FISHING JOURNAL Sept 1960 Part II

Alexis Creek and Chilko Lake Area, BC

September 1960

10.9.60 — John came by plane to visit us. There were 3 others with him in the group plus the pilot. The others were from the Department of Fisheries — the only one I knew was Harvey. Didn't receive any letters — they are delayed! We received fresh bread, etc., plus some books and magazines. — They stayed for about two hours because the department guys checked out the Springs on the river. Seems they didn't find any. After they left we picked the rest of the trays and then did the dead count for the whole area — total of 30.

11.9.60 (Sunday) — We started off by boat around the lake at 9 a.m. The weather was calm and sunny. Didn't see any Sockeye but one Moose was swimming across the lake. It looked like there was another one as well, but it dove under, so it most likely was a beaver. Now I know what this bedrock is composed of: mainly conglomerates, in other words, Breccia. Went to check out a rock vein. It turned out that the red color was caused by lichens and the white was calcium. — We tried to go check out a narrows at the south end of the lake but it turned out to be too shallow so we turned around. I would have liked to continue on. We beached the boat at the mouth of Cedar Creek. There wasn't much water in it. Ate lunch and were back at camp by 1500 hrs. We collected the eggs, and that took another 2 hours.

Onion Lake, BC

12.9.60 (Monday) — The daily chores only took until 1500 hrs. Did the DR (dead recovery) on the east shore by foot and wandered a bit further than was required. I climbed up the ridge on the way back and found a great trail. Followed it for about one and a 1/2 miles after which I turned back toward the main road. Crossed our stream, and ended up right near our campsite so it was only a few hundred yards to the cabin. In the afternoon we drove to Onion Lake and attempted a few half-hearted casts. The place where we were was shallow so all I caught was some grass. Drove to the north end of the lake — Onion Flats. Took a couple of photos. Well, at least got to see the area.

13.9.60 (Tuesday) — In the afternoon we went by foot to the nearby foothills. From the campsite we followed Jim's cart trail. Delightful, shady forest trail — maybe 3 miles long. At the end of it there was a meadow with a small lake. Gunnar named it Steve's Meadow because Steve (Vida) was so taken by it that he made Gunnar swear he wouldn't divulge its location to anyone. Saw several grouse.

14.9.60 (Wednesday) — Was finished with all chores by 1400 hrs so I took my fishing pole and went off to explore the river. Waded across some shallows to a sandbar and fished from there. Saw one Spring which was completely bright. Caught 2 Rainbows and a Dolly, and released all of them. Continued on downstream along the bank, mostly wading to make my way. I soon realized the terrain was quite the jungle of undergrowth in those areas where it was impossible to wade downstream and I had to clamber onto the river bank. Worked up quite a sweat but didn't come across any good fishing spots. It was about 1700 hrs when I reached the spot that I saw from the ridge last fall when I was with Steve (Vida) chasing down elk. Here there are multiple currents with many inviting pools and eddies to explore. Unfortunately didn't have more time to fish. The road is no more than 300 yards from the river. Probably saw about 30 grouse along the way. Saw 4 dead Springs. Back to camp by 1800 hrs.

15.9.60 (Thursday) — After collecting and sorting the roe went fishing for about an hour at the sandbar. Gunnar came along and waded with me. He was quite surprised when he realized I hadn't been kidding about my luck fishing yesterday. I caught 2 Dollies: a 1-pounder and a 1 1/2-pounder, but the larger one dropped off the line and the stream took it. Was quite surprised that one Dolly took the hook in its mouth and fought for about 10 minutes. With each cast I could feel how the lure or the line touched a fish, and a few took the hook. Well, at least we had some fish to make dinner.

16.9.60 (Friday) — My birthday (age 51) — and the plane made a visit. Was at the downstream backwaters fishing and inquired about some places where it was possible to wade across. Found that one could do it if there ever was need to go across to the other side. Saw the plane land and take off. Flushed a moose — didn't see anything but the tracks. It had swum to the other side. Followed the tracks and found an arrow — a birthday present! Expected a letter — it didn't arrive. On the radio Gunnar inquired after the mail and was told that the mail plane had not stopped at Alexis Creek for two weeks. No wonder the post has been delayed.

