cockelong.  (Written:  Kakelugn) 

That evening we emptied out our suitcases, hung up our dresses, and sorted clothes that were to be washed--which were plenty!  We also wrote letters, after which we were too tired to do anything but go to bed--which we did!