17.9.60 (Saturday) — In the afternoon I hiked to "Steve's Hill." My own name for the place. Followed the lake shore and tried to get to the meadow. Finally had to cut through the forest and that took a while. The forrest was made up of a thick growth of young trees, so don't have any desire to try that again. Lots of signs of elk and moose — wintering spots? The ridge was made up of quartzite; then finally located the meadow at the top as I had surmised. Found a 9-pronged rack of deer antlers which I dragged back to camp.

18.9.60 (Sunday) — Fishing — beautiful, cooler day. We brought in some firewood — enough probably to last for two weeks.

19.9.60 (Monday) — It had showed during the night in the mountains. No. 22 — mine — poor — about 750. No. 26 — Gunner's — even worse — about 1500. Ate a quick bite and headed directly across the lake. On the north end there was a huge cloud — looked pretty ominous. The wind was from the northeast and increasing. The waves suddenly turned into whitecaps and I thought to myself that it might be better to turn back. Gunnar had the same thought, but we kept going. The boat pitched dangerously a few times, but we managed to make it across. There was nothing we could do however when we reached the other shore so Gunnar beached the boat and we started exploring the shore a little further. A little later it started to snow and we built a fire. We waited for a couple of hours until the snowstorm went over us and the weather turned more calm. Crossed the lake quite comfortably. It was cozy and warm back at the cabin.

20.9.60 (Tuesday) — Beautiful and sunny. About 1 1/2 inches of snow on the front steps, and also covering the ground. The road is clear. The roe was pretty good — No 22 about 400 and No 26 about 800. Fishing in the afternoon. the water level has risen so some water got inside my waders. Not even a sign of any Springs. On the other shore there were 4-5 dead ones. No fish. A elk cow with her calf swam across to the other side. It was about 1600 hrs. It saw me but did not turn back. Maybe it's getting used to me!

Chilko Lake, BC

21.9.60 (Wednesday) — My best day to date. No. 22 — only 71. No. 26 seemed to be about the same. The weather is cold but sunny. The wind from the south and chilly. The mountains with a covering of snow. Have to wait for the waves to calm down a bit. Seem to have read all the available books so pretty soon I'll have to start reading fishing literature. Have to make a note that until last Sunday (18.9 that is) we had the most amazing Indian Summer. It began the moment the boys left. Gunnar and I have had a real summer vacation. Royal came last Sunday to Chilko, and John asked over the radio what the grouse situation was. Gunnar said it was poor — he received two separate reports — one from Gunner and one from me. Wonder what Killick will say when we return to town! My report was based on actual facts — Gunnar on the other hand didn't care to have the boss here.

22.9.60 (Thursday) — Were done by 1035 a.m. — collected about 400. The wind was fierce so we weren't able to cross over during the whole day. Radio connection kept cutting out so we couldn't get much out of the transmission. We listened to the conversation between Chilko and Alexis Creek — Stan Killick is on his way — Taseko — but that was about all we got from it.

Translated from the Finnish: Marja-Leena Tolvanen-Rogers

NB: This blog had been compiled from an autobiography and journal entries by Andy (Valto Antero) Tolvanen. He is renowned in fishing circles in Finland for being one of the first individuals to bring the art of fly-tying to Finland. Andy translated the instructions from English to Finnish in the early 1950s since there was no literature in Finnish on the art of fly-tying at that time. He is mentioned on several Finnish fishing club websites regarding this noteworthy fact. ~ MLTR

LIFE HISTORY 1919 Part II

More Past-times

A new era in our swimming had started. I guess my brothers and other friends gained courage to begin swimming too once I got started. We often spent all day long at the outdoor swimming hall [left: Kumpula outdoor smimming pool] and our swimming skills improved to the point that we started trying out the diving board and knew that we were skilled enough to be able to get back to the stairs at least from there. Naturally we became too wild, as boys of that age often do, and started horsing around on the diving tower as well. We got away with the first few times, but one day as we were playing around on the first level (which was about 8 meters high) one of the supervisors began to climb up the stairs and threatened to throw us down from there. There was nothing else to do but jump off before the caught up to us. It was a new experience for me and it became our favorite past time. We went to play up on the tower like we belonged there and as soon as a supervisor climbed up to throw us off we would let him get almost catch us and then jump off. Pretty soon they realized that they didn’t need to throw us off and that we were fully capable of getting down by ourselves. That same summer I learned how to dive head first – "Swan Dive" - and became pretty good at it.[rt. Showing off his diving form at Kumpula pool in 1984, age 75]. But eight meters was as high as I ever climbed on the tower. That was the only summer when I practiced diving. This was the summer of 1919. The next several summers all the brothers spent in Tohmajärvi.

We had other past times too, and fishing was one of them. It was in the days when everything was homemade. Father helped assemble my first fishing pole. I think I even had a real fish hook too, though I can’t recall for sure. Usually we fished from the dock at the north end of Hernesaarikatu, and our daily catch mostly consisted of ruffs and minnows – the occasional perch would be mixed in once in a while. Our catch was never anything to brag about, but they were fish nevertheless, and got us started fishing.

These were the days when I started whittling boats out of bark and eventually out of real wood. I fashioned the masts and the sails myself, and braided side-railings out of rope, so I was very proud of my schooner. One beautiful summer day I was at the Jätkäsaari pier. Ships from foreign countries were always docked there and all kinds of tempting fragrances hung in the air – spices and fruits, etc. Passenger ships bound for Germany were docked there too: white and handsome, the ship Borekin was docked there as well; I can’t recall the number, but it may have been III. The sea gave off a strong fragrance of salt and seaweed and created in me a yearning for those wonderful faraway places which the ships always encountered along the way on their travels. New York was ever the golden city – I usually pictured it as a very warm place where the asphalt on the streets was so hot in the summer that it would burn the bottoms of your feet. And all those tall buildings and crowds of people – it had to truly be a fairytale land.

I watched the ships and savored the breeze, clutching my little ship tucked safely under my arm. A certain gentleman was watching the ships as well and had a little girl with him who was about my age. To me she looked like an angel, and I must have stood there staring at her. The girl glanced at me, glanced at the little boat tucked under my arm – and wrinkled her little nose at me. This little girl no longer seemed so angelic. But that moment has stayed so fresh in my mind that I can vividly recall all of those feelings. I can’t recapture a picture of the little girl other than that she was dressed in some type of white outfit. But I can vividly recall the warmth of the sun, the light sparkling on the summer waves and then the strong fragrance of the ocean.

Every so often we were able to go with Father on trips to the islands. The ferries were small and shallow, and the furnace was set down in a depression in the middle of the boat. It was always such warm and sheltered place even when it was windy that I was usually stationed somewhere near to it. And then on one occasion Father took us with him to go berry picking somewhere west of Helsinki. I can’t recall anymore how we traveled there, but the trip so stayed with me that I wrote an essay about it in the second form of the lyceum. I had spent so many summers in Karjala that their dialect had become part of me. I recall how Mr. Berg felt that my use of the Karjala dialect was faulty and he corrected my linguistic errors into the proper form, and this lesson has stayed with me so forcefully that I never again wrote using the Karjala dialect. But this incident has preserved the berry picking trip in my memory.

Prayers and Bible Reading

In high school as well as in elementary school we always said a morning prayer, so the format for praying has always stayed with me. And in high school where we poor kids were served a noon meal we always said a blessing on the food before eating and a prayer of thanksgiving at the end of the meal. The prayers weren’t anything elaborate but they served their purpose. The blessing on the food was as follows: “Bless, O Lord, our meal and be with us always. Amen.” And the thanksgiving prayer: “Thanks, O Lord, for our meal. Amen.” Short and powerful, and to the point. Mr. Dahlberg was very religious, as I recall, and so was Mr. Kalarvo. Every day we had a Bible lesson so it awakened out interest in religion very early on.

I read the Bible through as soon as I was able to read – I would have been around 8 or 9 years old. There were a lot of things in the Old Testament that were beyond the comprehension of a child, but I read it anyway. It was the only book, the Bible that is, which we had in our home other than our school books. I had read the Bible three times before I turned 15.

I Discover the Public Library and the Joy of Reading

It may have happened at an even earlier age because later on I discovered the public library which I often visited several times a week. At the Rikhardinkatu Library [left] we were allowed to borrow just one novel and one non-fiction book at a time. It was two kilometers to the library so it took up quite a bit of time during the week if one went there to return and take out books several times a week The distance was only a couple of kilometers, it’s true, but you couldn’t do that too often. That’s why I tried to find the thickest books on the book list and made my own list of them according to which I asked for books. In those days they didn’t have free shelves where you could go find books on your own, but instead you had to tell the librarian which book you wanted and he would go find it for you. On my list was for instance Hansen’s “Across Greenland on Skis,” which I dutifully read from cover to cover. In high school then on one occasion Mr. Korvenkontio asked who had read this book and I was the only one who raised his hand. He was rather surprised and asked me if I hadn’t found it rather dull, and I had to admit having read books that were much more captivating. It was after all, a daily journal, where most entries were started off by recording the weather conditions: cloud cover, wind direction and velocity, temperature, whether the snow conditions were wet or dry, and so forth. It was probably about 700 pages or more, but there is no way to check on it.

In any case, reading became my escape route from the drabness of everyday life into a brighter sphere and the world of imagination. In recall Mother Selma every once in a while remarking that, "There that boy is reading again, and doesn’t hear or see a thing." I totally tuned out to the world around me while reading. One day while we lived at Tokankatu Mother brought me back to reality. We had a table in the middle of the room and I was leaning against one of the corners reading another book, oblivious to my surroundings. Mother gave me a little nudge and said, "Why don’t you go outside for a change rather than always spending your time with your nose buried in a book." The book went clattering on the table and I was quickly startled into reality. Well, Mother was a very perceptive parent and knew that spending time outdoors would do this bookworm a world of good!

But reading continued to be a passion for me. Around that time I got my hands on a book about the Trojan Wars and found it the most interesting reading. The result was that we made ourselves wooden sword and spears, and turned the bottoms of velour hat boxes into shields. This seems to have been before Father had remarried, so I was probably about 10 years old. We made up a lot of games based around the tales of Troy. During that same time period I was able to borrow—I know it didn’t come from the library – the History of Rome. It consisted of about 10 volumes, but I can’t recall if I borrowed these from some friends. It was fascinating reading, and from then on I have always enjoyed reading about Rome and its history. Latin has always held an interest for me, but up to this point I haven’t done anything about it. Wonder if I should?

Business Ventures

It was probably the first fall after the war that we boys started wanting to earn some money, and the easiest way of course was to sell newspapers. We went to the Työmies book publishers located in the basement of Työväentalo on what is now called Passivuorenkatu. There anyone at all could purchase newspapers at a predetermined discount. Father had given us a shiny silver mark coin and, since we didn’t know the first thing about the whole business, our friend Hono came to our rescue. He took our coin and bought us some newspapers – took some of them for himself which made some of the older boys say that he shouldn’t rob little kids that way. But Hono was a hardnosed wheeler dealer and couldn’t care less about what anyone else said or thought. Well, we couldn’t even peddle the newspapers Hono had left us with, so we ended up bringing home a big stack of unsold papers, and didn’t have anywhere close to a mark to show for our endeavors. So that was the end of our business venture.

One of our other business ventures that comes to mind was selling Christmas cards. One Christmas Eve will forever remain with me because it was chilly with icy rain coming down. My feet were soaked because there were holes in the bottoms of my shoes. I was somewhere near the corner of Fredrikinkatu and Erikinkatu and recall going into a stationary store to sell my cards. The shop lady took pity on me and, from the goodness of her heart, bought one card even though she herself was in the business of selling the very same cards. It didn’t even dawn on me. In those days it was popular to have cards with Alpine scenes with russet skies and the landscape sprinkled with realistic looking snow.

Translated from the original Finnish: Marja-Leena Tolvanen-Rogers

LIFE HISTORY 1919

1919

The Cool Crowd or the “Stadi Gang” Years

     After the war it became fashionable for older boys and adults too who were considered part of the “cool” crowd, to wear velvet trousers which were tight at the hips and widened out in the legs to where the wide bottoms totally covered the shoes. The velvet had to dark blue, and these trousers were a sign that you belonged to a group or gang. Fights between rival gangs were also in fashion, but we didn’t participate in those — we just heard about them.

We also learned to speak the Helsinki slang spoken by these gangs, a type of “pig Latin,” and I can still remember quite a lot of it even though I can’t always recall what it means. For instance, “Tshiikaa tshakia kun paasaa pulisena,” meant, “Look at the way that guy is walking” — how’s that? Well, it’s not going to hurt anything if I can’t remember this slang anymore. It seems evident, however, that among today’s youth in Helsinki there still are remnants of this slang in the way they speak. There have also been several books published — childhood remembrances — where this language is used as would be expected. It would be fun to read some of them.

Learning to Sing

    I can remember one song from those days, but it may be a Scout song. I don’t think there is any translation available for it because it’s kind of a group song — such as sung by Scouts. So I’m going to write it down so that others can see it also. Perhaps someone else will remember this song better, or at least the meaning of it:

Ging, gang, gulivili veissan, gulivili veissan, gulivili veissan goo,

(Repeat),

Iila iila jaava, iila jaava malagoi, iila iila jaava, iila jaava malagoi.

Jim jam jassa gili gili massa, jim jam jaa, jim jam joo.

(Repeat)

Iila iila jaava, iila jaava malagoi, iila iila jaava, iila jaava malagoi, etc.

I think Mother taught me a lot of these songs once upon a time — I’m not sure if she taught them intentionally, but they have certainly stayed with me — the words as well as the melodies.

Someone told me — perhaps it was Mother — that when I was small I sang the following: Lännen lannalla lutkottaa, lutkottaa . . . . I can’t remember the tune to it, but “Vienan Rannalla” [On the Viena Shores] was Mother’s favorite song and so I learned it by heart.

Discovering the Movies

    I already mentioned earlier that we yearned to go to the movies in those days. At the end of Punavuorikatu on Frederickkatu there was a movie theater, but I can’t recall the name right now. Then on Iso Roobertinkatu there was the Casino, and on the corner of Erottankatu was located Lyyra 3. They usually played serials such as, “The Man in Black, A Voice on the Phone,” which was about an invisible man. It consisted of a person taking some kind of potion after which he threw on a cloak which then made this person invisible. Another movie was “Captain Nemo.” [rt. Captain Nemo, 20,00 Leagues Under the Sea. Silent]They all had one thing in common, which was that little boys had to use a lot of brain power to figure out how to get the money to attend these dens of delight. We didn’t succeed all the time no matter how hard we tried, so they had to either stay away or try to sneak into the movies through the back door. There was one time when I also tried this and was successful. The theater was at the Casino, and it was the only time I succeeded in getting in the show that way. I think Veikko and Manne Seitola were with me on this occasion.

    Veikko became very skilled at these types of capers, but since he was very independent by nature I knew very little about his escapades. In about 1919 we had a renter living with us, and the man often would leave his wallet on the table. Of course he started wondering why he had less money than he should to have had. The rest of us wondered where Veikko was getting all of his spending money. He explained to us that he had found where Jori Tirkkonen had his money stash, and we believed it without question. It was quite alright to steal from the rich — it was like an article of faith in those days. We didn’t question this line of reasoning which shows how little good sense we had, but what we lacked in common sense we made up in imagination. Well, the truth finally came out when our renter took up the matter with Father and the guilty party was finally apprehended. I can’t recall what the final outcome was.

Early Singing Career

It was about that same period of time that we learned to sing Tatu Pekkarinen’s [rt.] songs with the combined voice power of all three brothers. At the movies you see, it was still the custom that the entre act was some live production and it seems that Tatu sang at several of the theaters. That’s where we boys picked it up, the words and the melodies. I believe Veikko was the best out of the three of us, but he probably had a chance to attend the theater more often. We had quite a large repertoire: “Renk Jussi Returns from the Wars” was one song that has stayed in memory, and I probably could still sing it all the way through. What the others were, I can’t recall at the moment, but if I could get hold of a list of his songs, I’m sure they would quickly come back to me.

     We were often called on to sing at different functions, and it didn’t even have to be a special event if we had visitors over to our home. We sang in Tohmajärvi and Värtsilä. [rt. Värtsilä Lutheran Church]. My aunts in Värtsilä, Joosefiina [Tolvanen] Nousianen and Vilhelmiina [Tolvanen] Laasonen, were both born again Christians and belonged to the White party, so they couldn’t ask us to sing for them in the presence of other people. But one day we went berry picking and there they asked us to perform for them. I said that the songs might not be really suitable for their ears, because in one of the songs there were some swear words. It was that “Renk Jussi” song where there was some swearing, but it was very innocent: “… there the sky and hell gaped open….” So it’s no wonder this song has stayed in my memory! But this happened during our holidays, and I will talk about our holidays separately.

Adventures in Swimming

     I don’t think we went on any holidays yet in 1919, because that was the year when I learned how to swim. We usually played at the swimming pool in Ursini, and there we had a lot of fun because we were allowed to splash around to our hearts content in the shallow pool. But of course then we had to pay, and earnings were pretty unpredictable in those days between all of us. There were, of course, other beaches. There were the cliffs at Ursini which were so smooth and at other times very warm from the summer sun, so it was really a great place to sun ourselves there. And there was nothing to keep us from going further: we ventured all the way to Ruoholahti where there were actual sandy beaches, and the water was still very clean in those days and not polluted from raw sewage as it was in later years.

We also went to Vantaa! It was a very long way for kids our age to travel, especially since we didn’t have any money for the trolley car. But in spite of it all we went there — it was an actual trip. We had to travel through the whole city including Soornainen, Vallila and Vanhakaupunki (Old Town), but we were able to find our way there, but we ended up on a beach on wrong side of the river. Well, we found a quick remedy to the situation because our friend Hono had with him a lifesaver tube, and with the aid of the tube he transported each of us across the river to the other side. When my turn came, however, things turned a bit dangerous.

     We had already crossed the river and were close to the other shore when the lifesaver tube for some reason tipped over and I fell in the river. I wasn’t able to swim a stroke and got into a real panic, so I grabbed Hono around the throat so tightly that he too started to sink and gulp in water, and started to panic as well. When I realized that he wasn’t going to be of any help I abandoned him and started thrashing toward the shore on my own power. The distance was only a few yards — the beach had been washed away, but the shore was only a few feet above the surface of the water — so it wasn’t much of a feat for a frightened little boy to reach dry land. And that’s when I started gaining the confidence that I could swim.

    The shore of the Vantaa River is still etched on my mind, however, and I can clearly recall the feelings I experienced at that moment. I recall my panic and how tightly I squeezed Hono around the neck. His skin was moist and warm – it was a summer day. And I can still remember the panic I caused, squeezing him around the neck so tightly so that he was no longer able to keep his head above the surface of the water. His eyes, very close to my own, were round as circles and literally popping out of his head. I guess those eyes were the reason why I finally let go of him. He was actually a very good swimmer, because he had received the Expert Swimmer diploma at the Ursini Swimming Hall. But then he was a few years older than the rest of us. 

Translated from the original Finnish: Marja-Leena Tolvanen-Rogers